Volunteering at races

I've volunteered for races quite a few times.  I usually do jobs that still allow me to run the race but there have been times that I volunteer during a race.  I used to put packets together and help with some of the office stuff for Running Fit races but then they moved all of that to one of the other locations.  I've volunteered for the Clark Lake Triathlon for the last four or five years.  Yesterday was this year's triathlon.  I reported for duty at 6am and it began raining.  I usually help with parking cars and this year I did that in the rain.  I'm so glad that I dug out my winter trail shoes because I was pretty sure it was going to rain.  I was soaked but my feet were dry!  It stopped raining about 15 minutes before the race began.  After the cars were all parked I was sent to the finish area where I found out that I was going to hand out medals!!  I was so excited!  I unpacked the medals out of boxes and got them all laid out.  Finally, the first finisher came around the corner and up the final stretch and crossed the finish line!  I put the medal around his neck!  I was told to be happy and congratulatory and to put the medals around the racers' necks.  Some people reached out and grabbed them but most let me put them over their head.  After the final finisher came through I was off to the transition area to take down bike racks as they became cleared.  I also picked up trash from ground - such glamorous work!
The medals ready for finishers:

medals for triathletes

A friend who had been out on the bike course walked by and took this picture of me being silly waiting for the next finisher to come through:

medal girl

Back on June 1st I volunteered at a water stop of a half marathon, the Dexter to Ann Arbor half marathon.  The Saturday running group does a water stop at mile 6.  It was the first time I'd ever volunteered at a water stop.  I had to learn how to hold the cups and let go of them at the moment that the runner takes hold.
We arrived at the location early to set up.  A truck had just dropped off the tables, cups, big jugs of water and Gatorade mix.  We filled the cups and set them in rows and then a thick piece of cardboard on top of each layer.  This is what it looked like when we were done:

aid station all set up

layers of cups

It was really neat to see the whole entire field of a half marathon from the first one to go through to the very last.  Once the runners slowed down to just a few at a time and were becoming spread out I went to picking up the cups from the road and sides of the road.  (once again, a trash picker upper!) 

A couple of Lululemon reps were also helping at the aid station.  One of them wore a lemon suit:

Lululemon rep dressed as Lulu the Lemon! 

Yesterday I was inspired to go for a long bike ride after I got home from the triathlon.  I rode 11 miles.  I haven't rode much since May 24th when I rode 30 miles around Mackinac Island which I fully intended to write about but never did.  I went up there with the same friend from school who I went up with during our break in the summer of 2012.  It was a lot of fun.  It was the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and was the first big weekend of the season for Mackinac Island but there weren't nearly as many people there will be once summer is in full swing.  I had a great time but I wasn't really ready to ride 30 miles!  We didn't ride 30 solid miles, we stopped at some of the sights such as the highest point on the island and an old fort, etc.  We also rode on some of the trails, both paved and dirt, that wind through the wooded parts of the island.  We had dinner in the late afternoon and then decided to do one more circle around the island because we had ridden 22 miles and the perimeter road is 8 miles.  It sounded like a good idea but I wasn't very far into the ride when my butt had had enough of the bike seat!  I was so glad to be done when we finally made it around the island.  We headed back to St. Ignace with enough time to sail under the Mackinac Bridge which was fun for me.

Tonight I attempted another tempo run.  It went much better than last week's sorry attempt.  I didn't have to walk!  Mile 1 and 2 were both under 9 minutes but then I slowed down but the 3rd mile did have a big hill.  I'm feeling much better about my half marathon training now.  My long run on Saturday also went much better than the one 2 weeks ago.  It got tough the last 2 miles but I never had to walk.

Well, that is about all for now.  Tempo runs make me tired!  It's time to go to bed.

Runner Nerd
race volunteer