Neches Labor Day 5K Recap

The alarm went off at 3 a.m. Monday morning.

However, the gas receipt up at the 7-Eleven at the corner of Holzwarth and Spring Steubner was stamped 3:23 a.m - and this included loading all of my announcing equipment into the car.

It would be less than three and a half hours until the start of the Kids K for the 2nd annual Neches Labor Day 5K, produced by a newer race production, the 3 Bros Running Company - some 101 miles away.

Like I shared in an earlier Facebook post, co-owner Jeremy Fermo had reached out recently to see if I was still race announcing and we talked about their event at length.

Not that I'm adverse to work, but as I've gotten older - and hopefully wiser from experience, I've learned where to attempt to minimize stress at.

My biggest question was:  "Is there power in the park?"

Jeremy was certain that there was.  

I just simply like to not have to deal with a generator unless I absolutely have to anymore.  I'm not naturally mechanically inclined and it is a variable that I like to eliminate, where possible.

He had also indicated that they would have their speakers out so it was such that I really didn't have to even bring my equipment, which was nice.  I could just bring mine along.

But the biggest factor of all?  It is nice to be in a position these days that I don't have to do any of this.

I can choose to, and I did.

Why?  Sometimes I'm not even sure.

I've known Jeremy and Willie (William) Fermo since their days running the races in the Golden Triangle put on by the Jameses, but there wasn't any special incentive to do this.

I had asked Waverly if she was interested in running it, and she decided that she wanted to have a day where she could sleep in.  You can't blame a busy, active 29-year-old young lady for that - at all.

I think it is the challenge of doing - in this case, working - a new race.

I've done many.

Some people don't thrive in situations when the playbook doesn't cover all of the possibilities that may occur, but that's where my experience - or at least I like to think so - kicks in.

I like to think that I've seen it all - or most of it.

And I've always believed that I prepare better than anybody else out there, but even once I parked my car in the park at 5:15 a.m. or so I needed to walk the grounds a bit - since I had never been to the Park - to see how everything was going to flow.

A lot of the feedback that I receive from people when I announce is, "You have a great voice."  

God has certainly blessed me with a little bit of talent, that I'm grateful for, but it is the ability to execute the race plan - and adapt in the middle of it, if necessary.

That's really the biggest talent that I bring to a race's table, so to speak.  

But it doesn't hurt when all of that is also tempered with an understanding of how to do things through the lens of good, effective public relations.

If something goes awry, which nothing did this morning, can you communicate around it so that nobody is or very few people are aware of what might be going on behind the scenes.

Like I said, experience pays off here.

Fortunately, this morning, it was clear where the start/finish line was - and a good friend, Jerry Fuqua, with Run Houston Timing, was in the process of setting everything up there.  

Jerry - and his wife, Theresa, the head cross country and track and field coach at Houston Christian University, are legends in our Houston sports community.

A majority of the activities centered around a pavilion there in Port Neches Riverfront Park and Jeremy and Willie had speakers there for the post-race award ceremonies - and what turned out to be pre-race activites too.

In our original discussion, Jeremy was going to take one of those two and carry it to the start, to announce from.

After cofirming that power - in the pavilion - was just a long extension cord plus away, using my equipment was about removing a variable in the equation.

Setup went quick and I was talking no later than 6:10 a.m. with the first pre-race activity happening at 6:40 a.m. in some words from their affiliated charity.

It was the largest race in their company's short three-year history, and the pavilion provided a captive location for the president of the charity to speak from.  

Before I arrived, I thought it was something that we might do at the start/finish line, but it really worked out well in the pavilion.

I had spoken with the individuals with the organization - ASK (Adaptive Sports for Kids'), which is based in Nederland - and they said they might need about five minutes to communicate their mission so we didn't have to go on the hard 6:40 a.m. mark, but backed off a little bit - enough to allow us to be able to move right into the pre-race warmup by one of their sponsors, HotWORX.

We then had enough time to get all of the kids - and the parents running with them - to the start line, and begin their race on-time - complete with Jeremy firing a starter's pistol used in high school and college cross country races - provided by Jerry.

In between the end of the Kids K and the start of the 5K, here comes one of the owners of the Legacy Capital The Woodlands Marathon, Danny Golden, who was there with his girlfriend.  

He was the last person I expected to see there, but certainly a very welcome sight.  

(Like I've heard many times, he said when he made it to the grounds that he had heard the voice before!)

One of the things that I do constantly is announce the time whenever I speak and what the times of the next events are in the race timeline.

The benefit to that?  A lack of chaos getting people - in today's case - to the start line.  

We had a flag presentation and the National Anthem scheduled at 7:25 a.m. - for a 7:30 a.m. start - and while I was talking, wrapping up the kids race and making more pre-race announcements, I saw the individuals involved in those activities and went to visit with them.

Kendra Queen sang the National Anthem and wow!, what a powerful and beautiful voice.  

She did an amazing job, but so too did the daughters of the Hensley family, who are key leaders in the Sea Rim Striders running club, based in Beaumont.

I just had one of the two daughters' names in my pre-race information from Jeremy, but I got both of their names and their Boy Scouts Troop number too - and was able to remember them.  (I am getting older!)

But the older of the two girls had such poise.  

She fully understood about presenting and retiring the colors, which I like to properly do at races, because I don't believe enough Americans fully understand and respect those protocols, and they did an admirable and fantastic job, including the older daughter guiding the younger one to dip her Texas flag to the U.S. flag.

The rest of the day - the race and the awards ceremony - went well.

My final preparation was a bit late on Sunday mid-afternoon to find out who was timing and to try and get a bib list, and in my busyness, I failed to ask it earlier.

But before I had Waverly print and laminate my race information and bring it to the late afternoon worship service we both attended, I went through the Track Participants function of the Run Signup page to get a good number of names and bib numbers which allowed for me to announce about half of the runners' names as they came to the finish line.

All in all, it was a good day, but with the early wake-up call, and after getting some Whataburger in Beaumont before driving back, I was wiped after I got home at about 12:15 p.m.

The most important thing is that, I've learned, I like doing the things that I do when I don't have to, but isn't that how it is with a lot in our life?

Could I execute if I had to?  

Sure, but when it is something I elect to do, that makes it all the more enjoyable.

And on some of these things that I do, when you decide to some of those opportunities up, there are others who want to scoop them up from you - and you'll never get them back if you change your mind.