Busy, busy weekend

FRIDAY - Seth's sister, Amy is currently up at BYU-Idaho and came down to visit just for a few hours. Her boyfriend's (Jake) friend was getting married at the Draper temple. We (Me, Seth, Aubrey, & Davin) met up with them at The Pie in South Jordan for dinner. It was a great time to have all of the Burke kids together with their significant others. And the food was amazing, as always. We love that place! We're sad Amy and Jake couldn't hang around for the evening, or stay the night - next time though, they better plan on being here a full weekend!

SATURDAY - Salt Lake City Marathon. I have been going to Volunteer Captain meetings up in Salt Lake City since February. This year I was in charge of 'Awards'. I did this same volunteer thing last year over VIP/Hospitality. And was looking for something with a little bit more responsibility this year. After a number of things that happened up until Saturday's Race day, I told myself over and over I wouldn't do this again next year!!! I understand this big of an event is quite the project to organize, but there are definite improvements to be made. Anyway.... Race day...

We (Seth came with me this year!!) got to our tent at 7:15am to set up and dive into the chaos. 11 volunteers signed up to help with awards this year - only two showed up! Which ended up to be totally fine... because four of us was perfect. Our 2 volunteers, Joy and Dave, were awesome and super fun to work with.

Awards Ceremonies were at 9:00am (5K), 9:30am (half marathon), and 12:00pm for the full marathon. The Arrow (103.5 FM radio) was to be there in time to announce the half marathon awards ceremony, but we were in charge of the 5K. A runner would bring the race results from the timing tent (at the finish line) and then we announce the winners over the microphone on the stage. Dave was a fantastic announcer, thanking our sponsors, etc. Seth was up there with him to put the 1st place medals on the winners.

The Arrow was late, and didn't make it in time to do the 1/2 marathon awards ceremony - so it was a Dave/Seth show again :) The 2nd/3rd place also got medals, and would come to the tent where Joy and I would hand them out and check off their names. I got a few pictures - I was upset I left my camera in the car and had to go run get it amongst the craziness.... I wish I had taken A LOT more pictures of that day!! It was just too crazy though.

We were pretty much off the hook after that, until noon. Things were going smooth! About 9:45am or so, the first and second place winners of the full Marathon came to get their medals/prize checks (money prizes for the top 5 in different divisions of the full marathon). So we had them fill out the tax info forms. I got to put two first place medals on Joseph Mutinda's neck - pretty cool! I shook his hand a few times too and congratulated him, etc. That was neat. Moses Kororia (who got 2nd overall) was also there to get his medals, etc. Both from Kenya originally, and they weren't sticking around for the ceremony... they had a plane to catch. It is just AMAZING how fast they ran over 26 miles!!! I think their time was 2:16 - that's just over 5 minute miles - wow.

SUPER BAD stuff happened for the (full) marathon awards ceremony.... (This is kind of a long story, just skip a head if you're not interested!!) The Arrow's Brett got there a little after 10:00am. He was pretty funny... We got to walk around a bit and enjoy the finish festival - lots of free stuff/food, etc. We got a lot of people asking about marathon results between 11:00-11:45... we didn't' expect them before then. But we got pretty antsy too when it hit noon and no results were in our hands. Seth went a few times to go see if there was anything new... and then at 12:30, half hour past the scheduled ceremony I went to the timing tent.

The SLC Marathon goes through a company called 'AA Sports Limited' for the timing/chips/results stuff. I went up to the head dude - who looked like he had been pulling his hair out for the last hour, and explained the situation/what we needed. "Oh - you just need the top 3 of each division/overall, etc. I could have had that hours ago, I'll print it out for you now"... um, yea... he tried for 30 minutes, with no luck. As I waited, I watched the runners come across the finish. It was emotional - what an achievement! It was getting toward the end of the race (they close it after 6 hrs) It was so neat to cheer strangers on, and see them accomplish their awesome goals. It's neat to see friends or family jump in there at the end and run the last part w/ their runner, or kids chasing after parents to give them a hug after they crossed the finish.

Long story short - I was getting no results. Called Scott (head of the race) and he was surprised/hadn't heard about the huge issue. he came down and ends up something had happened with the program they were using. All of the data was there, it just would not organize anything! After waiting a bit longer, Scott and I walked back to the festival - just about everyone was gone. Scott got up on the stage and apologized, etc. What a sad way to end the whole event!! OH Well...

We cleaned up, and were out at 1:45. The vendors had a lot of left over samples... so we went home with ... a case of Cream of Weber chocolate milk! and Dannon Danimals!! For being a volunteer captain I also received a jacket/polo/and new Nike Pegasus shoes... Since I got some new shoes last year, Seth got this year's free shoes. Sweet deal!

Saturday afternoon/evening we hung out in Pleasant Grove at Ben/Melissa's. We watched Marley & Me and Quantum of Solace. It was a very nice/relaxing evening. We weren't back in Provo until midnight - long day!

SUNDAY - Still recovering from Saturday morning's schedule. . . accompanied with a terrible headache, Seth and I super relaxed. Sunday night, We had Jed and Ali over for dinner. . . which was amazing. We had the good ol' steak/potato/corn Sunday dinner. Ali brought dessert, which was this amazing "Oreo Pie" - Oh My! It was amazing and topped off dinner well. We played Ticket To Ride (Europe), which is always a good time. And then we watched a movie. It was so fun to chit chat - it's always a good time with the Goodell's.

Raja also got a bath this weekend... Why? To see if we can get any extra hair off her winter coat.... when she does get outside first thing she does is roll around on the DIRTY cement... she's got dandruff. Aaaand, we also wanted to see how she handles the water. :) I've never heard a cat make the noises she did... But she did a lot better than expected! Once we turned off the water, she calmed down a tad. We washed her with Baby shampoo - we'll have to get some special stuff next time, but she sure smells good and she is extremely soft. She's a good sport...

That's our weekend! Sorry no pictures :( How lame! I'll post the few I have of Seth up on the stage doing his awards stuff. . . but of course I left the camera cord at home!