Bouncer?

Volunteered for JTEON Chicago again this year. Last year I was a chaser, this year I was slated to work the starting point and then move on to whichever checkpoint needed extra bodies. I met up with my friend who was running, got a bulgogi huarache (wtf right? well, it was good!) and then headed to the park. Introduced myself and was assigned to crowd control. Later someone referred to this activity as "bouncing", which.. Well, I guess that's what you call it, but for whatever reason it makes me a tad uncomfortable. I get visions of goons with clipboards menacing people with mag lights, I don't know.. So whatever, I worked the crowd, which really amounted to keeping everybody moving and telling everyone that any of the 4 tables available were fine.. Yeah, that was me. "Any table, pick a table." It was pretty easy since people just kinda lined up and shuffled through without needing much direction. The idea was to get everyone signed in without a big pile-up forming on the gazebo platform, and it went real well.. I gotta admit, looking at this line I started to wonder if we'd start anywhere near on time:



Runners were moving through at a good clip, but every time I looked up the line was the same length! As soon as my mind started to drift (which it does often) one of the tables on the far side of the gazebo would wave at me like "Hey guy, wake up!" and I'd direct a few more runners their way. But really it only took about 30-45 minutes to process around 750 people. This is with 4 "desks", each with 2-3 people working (for the reference of future organizers).

And next thing you know, there wasn't a line anymore but instead a bigass crowd of folks waiting for the whistle:

I'm not lost, I'm exploring

So instead of waiting for the start, I figured it would be good to head on over to my assigned checkpoint at Foster Beach. In hindsight I could have easily caught a bus down Foster, or a cab, or any number of simple things. What I did, however, is wait around for a bus down Montrose with the intention of catching a connecting bus North or taking the El. And what happened, I'm afraid, was neither.

I waited for a while, forgetting that I could text CTA and get a time the bus was due. Yeh, we don't have that back home, y'all. We just hitch a ride on the next passing tractor or stray goat. Finally the bus comes along, and that's great until it turns north on Clark and I realize I don't know where the hell it's going from there, so I get off. And walk, and walk some more. I thought about taking a train, or something, but then realize I've gotten far enough from the nearest line that backtracking doesn't make sense. So I keep walking, and realize everything I'm passing is an outreach program or halfway house or.. Something along those lines. But I never felt in any danger, nobody bothered me (probably because I was swinging a maglight around and looking menacing.. heh. jk.)



I did make it to checkpoint 2B, well after most of the runners, in highly useless fashion. I stuck around for a minute and marveled at the grotesque hilarity of Les Enfants Terribles.. Beyond disturbing but so entertaining.. I can't even begin to explain what they do, just go here and see for yourself, but don't say you weren't warned:

Les Enfants

From there I caught a cab to the finish with another volunteer named Eli, who had been there a while (sorry!) and was freezing. We got a couple of warm drinks and had a very interesting conversation about servo motors. That's not sarcasm by the way, she was working on some pretty cool projects with leftover electronics which i encouraged her to post up here somewhere.

After she left I went out front to give people their finish times for sign-in and direct them to the desk inside.. But the only people interested were the survivors, the tagged just gave me looks like "Why are you telling me this useless shit?" I did that for awhile until my runner friend made it in, limping from a re-aggravated foot injury. I would've liked to see the awards handed out but we had another party to get to and a ride, so we took off.

All in all a great time, something I am proud to have been involved in. Reading the accounts from runners here and on other, lesser websites, it's pretty cool seeing what an impression the whole experience made on people. I look forward to the next one.. I'd like to chase again, I think, or collaborate on one of the checkpoints.