Weather Woes

[ladysprite]

So the Susan G. Komen 3 Day Walk for Boston 2011 has come and gone. In spite of 103-degree heat, in spite of thunderstorms, in spite of just about everything that nature could throw at us - there were jokes as to whether we should expect blizzards or plagues of locusts by Sunday. And yet, even in the face of all that, there was a walk, and it was still pretty darn amazing.



tpau and I weren't walking this year, as I mentioned - we were working as part of the event crew, the team of about 350 volunteers who make sure that the walk actually happens. We were working as Bus Liaisons.

There are two forms of transportation for walkers who need a break from walking. If they just want a short break, and a lift from wherever they are on the route to a place where they can get some water, bandaids, and a place to sit for a few minutes before joining the walk again, there are the Sweeper Vans that continually circle the route and pick people up, carrying them a couple of miles to the nearest Pit Stop.

For walkers who are medically deferred from walking, though, or who decide partway through that they can't walk any further that day, there are the buses. These are big, 57-seat Coach buses, and they tend to stay put for most of the day. They head out from camp in the morning, are stationed at a few pit stops along the way, and stay in one place until they fill up with walkers who are Finished; from there they move on to lunch and back to camp. We were supposed to be stationed with the buses, to keep in touch with the Route Commanders at camp, cheer up the fallen walkers, and make sure people who needed food/water/medical attention got it.

As of Thursday morning, that was our job, and we were a team of four. Thursday afternoon, at the All-Crew meeting, when we got the weather update for the weekend, we were increased to a team of 12, and plans were made to station extra buses along the route as cooling stations - places for walkers to just step in and cool off for a few minutes, or longer if needed.

So at the ungodly hour of 3:30am tpau and I set off for Framingham, chauffeured by the ever-amazing umbran, the unsung hero of this event, to help prepare for the walkers to arrive. By the time we were onsite at 4:30, it was already nearing 80 outside.

The first buses were sent out around 6:30am - I was sent to the second Pit Stop, about 7 miles along the route. Since no walkers had gotten there yet, I helped set up food and water and gatorade, and then, when there was nothing left to do, settled in on my bus to watch a movie and chat with my driver, feeling vaguely guilty for taking credit as a volunteer.

Around 10am I got a text from tpau, who had been at the first Pit Stop, letting me know that the first walkers would be arriving soon. By 10:30 the first heat-exhausted people had started trickling into the bus.

By 11am the bus was full, I was juggling gatorade and water bottles at an alarming rate, I had had to call medical staff onto the bus to help one girl, and the temperature had climbed to 103, before factoring anything else in. By 11:30am word had come down from On High that the route was closing for the day. No further walking allowed; everyone still en route was to be bused to lunch and from there back to camp. And suddenly we had 12 buses to drive 1400 people back and forth, and my cushy job was a lot more complicated, because while the Komen staff thinks about what to do in situations like this, it's impossible to actually prepare in full.

We survived, though, delivered everyone back to camp, and coped until sunset. There were enough ambulances going back and forth to look like a rather tragic merry-go-round, but it could have been much worse.

Saturday morning was cool and grey and, comparatively, beautiful. Everyone was hopeful, and the route opened early, and walkers tried to make up for lost time. I was deployed to Pit Stop 1, along with Jay The Awesome Bus Driver, where I learned to make Gatorade and helped keep the water station running, since no one wanted or needed to come onto the bus to rest or cool off that early on a cool, cloudy day.

Until it started raining. And thundering, and lightning, and then pouring sheets of rain. And they had to evacuate the entire station - crew, staff, walkers and all - into our bus, for about half an hour until the rain let up.

It eventually did let up, though, and we were moved forward to Pit Stop 2, and then lunch, where we got to watch the clouds part, and the weather go from grey and rainy to gloriously bright and warm.... and then to hideously hot and burny again. By 2pm we were under a Hazardous Weather advisory, and at 3pm the decision was made to close the route at Pit Stop 5, 2 miles from the end, leaving us once again to ferry nearly 1000 people, this time with about 8 buses.

At this point, the walkers were justifiably furious. Several tried to just sneak past the barricades, and the ones who didn't were still rather unhappy. Luckily Jay The Awesome Bus Driver had people skills to rival his driving skills, and somehow managed to help me turn several busloads full of angry overheated people into happy laughing people (I'm sure the air conditioning helped, too).

Thankfully, Sunday was hot and bright and cool and drizzly in turns, but never hit any toxic extremes, and the walkers finally managed to get a full day in, from start to finish; I spent most of my day helping tear down camp and then moving back and forth along the route making sure that nobody needed pickup.

And then there were Closing Ceremonies, and there was much cheering and high-fiving and crying and hugging, and promises to look people up again next year.

If we had to pick a year not to walk, we certainly picked the right one. I know myself well enough to know that I would have wanted to push on even through all of the obstacles, whether it was safe and sane or not. That said....

Crew was fun, and interesting, and I'm glad I got to see the even from backstage - I have a much better idea of all the work that goes into making something like this happen, and I have even more of an appreciation for all of the staff and volunteers. But I've also realized that, for me, crewing doesn't scratch the same itch that walking does. I spent most of the weekend feeling like I was on the outside, watching something awesome happen, but I didn't feel like I was doing enough to be a part of it.

I had a good experience, and I ultimately felt like I helped. But I can't wait to sign up for next year, and I can't wait to be a walker again....