Putting on a race often comes down to the small details that make it a success. Assigning a person to a part of the race can be complicated or made easy. The registration person, the course setup person, the pre-race hand-out person, the cashier and the day-of-race registration person all have very critical duties that can ruin a race if they have a miscue.
Probably one of the more remembered persons in charge if they mishandle their duties is the refreshment person. This person is responsible for having refreshments for the runners after the race. I am not sure when this started as a critical part of a race. But runners enter a race and expect a T-shirt, an award if they run fast, an accurate distance that was advertised, and some goodies after the race. You might think goodies can’t be too hard to go buy, or have donated, but it gets a little more complicated when you start thinking of the various selections you are going to have.
Oranges are always good because they have a sweet taste, have a thirstquenching quality and are easy to buy. The added complexity of oranges is that you need to cut them into quarters for easy eating. That means someone has to bring a sharp knife and cut the oranges into quarters. It is best to put them on a towel-covered tray for runners to pick them up. And if you cut too many, they are hard to take home. Someone needs to be there to cut extra oranges if the tray starts to run low, so that the whole oranges can be taken home.
Bananas are good because they have magnesium in them to help runners get necessary nutrition for cramp prevention. You can buy a carton full of them for very little money. But bananas come in bunches of five to ten bananas. I have seen runners pick up the whole bunch and walk off eating a few and taking the rest back to their car. Someone has to pick the bananas apart and it is best if you cut them in half for runners to eat. And a trash can is necessary for the peels so runners don’t slip on the discarded peels. The same goes for bananas as for the oranges in that someone needs to cut just enough to satisfy the runners and have whole bananas left over that can be taken home.
Donuts are always a welcome treat for runners and no cutting is required. Plain donuts are okay but glazed or sugar donuts are the real treat for after-race refreshments. The one problem is you can’t put them out before the race or early in the race. Children of the runners waiting for their parents to finish will eat the whole tray before the runners start finishing. Cookies are so much easier to have. Chocolate chips and oatmeal cookies are always a hit with runners. The best part is they are easy to pack up the left-over cookies and not have a mess.
For some reason apples are seldom used. They are harder to cut into quarters or small slices and you have to take the center seeds out and discard them.
Watermelon is wellliked by runners because of the thirst-quenching sweet tasting liquid that make up a watermelon. The problem once again is cutting the watermelon into smaller triangleshaped pieces for easier eating. That takes a lot of cutting by an expert in cutting watermelon. And you need a big trash can because the left-over rind of a watermelon is bigger than a banana peel. And discourage seed spitting at other runners by qualified seed spitters.
For the ultimate afterrace refreshment there are always hamburgers or hot dogs. Most runners have not eaten breakfast before the race and some solid food will be very welcome. The problem is someone has to bring a grill and be a good cook. Then ketchup, mustard, relish, and buns are needed.
It is better to be a registration person than a refreshment person.
