No matter how much you dig producing an annual poker run, having a year to decompress between events is essential to preserving your sanity and refreshing your passion. Of course, I’ve never organizing a run myself, but from the outside looking in it looks like a little slice of hell. I am reasonably confident that I talk to more poker-run organizers in a given season that most poker-run participants will in their entire poker-running lives.
So I see their highs. And I see their lows. Little slice of hell, indeed.
It takes a certain kind of human to succeed at it. If event-organizing isn’t a labor of considerable love—if hospitality isn’t in your blood and watching others have a good time doesn’t lift your spirits—you won’t last long.
With Lady Liberty look over them, members of the Lake Champlain Poker Run organizing enjoyed a short but essential fun run on the Hudson River.
But even the most passionate poker-run organizing types such as Chris Fisher and his girlfriend Christy Foote and their friends Brian and Sandra Hoar of Lake Champlain Poker Run fame need to disconnect and recharge now and then, despite that their event is more than a month behind them.
So a couple of weeks back they chose to refresh by participating in a go-fast boating event. With a DCB Performance Marine M37R catamaran and a Nor-Tech 36 Super Cat in tow, the couples headed from their homes in Burlington. Vt., to Newburg, N.Y., to join the Hudson River Fun Run produced by their friends Mike Lynn and Jeff Rosino.
“Think of it as ‘light and liberty’ after the Lake Champlain Poker Run,” Fisher explained, then chuckled. “It was a pleasure to be relaxed guests instead of hectic organizers.”
Though the couples took in the Big Apple sights from the Hudson River, they did not dock and head into the city itself. As fun as that can be, their goal was to escape stress, not dive into it. So they stayed “mostly on the New Jersey” side, enjoyed the view from the water and remember what brought them to boating in the first place.
Batteries refreshed, they’ll be back to put produce exceptional event of their own next year. But in the meantime, they recently absorbed a healthy dose of liberty.