A morning after story. The “adventure” was yesterday and a good time was had by all. There were a 10K run and hike, a summit run, and a half and full marathons on the mountain. The only one upset was Jordan, who stayed at home.
The long routes made logistics and communications complicated. The limousine (van) at the summit got up there a couple of hours early (probably forgot that the clocks moved back the night before). We had six radio teams on the hill and at least one of them could only be reached by relaying. Net Control was well up the mountain and mobile.
As usual, there were important questions from the organizers that got answered quickly. There were important updates that kept everyone at the bottom of the mountain comfortable that all was as it should be on the courses. It’s another event that can’t be covered by cell phones and really needs the safety net of radio communications.
The two memorable situations were the wheelchair racer on the 10-K course whose mountain-wheelchair’s frame broke and bib number 340 that we couldn’t account for. In spite of the rider’s assurance he could make it, we talked him into a ride the last couple of km. This was a fun-run, not a performance event and he ended up relieved for the ride. Bib 340 showed up, picked up his bib and a tee-shirt, and decided to go home. Fortunately, we got a cell phone call through to him at home before the Sheriff’s and Park District’s Search and Rescue Teams started a full blown search on the mountain (we were still well away from that, actually, but the team leaders were standing there looking professional and ready). The most serious problem was a woman on the course, not an adventure participant, just someone on the course, who fell and injured her leg. She got treated at our first aid station and trucked off to Kaiser.
All in all, another great event by Save Mount Diablo and the Mount Diablo Amateur Radio Club. Julie and her team and John Stuart of our team really did a terrific job (as did all the volunteers). I even heard KI6FYJ and KI6FYK up at aid station 3 got on the air!?