Timing is everything

    The phrase “timing is everything” has taken on a new meaning after the last week at the Cross Country Junior Olympics in Presque Isle. Jeannie McLaughlin and I went. We watched. We waited. We timed. We may even have been timed.     The first day each young person ran a qualifying “round,” beginning every 15 seconds. Then in the afternoon there were 54 sprints. Fifty-four starts, and fifty-four finishes. I can’t guarantee there were the equivalent numbers of “plunges” while I was in charge of the piton on my side of the finish, but they let me stay, and didn’t take it away from me. The athletes were all sleek, adorned with a variety of bright small items as accessories to distinguish themselves from their competitors, and from this laymen’s perspective, they all looked very fast. Their coaches, family and fellow athletes between races were enthusiastic, very polite, well traveled, and remarkably interesting. Yet, in some ways as the time went by, I was struck by the idea, their young people are like our young people. They are serious, and goofy, and rowdy and funny, wearing the same types of things, and fiddling with many of the same “contraptions” our young people seem to be glued to.
    The young athletes cheered each other on, acted silly, and chattered around in groups just as our own young people did. They congratulated each other, egged each other on, razzed each other, and were really fun to watch. Besides their clothing, which noted where they were from, I would not have been able to tell a patch of Presque Isle junior high students from a group from Far East Nordic, or Alaska or the Great Lakes. The announcer was fantastic, the venue was truly a sight to be seen, and the volunteers, many from Caribou, and other surrounding communities (most of them skiers, be they young or be some of them a bit older) were all very nice, and from what I saw, great ambassadors for The County.
    So, timing is everything. Not just with the young skiers, but also of course as you think of each one of us in our plain old ordinary lives. To be in the right place at the right time, and not miss an opportunity to help someone, is surely what its’ all about. We saw so many examples of this last week as we learned the finer points of literal timing. I have a whole new array of terms to throw out there just this once.
    Plunging: the actual stopper piton you push as the racers’ feet cross the finish line … Not as easy as you might think. Those feet on those skis are moving. Plunger anxiety: did I anticipate the crossover? Did I plunge too late? Oh my.
    Callers, who say the numbers the skier is wearing, as they cross the finish line. Bringing me to: eye witnesses. Notoriously unreliable, we hear it on TV, and perhaps we’ve been a part of various small “experiments” or examples of peoples’ eye witness accounts. Who knew our eyes can play so many tricks on us, even when we’re focusing, and intentionally planning to accurately record that which is going by directly in front of us. Unsettling really, and it makes me think anew, I would not want to be on a jury, and I would not want to be a judge. There were two groups of callers and recorders on either side of the finish line (who in theory record the same thing on either side of the finish line): it’s a good theory, and a very thorough process, because by the goodness: Things happen.
    Bibs: not just for small babies or teething children evidently. Bib collars? Huh? Aha, I get it now: Bib Callers. Really funny, I just couldn’t figure why we needed to put collars on anyone at the first “timing meeting” we had. They tell you to ask questions if you don’t know something, but I knew there was no way I intended to admit that confusion to everyone. Didn’t we laugh about it in the office after the first day though.
    Then there are the recorders, writing down in actual time what the callers just said to them (again theoretically). The semantics or the gory details of recording the finish to a race: no. I had not given it any thought before last week, my goodness. On the up side, no one asked us not to join them on subsequent days, despite my premature plunging anxiety, and our somewhat faulty eyes and ears. Timing. Fewfth.
    Thankfully the one thing I had known was there are so many really good people willing to give their time, and support a cause. We have so many enthusiastic Aroostook County ambassadors, it really does your heart good to get out and talk with people. Sometimes in our own small circles I think we tend to forget we are not in fact alone, and we’re all interconnected by so many joyous events and people. We often talk about customer service in our offices, and how we might improve our customer service skills, but sometimes we forget we are our own live marketing assets!
    Timing is everything, a smile and a helpful gesture is what it’s all about. By Monday afternoon, I had decided I was most officially freezing (my own fault, it’s really like potato picking: layers on, layers off), and I was none too sure I was going to be much of an ambassador at all, but by the second afternoon, I had my picking layers on, and we had a great time.
    One item of note, the athletes really loved the school children (who were really very cute). They asked for autographs, had signs and their cowbells, and they cheered their chosen athletes on with only the exuberance of the truly young! If you didn’t get a chance to go, you can check out the videos, and even see clips on You Tube. Remember, its all about timing, and take care!
    Wendy Landes, MPA, is the executive director of the Caribou Chamber of Commerce & Industry. She can be reached in person at 24 Sweden Street, Suite 101; by telephone at 498-6156 or via e-mail at wlandes@cariboumaine.net.