Are tri-athletes jerks?

[LauraMc]

I'm volunteering to help with the Ironman competition this weekend. I was thinking it would be nice to get out and meet people. My enthusiasm has waned greatly since reading my volunteer instructions.
"Be prepared for people to not be pleasant and please do not take it personally."
No wonder they can't get enough volunteers.

[BTG]

Don't take it personal, it is just that when some people are in their "zone" so to speak, they are focused fully on whatever they are doing at that moment, ie. swimming, biking, running. If someone has been going at it for 6 or 7 hours and they are on mile 10, they might not really know how they are coming off to someone if they yell about not having red gatorade or some such.
I am volunteering too this Sunday. I have handed out water at various races over the years and have never had anyone be rude.
I guess there is a chance that some of these people take them and their training too. seriously and might be jerks though.

[bam bam]

Serves you right for "volunteering". No good ever comes from that.

[BTG]

Serves you right for "volunteering". No good ever comes from that.

I don't know bam bam, last year for the mardi gras marathon the volunteer water station was at had gin martinis at 7:30 am and lots of beer later in the morning. Not a bad gig for handing out some water to what is usually a good amount of nice looking babes in running shorts.

[NoNoNanette]

Serves you right for "volunteering". No good ever comes from that.

Too funny, Bam! Just repeated this to my husband.... said it reminded him of a story.

When they got to Vietnam, the guy had all of the Enlisted men raise their hands. Then, he told the Draftees to split for awhile.

He said to the guys who signed up, "You guys volunteered. You're the ones who wanted to be here. Now, you're going to learn how to clean the latrines".

[LauraMc]

Wonder what the drafted guys had to clean. Hopefully, they had worse assignments but I can't imagine much worse than cleaning latrines. It's just unreall how nasty people can be in a bathroom that doesn't belong to them.

Maybe the warning was just for race day. I'm actually helping on Saturday for the registration, etc. I didn't volunteer on race day because I figured it would be wild. Hopefully, they'll be excited and jolly tomorrow. Any way, I'll just scoot to the casino or Quarter afterwards and relax.

[LauraMc]

It turns out they were all really, really nice. That warning must be for during the race and I can imagine some impatience during that. I had a good time and there was terrific scenery (i.e. terrificly fit men). The other volunteers were nice too. It made for a nice day out socializing.
I can't imagine how these athletes do this......... here I am with an aching back and knees just from standing for 4 hours.

[BTG]

It turns out they were all really, really nice. That warning must be for during the race and I can imagine some impatience during that. I had a good time and there was terrific scenery (i.e. terrificly fit men). The other volunteers were nice too. It made for a nice day out socializing.
I can't imagine how these athletes do this......... here I am with an aching back and knees just from standing for 4 hours.

I am with you, these people are amazing. I stood at the turnaround point on West End to help make sure the the runners turned at the right spot(3.6 mile marker). The professionals, both men and women, were very fit people.

No problems on my end. Lots of nice athletes and volunteers out there.

I really felt bad for the last of the pack folks as the heat was getting pretty high out there toward the end of the running portion.

[cstoehr]

God I am really out of shape....I stood eating crawfish for 2 hours and my knees and back were killing me Saturday night! I can't imagine how I would have felt if I didn't have cold beer and actually exercised or something.

[RouxTheDay]

I don't know how it is that I am just seeing this but as one who did the race, THANK YOU both for volunteering. We couldn't do it without you.