2013 NBA All-Star Event Diary (Day 9)

What a great day for a 5K! My 5K day started with an early morning wakeup call at 5:00am, and that is when the fun began. The lights stayed off since my roommate didn’t need to be up for hours, so as I searched for open floor space with each step I tripped a few times getting dressed. Once I was ready, I headed downstairs to meet up with co-workers Greg and Ethan and once we arrived at Discovery Green in Houston, it was go-time.

The first task was to set-up the NBA tunnel inflatable, which is a crucial piece leading the runners through the finish line and the street intersection. Once setup, we could start building the court and getting everything else show ready. As we worked to be open on time, more and more participants were arriving and I just knew it was going to be a full house. Soon Greg opened up the court to anyone who wanted to play and started to run games, while Ethan and I pumped up the balls for the kids dribble portion of the race. Before I knew it, 8:30AM arrived and runners were getting ready to start the 5K. Just like that…they were off and with almost 1,000 runners, it was an awesome sight to see. I wanted a picture of the first place runner so I headed over to the finish line and, to my surprise, the winner raced across at a time of 17:55.

Next up was the 1K portion of the event. The crowd was definitely excited. There was a mix of families running together, as well as younger runners. The race went off without a hitch and finished up just in time for the dribble portion to get going, which was great, because the kids couldn’t wait to get started. At the sound of the horn they were off and before long came the sweet sound of bouncing basketballs and laughter everywhere. Once the running portions were completed we struck the inflatables in the street and prepared for the awards ceremony.

A funny thing happened on my way to the stage, when I saw the winner of the 5K and congratulated him on his race and the tickets he won. He looked puzzled and asked, “What tickets?” to which I answered that the winner of the 5K gets tickets to the NBA All-Star game. He freaked out and started jumping up and down. I guess he didn’t read the fine print and hadn’t yet been told what he had won. It felt pretty good to be the one to tell him, but at this point there was still a lot to do so I was off to make sure everything was set for the awards ceremony.

Once the ceremony wrapped up, we began to strike all event assets and teardown was underway. Joe came on site to help the team, and the four of us raced from transframe, to sport court, to sand bags, methodically loading it all up. Once the truck was back to Jam Session we all helped unload and put everything back in storage before rejoining the FILO crew on the show floor. With a turnout of 4,000 people, no injuries and a satisfied crew, I would say the event was a great success.

Written by:
Dan Fosse