Volunteer // 14 in 2014

I checked off another item of my 14 in 2014 list this weekend.

On Saturday, I volunteered at the Garmin Marathon. The race began at 7am and featured a 6k, half-marathon, and marathon. I was assigned to aid station K which was at mile 10 of the half-marathon and mile 23 of the marathon. Our station was also at the top of a hill – so the runners had to work their way up a long, but steady incline in order to hydrate.

Overall I had an awesome experience. It was so motivating and inspiring to see people of all shapes, sizes, ages, and physical conditions doing something so amazing. I was also surprised by the number of people who thanked us ( the volunteers ) for being there for the entire race.

We were a pretty dedicated bunch, though. After all, it did DOWNPOUR for most of the morning. Which none of us were prepared for. We all showed up wearing shorts and our volunteer t-shirts. And by 8am the sky was dark, lightning had been spotted on several occasions, and the wind picked up big time ( and unfortunately the runners had to run against it ).

Of course the downpour/hail/severe weather happened during the rush of runners. The security officials and policeman stationed near us actually asked us on several occasions to take shelter. We decided that unless they were going to call the race, we wanted to be there for the runners. ( We later found out the officials were concerned about the safety of the volunteers because we weren't required to sign a release form like the runners were. )

So despite being wet, freezing, and shivering for the duration of the race, it was a successful event. Some of the runners were clearly more upset by the weather conditions than others, but it was pretty cool how positive most of the individuals remained. Again, they were very gracious of our willingness to provide drinks/food/aid which made it worthwhile. In fact, after we cleaned up our station and headed to the finish line for the after party ( which thankfully included some sunshine and lots of free beer ), several racers came up to our group and thanked us again personally.

We were able to talk to different runners about their race histories – one of my favorite stories was about an older woman ( probably in her 60s if not older ) who finished her 12th marathon this weekend after having a heart attack only 8 months earlier. Like, wow.

There was definitely a learning curve to volunteering at an aid station ( mostly involving understanding how to lead the runners with the water cups ), but it was fun to get to know some co-workers I don't normally work with and inspiring to watch people put their bodies through something so challenging. I would definitely consider volunteering at future road races.