A Super Swag Run
The journey of bringing people together.
Groggy from the lack of sleep, I get up from the couch to leave my best friend’s place in Los Angeles, still, I can’t help but replay the events that took place less than 12 hours ago.
The night before was magical.
He hosted an open mic where so many souls came together as strangers, and collectively took a risk to be vulnerable with each other
In awe of the authenticity and community present, I asked “why not me”, more specifically:
Why can’t I do this at Davis???
The answer is that I absolutely can.
So two hours before my plane departed LAX, I’d already created the event page for a 5k and gotten some of my first few signups.
This was the start of something, an opportunity to create the community I had so crazily been looking for the past three years.
This could be big.
Preparing the event itself was far from smooth sailing.
The first important decision I made was choosing to open the run up to anyone. This meant all the friends I was inviting were encouraged to bring their own friends. Did this increase the pressure I felt to make the event a success? Yes, but pressure is a privilege.
In retrospect, I’m glad I did this.
If I have cool friends (which I undoubtedly do), then it’s highly probable they have cool friends. Also, opening up this event to anyone expands my luck surface area, which optimizes for making friends by maximizing serendipity.
Math jargon aside, inviting people was a beast of it’s own.
Once I had made my goal to invite as many people as humanly possible, I quickly converged to a very well developed “pitch” of the event. It’d go something like this:
Ask them what they’re doing the day of the event
Tell them I’m hosting a 5k with the intention of socializing
Encourage them to come by describing how there are people I want them to meet
Send them the RSVP link
My step-oriented brain loved this procedure, it was quite prolific. There wasn’t an hour spent on campus when I didn’t pitch to someone.
After a steady week of inviting people, the event page showed 69 signups which was incredible!!!
Fast forward to the evening before, I had spent two hours setting up flyers with arrows indicating directions. However, at a party later that night, I was informed by a friend that Aggie Day was taking place on our track, and that unless we wanted to run through family tours, it was ill-advised to keep those flyers up.
My heart sank.
The race was in less than 12 hours, how could I have blundered this hard?
The day of, two great friends of mine, Garrett and Luciann, woke up at 7 a.m. to help me readjust the flyers. All was according to plan, until Garrett informed me of another roadblock (no pun intended). We exchanged a few screenshots of maps with doodles over them to figure out what our new path would be.
It was thirty minutes before the event, and the route needed to be changed.
Again.
Making my way to the park with the final route, I was alarmed looking at my watch. It’s 9:55 a.m. and there aren’t many people here yet. I anticipated giving announcements right at 10:00 a.m., but it seems like everyone is a little late. One by one, friends poured in and we met each other lovingly.
The excitement kicked in, but so did the nerves.
My heart was pounding, I can’t lie. Maybe the bagginess of my sweatpants hid the fact that I was slightly shaking, but it’s too late to turn back now.
Finally, the run begins.
To think that I’ve played a fraction of a part in bringing these folks together is incredibly fulfilling. So many people were sure to let me know how this was a brilliant idea, which I truly don’t believe. On paper, this is a very simple concept. I think the only thing that made this special was the fact that someone executed, and through some miracle it just so happened to be me!
The praise was overwhelming and left me squirmish. Each compliment on organizing this event was parried by likewise appreciation of how none of this would have been possible without them.
Now, more than ever, I’m inspired to do this again and make it even better.
might just have to run it back
-pardan