Early in the Morning

     I set my alarm for 3:50AM last night.  Despite how early the race started, I somehow convinced my friend from Sydney, Rach, to volunteer with me at a 50k/100k race near her house.  I helped coordinate volunteers and find sponsors for the race as part of my class assignment and we decided to spend the night (aka take a nap) at her house last night so we could be close to where the race started.
     It was an incredible experience.  Registering 600+ people for this event was hectic at times, but everyone is so positive and encouraging!  The 50k race had 5 different checkpoints for the participants- it started at Palm Beach and went through the northern beaches to south of Sydney.  Each participant was given a map and a sheet of paper with the checkpoint numbers to have each one stamped at the checkpoints!  It is important to have both to stay in the race.  I bet you can see where this is going. . .this is where I come in da-da-da-duuuum.
     One of the participants dropped their paper at the starting line.  I was helping to take down everything, so I did not notice until the organizer of the walk came up to me and asked if I could find the participant who lost their sheet.  (This really meant "Hi, I know that the runners and walkers started 5 minutes ago, but wouldn't it be fun to jog to the very front of the "heaps" of racers?")  I must admit, I was wishing that I had done the walk, but I had a pretty good, long sprint to find the racer.  After I returned successfully, one of the women said that I should be an honorary member of their organization that organized the race, Wild Women on Top.  Did I mension that Wild Women on Top is like an old women workout group (don't tell them I said that)?  Therefore, I can't decide if that is a compliment or not!
     After volunteering, Rach and I went on a hike to a lighthouse at Palm Beach.  We went through spider webs and narrow paths to find a beautiful view that she told me that we HAD to see!  Of course we took a photo: