Nightmares, or Should I say “EVENTMARES”

There is a common topic around the office and among our crew throughout the year regarding the events. Our crew uses the term “Eventmares.” An Eventmare is very similar to a nightmare; something scary is happening, you try to react and escape the situation, then you wake up in a cold sweat trying to collect yourself and get back to reality. Nightmares happen often to some of us while others don’t seem to have them at all. However, EVERYONE in the event business is bound to have an Eventmare at some point in their career.

I am not a dreamer, or at least I can’t remember my dreams after I have woken up. However, the sort of dream that I do remember is theEventmare. I’ve had quite a few over the years ranging from a wide variety of circumstances. Most of my Eventmares are centered around the fear that I have forgotten to take care of an important race component or they involve some crazy scenario that takes place during an event. The psychologist in me believes they are a result of having too many event-related details on my mind which then causes me to have trouble winding down at night. Once I have woken up and have reassured myself that in fact all of the details have been handled or that the scenario did not actually happen, I still find myself going through a mental checklist of my responsibilities. Much like a dream or nightmare, Eventmares can be very detailed in content, but very broad in their context.

One of my cohorts, Mark Adler and I share our Eventmare stories and get a good laugh. As I mentioned earlier, the stories offer a broad range of circumstances under which things can go wrong. Once, while at the Indy Mini, I had an Eventmare that I had forgotten to order the tents. In my dream, I realized this on Friday morning and the event was taking place on Saturday morning. I contacted the vendor who informed me that me there would no way they could get the nearly 50 tents up in time since it normally took them all week to build the site. One of Mark's favorite Eventmares involved 200 volunteers working at the start line who started fighting with each other in lieu of assisting the participants. Another favorite is when all of the participants at large race decided it would be a much more enjoyable experience if they went over and around the start towers instead of running through them.

Regardless of the scenario, Eventmares cause us to wake up in a cold sweat and hope it wasn’t true. A second look is given to all the details to ensure nothing is missed. Only after we are completely sure that our Eventmare will not come true can we share the story with everyone and get a good laugh at our scary moments.

Thanks again for reading. I hope you everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!