[This post follows "A Day At the Races (I) — Before the Event", where I discussed some of the work that goes into setting up a fundraising walk, run, or ride.]

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Most of us who have been around the diabetes community, or any running, cycling, or charity-event community, have had the opportunity to participate in a large event — either as a participant or as a volunteer. Most volunteers come in the day of the event, check in participants or hand out food or beverages for a few hours, and go home. Participants sign up, solicit donations (if it's a charity event), show up, burn some calories, maybe eat some food, and go home. Very few of us get to see how much work, and how many people, it takes to put on an event. If you've ever wondered why the fundraising bar for charity cycling rides is set at $200, $500, $3000, or more... this is why.

Let's start at the beginning. Most of the real work of an event starts months before the day of the race, ride, or walk.

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I was running late this morning. I’m not really sure why. So I rushed to drop of No. 3 at Nonnie’s house. Mom and I talked for a second about my lateness and then I started for the door.

As I was walking out, my mom asked: “Are you still walking in the mornings?”

I sighed, heavily and almost ashamedly. “No,” I said. “I, uh…” I stumbled on my words. “No.” I sighed again.

I can’t really put my finger on what the problem is this time. In the past I’ve been able to say this is the reason or that is the reason. But for the last several weeks – actually more than a month, I think – I just haven’t even made an attempt to go. My alarm isn’t even set to go off at 5 a.m. anymore. So it’s not like I even give myself the opportunity to go.

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So word is getting around a little that I moonlight as a portrait photographer. (::doing the happy dance::) I was pleasantly surprised to get an email from a co-worker on Monday asking if I could do some Photoshop work for an image he wants to use for his Twitter page dedicated to marathon runners for Team Diabetes for the P.F. Chang's marathon in Phoenix.

Which naturally turned into him trying to recruit me to run or walk a marathon or half marathon. "Then," he said, "you can be part of the one-tenth of one percent of people who can say they've participated in a marathon."

Ugh. I loathe running. I always have. And the thought of even walking a half marathon (13 miles!!!) makes my head spin. Could I do it? Yes. Do I want to do it? No. A mini-marathon? I'm all over that.

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I've always been a quote collector. Each year in high school I wrote down all of the senior quotes in a notebook. I think I occasionally looked back at them. I had a gigantic book of quotes at one point, too, and I'm pretty sure I went through it with a highlighter. (Oh, wait. Looking over my shoulder at my bookcase I see I still have "Words of Wisdom.")

While I've since trashed that notebook, I am still a connoisseur of quotes. I think for the entire seven years we lived in that little town in Missouri, I had a quote (I think by Kenny Rogers) on a post-it note (that interestingly never lost its stickiness) attached to a kitchen cabinet: Don't be afraid to give up the good for the great.

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I had the privilege of spending much of Saturday at the first annual New Jersey Bicycle Summit, which was a convocation of engineers, planners, and cycling advocates to discuss common issues and ways of addressing them. The theme of the summit was "Complete Streets", which is shorthand for "designing an infrastructure which supports every mode of local transportation" -- cars and trucks, bicycles, pedestrians, mobility-assist vehicles (e.g. wheelchairs & scooters), public/mass transportation, and so on. One of the more important takeaways from this meeting was that the details of a "complete street" will change from community to community, from street to street -- kind of like the way the details of diabetes management will change from person to person, from year to year.

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