# Gratitude

Date: 2019-04-30
Tags: endurance-evolution, gratitude, teamwork, traverse-city-trail-running-festival
URL: https://joelgaff.com/blog/gratitude/

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For over ten years now, I've been operating [Endurance Evolution](https://www.enduranceevolution.com/), a race management company in northwest lower Michigan. I'm a very hands-on person, and I'm not the type of owner/operator that just sits back and watches others do all the work.  I do everything from social media management, to packing the truck on race weekend, to setting up course signs, and almost everything else in between.

This past weekend, however, I had to sit back and watch.

My wife and I welcomed our second child just a little over two weeks ago, and I just couldn't make the trip to be at the [Traverse City Trail Running Festival](https://www.enduranceevolution.com/traverse-city-trail-running-festival/). Fortunately I had a few weeks heads up, and I was able to plan a little bit, and finalize some [manuals](http://joelgaff.com/blog/race-manuals) for my team, but other than what I could do via my computer, almost 1700 miles away, I had to trust that my team knew what to do.

They shined.

The race went fantastic, and by the end of the day I was overcome with gratitude for my crew.  They had come together and packed all the supplies from our storage garage (my garage), they took care of all the little details I either forgot to mention, or just didn't have enough time to add to the operation manuals. The last message of the day I received from my operations manager, Tricia, and she said:

> "..Too tired to write up an update on race and garage storage status, but will do soon. Your EE team done good all day - Mike, Laurie, Shannon, and Caitlin knocked it out of the park!"

I always find it humbling when I need to ask for big favors or lots of help like I did this past weekend. Sometimes it's just necessary, and when you have a great team and support system like I do at Endurance Evolution, the gratitude flows.

Thanks, team.