AROC Sydney Olympic Park - from a volunteer's perspective

Prankar Singh

I had a joyous time in all aspects of the AROC race in Sydney. I missed the
first Sydney Olympic Park race in the former years, so I was in great
anticipation of being in participation in the second race as a volunteer
because I did not make sufficient preparations to find a team to help out as
a member. It was great to be in the place of the Olympic games where so much
sport happened.

I was placed on a roving way by Alina to help in many places throughout the
night, and for those of who have not seen behind the scenes, it is a most
promising place to understand how races are designed and how to get extra
insights into the strategies the Tom and Alina make to give challenges.

The first part was great as all the people had to race to a group of us
standing together to get their maps and it was a bedlam of many running all
over the place. I felt like a rock star being mobbed by many adoring fans
(this was just an imagination to make the experience funny in my mind). The
next stage for me was to head to the boats section under the big bridge to
help the craft from their trailer moorings as the entrants come in. At this
point they did not have enough boats for all the teams so they let the first
top teams take a boat until they ran out and then the subsequent teams did
have to embark on a running leg such that the runners would bring the boats
back from the furthest point and the paddlers would run back the paddle
distance.

I saw a funny thing that I did do in my first race and that was to follow
the team in front. Many teams blindly ran the wrong way to the correct
direction. It was kind of Tom to tell them they went in the wrong direction
as the consequences would have been much hilarity to see so many teams
discover their mistake together.

This taught me to take the time to read the map and not let my joy at just
running around freely in race excitement overtake my navigation, as I had
done before.
Then I got moved to help with the swimming complex section to be an usher
for people as they came in. I had never seen so many water pools in the one
place. It was a inspiring sight to witness all the people's deft skills at
going on the inflatable obstacles. I assumed the obstacles to be simple and
had imaginations that I could just balance across them, but even nimble
peoples were becoming unbalanced and falling to their wet consequence in the
pool.

It was also the best time to converse with people waiting to have their
turn. It is not often that you can socialise in a race while it is going and
if I were a competitor, I would be happy for the recovery from the running
and to have a chat to fellow racers. I thought this was a brilliant plan to
get people to meet and socialise because so many people leave straight after
the race and do not stay to meet and greet fellow adventurers. I enjoy
learning to know my team mates, but it is also great to meet other teams
too. SO many of the people that I ushered had the big smiles and grins or
happiness when they came from the water slide - there was much yelping and
shouting in joy.

Then I was sent to the finishing line to pack all the bibs into a big tub
for laundering after the event. This was a bit smelly as the racers had all
sweated in them, but there are many tasks to make a good race, so I was
happy to help out with this. It was well after dark as many teams came
jubilantly into the finishing funnel for adulation and merriment at
completion. This is where I also saw just how many prizes were to be given
away - I helped carry no less than 6 big crates of bottles, bags, clothes,
tools, and many many goodies and for the people who stayed - there were so
many people getting random prizes and prizes for just being happy! This is
the great thing about adventure races that people receive prizes even if
they did not win, and the winners are so much more gracious than many other
sports people I have mixed with in past activities.

I had a joy seeing how the events is organised and I now have a good idea of
many new things to try in races having observed how many varieties of
strategies either worked or did not for teams.

I would also say to people who go home straight after the races to make
preparations to stay out for longer from your home to be in attendance to
receive the so many prizes on offer. I also enjoyed meeting many good
adventure racers and getting tips from them. I also got a voucher to enter
in the next AROC sprint event of my choosing for free. I would say that
volunteering had many more rewards than just helping out. The organisers of
all adventure races are clever and hard working to make the sport run so
easy and fun, with challenges. So next time you have a consternation at
navigation or how fast your progress seems slow, then be aware that this is
probably the very challenge the organisers have placed for you and that with
experience these challenges become more fun because you can foresee the
potential of them slowing you up and use cunning and ingenuity to be
overcoming the tricks. This is my biggest learning from races now, and I
won't be so anxious when I have these challenges, and will stop for a pause
to work it out better.

Thanks to AROC for making it so fun event for volunteering

Sincerely

Prankar

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