Much like The Wizard of Oz, there's a lot going on behind the curtain or the racing world to bring about all the fantastic (and sometimes NOT so fantastic) events we all love to participate it.

And I've been fortunate enough to lend a helping hand at a wide variety of events and each has taught me something different and something that sometimes I think people who "just" run races don't always understand or appreciate.

Soooo...  where were we?  Oh right... 

Last "real" post was a re-cap of the Spartan Race Sprint in Indianapolis...

So, what have I been up to since then?

So, awhile ago, a friend of mine and I were talking about Obstacle Course Racing, specifically, Tough Mudder versus Spartan.

At this point in time, I had finished running my first ever Spartan Sprint in Atlanta and had run a Tough Mudder the previous year, so I felt like I could do an honest comparison.  My friend had only ever done Tough Mudder, but had done several of them.

I told him "You have to do a Spartan.  The two aren't even remotely similar."

And so it was that I convinced him to meet me halfway between Tennessee and Michigan to run the Indiana Spartan Sprint.

So a few weeks ago, I had the genius idea.  For my "Dirty Thirty" Birthday Celebration, I was gonna get dirty.

REAL DIRTY.

And thanks to some help from the nice folks at Spartan Race and some Georgia Clay, I did excatly that.  And I couldn't have thought of a better way to spend my thirtieth birthday.  :)

(And yes, I'm 30.  I know I look younger.  The guys at the office joked that I was finally going to be old enough to vote.  Or buy beer.  Real funny, guys!)

So a few weeks ago, one of my Ragnar Tennessee vanmates sent out an email saying she was running a race and did we wall want to have a reunion and run it with her?

HECK YES! 

I thought it would be nice to see some of my vanmates again and also had been looking for a race to add to my schedule  I find that I run more often when I have an event coming up. 

There's just something about a deadline to motivate you. 

Like, "Jessica, you have a race this weekend...  Maybe you should actually run?"

So last night, I took Coley on her first real experience as a Race Volunteer!

I had known that It's Glow Time 5K was coming to Grand Rapids, and as much fun as I thought it would be, the truth of the matter is I'm kinda flat broke right about now.  Living on a steady diet of Pizza Rolls purchased when they were on sale at Meijer's 10 for $10. (With the 11th free!)

*Side note: I don't know what people would do without Meijer's.  If you live outside the Mid-West, I pity you.  I basically live off this one store.  Well, that and Target.  :)*

ANYWAYS!  FOCUS!

So Coley and decided that if we didn't have money to spend running the race, the next best thing would be to volunteer!

So when I'm not running, what is it I like to do?

Volunteer at running related events.  I know, I'm a dork like that.

But I really do think it's a lot of fun and can offer you a pretty cool look at what actually goes on behind the scenes to make all the magic that is racing happen!

I've been lucky enough to volunteer at quite a few events so far and each of them has given me a new appreciation and respect for not only the people putting on the event, but for my fellow volunteers, and even for those crazy individuals running the race!