We’ve just finished one of the best races in the southeast, the 42nd Forum Fitness Winter Flight 8K, 5K and Fun Run. No other race all year can match it in history, purpose, quality of runners, facility and mystique. Why do I say all this?

When we join a club, any kind of club, wouldn’t it seem natural to want to get a better understanding of what the club does and maybe have something to do with its biggest event? As someone who is on the way to growing old around running and racing, especially as the long-time president of SRR, I am spending some time the evening of the 42nd annual event wondering. Wondering about why you are a member of SRR?

It is no surprise that we have this magnificent event on the Sunday before the Super Bowl every year. It will come also as no surprise that we need lots of club members to participate or volunteer, or both. And it should also come as no surprise that SRR is near the highest level of membership ever.

We cannot do any race without volunteers. I have often mentioned that as runners and walkers, we go through cycles in our lives. I certainly did. I spent a period of learning to run, then learning to be extremely competitive doing crazy things like racing four times in a weekend, running across NC behind a baby jogger and then settling into a period where I ran nearly every day chasing better fitness and a bigger presence around running and racing. I had a few health issues that cooled off that competitiveness only slightly. I found a way to be a maximum volunteer around the races. I love making them happen and doing my part for good things involving running around the county. Winter Flight, our BRC classes, Special Olympics, Rowan Helping Ministries, and plenty more. All things that SRR can do that matter.

During the past three weeks, SRR board members tried to contact thecomplete membership to offer a personal invitation to the Annual Meeting and Dinner, and to ask for volunteers and participants through email, phone, text and constant contact. The theme was too much apathy towards being a part of SRR’s biggest weekend of the year. About 30% of the membership made no effort of any kind to respond. Even after multiple contacts.

The result—a general surprise that we were having a big event, and you might be asked to help out! Or participate. We should have grown the annual meeting, and we should have grown Winter Flight. Neither happened! The end result of both events was amazing, extremely well done by those involved and attending, but definitely a very strange malaise to both club events by too many people.

This malaise hit a pinnacle for my term as president today (written near the end of a very long race day). We, for the worst example in that term, did not have enough volunteers to complete all the needs for the race. Sites on the race courses for the first time in my memory were left unmonitored and not enough helpers were available to cover all the jobs that needed to be done. The public didn’t see much of this, but I did, and so did those who offered their time and effort.

The worst thing over the last ten days were unreturned calls, messages and emails. The best thing was about 30 people who tried to do the work of 50. We didn’t quite pull it off. We spent a lot of money on the annual meeting, and our challenges at Winter Flight could have been much easier if those missing were willing to help.

The flip side of all this is that those who worked did a fantastic job! Yet, it left me wondering what could have been. If you did participate in some way through the months of preparation, thank you! If you didn’t, and you wouldn’t respond, nothing about that is cool! Nothing!

David