Yesterday I was a course marshall for an area 5K race. Let me tell you it was an interesting experience. As course marshall my job is to make sure traffic does not get through on the course. I also am supposed to make sure no one bothers the runners.
For this race there was 3500 registered runners. In Chicago, anytime you have a street event, it is city law that No Parking signs are posted. The signs are posted two days in advance. If you violate those orders, your car is towed. What no one told me is that as course marshall you bear the brunt of neighbor anger. One man got into my face and was cussing at me because his car was towed. I told him over and over how sorry I was, and that he needs to call the city to find out where it is. He ranted and raved and got a camera. He started taking pictures of trees with signs on them. The signs he took pictures of were no parking signs for street cleaning on Monday. The traffic control guy and I told him he was taking the wrong pictures, and he got angrier.
I dealt with the woman who lived on the street and just wanted to go home. She screamed at me how unfair this was. Right behind her...a vacan parking spot. I told her she could park there and walk the block to her home. She refused and screamed some more.
One woman was angry because she had movers coming that morning. I told her the street would be open in 2 hours. She cried and told me this was not right.
The runners came by, and they all seemed so happy to be out running and racing. It made up for all the anger I had thrown at me. Still there will always be some bitter folks.
Charlie
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