Volunteering is Important

Awakening to the resounding whooping of Sandhill cranes and the shrill bickering of seagulls overhead, I once again crossed my fingers and assessed my body before opening my eyes. It was day three of the K9 Nose Work trial in Anchorage – my volunteer day, if I was up for it.

My whole body ached, but nothing seemed serious enough to warrant major concern. I tried bending my right knee, and although it was more reluctant than on the two previous days and maybe a tad swollen, it complied.

Volunteering IS important, and dog sports trials couldn’t happen if competitors and often family and/or friends didn’t step up to help out. Timers, judges stewards, traffic control, score room, and much more. There’s a lot to be done.

However, when recovering from an injury (or surgery), one really ought to use common sense and know when to stop.

Who, me? Nope, no common sense happening here. I enjoy volunteering at trials. You get to see and talk to all the competitors and often can watch the different teams compete – depending on your volunteer assignment.

I had saved up a winter’s worth of solitude and this day was balm to my soul.

It’s true … I should have remembered to sit down more. I knew, but conveniently forgot in the moment, that a day of volunteering was often more work (and definitely more steps walked), than a trial day. Check out these numbers from Saturday, Sunday and then Monday (my main volunteer day). And these numbers are with me trying to be good. Cringe.

I love how my “Health App” helpfully tells me that I took more steps yesterday than the day before, and that I’m taking “more steps than usual” today. Ya think?

Exhaustion won out, but not until the end of the day. Monday was NW2, and several friends were competing. Being able to watch and encourage them was important to me!

As I headed, with dragging feet and a barely visible limp towards my comfy RV, the volunteer coordinator approached. Too tired to outrun her, I waited. Uh huh … they were short volunteers for NW1 on Tuesday, the final day of trialing. They promised a sit-down job (I’m not sure there is such a thing,)

I promised to think about it overnight.