Two weekends ago my sister and I were volunteers for the UV marathon, and it was amazing. At first I wasn't that excited, getting up at 5:30 and standing out in the sun all day on a Saturday? No thank you. However I am glad I said yes. Not only for the time with my wonderful sister but because it was inspiring.
We worked the finish line. When we first got there, around 6 am and helped moved water jugs to tables. Then we took boxes full of bags full of medals in smaller bags and emptied them all out. That was a chore, over 4000 little bags to dump out. Luckily there were other volunteers lol.
This was not the amazing part, the amazing part was that we got to help hand out the medals. Me and my sis, waiting for those who had given it what they got to finish.
We worked the half marathon side for a bit until they needed someone on the marathon side. That would be me. They had the scooter for adults coming, along with the wheelchair dude who was so much fun to talk with. His jokes had everyone cracking up. Also those who were paraplegic. I got to hand them their medals. Wow.
The first marathoner came over the finish at 2:17:00 or something like that. He was amazing. I got to hand him his medal too.
At first I was really shy about the whole thing. About standing there and handing out the medals, but then I did something to get over it. How you ask? I started to yell at the half-marathoners behind the finish line. See those that had finished had been gathering around the finish line to see their friends finish, or just to see others finish. However this caused issues for those coming to the finish line. After you run you don't really want to push through crowds to get to water, food, or the bathroom. The admins had come through once or twice to push the crowd back but they were way busy being, well admins. So I started to take over. The first few times I tried the people gave me a funny look and moved one of their feet, like that would help. I might have been to timid and that's why. So I started to yell "IF YOU COULD MOVE BACK AND TO THE SIDES PLEASE! WE NEED A SPACE FOR THE RUNNERS TO COOL DOWN." As I walked a good 7-10 feet while waving my arms around like a flight attendant. It worked. People cleared the area. After a while I even started to joke about it. "IF YOU COULD MOVE THAT WOULD BE AWESOME! I KNOW YOU'RE TIRED OF HEARING ME YELL CAUSE I'M TIRED OF YELLING!"
That was pretty much my job besides handing out the medals. We tried to put the medals around everyones necks but some just wanted to be handed them. My favorite was a guy volunteer tried putting a medal around a guys neck and the guy said with a smile"Sorry I want a beautiful woman to give me a medal. Tradition." And he came over to me! =} My other job was cheering for those coming in. That was one of the most amazing parts, just watching people cross the line. Some had tears in their eyes because they qualified for Boston. One even gave a great roar of joy as he crossed because he qualified. A woman almost had tears streaming down her face as she said "I qualified, I qualified." It was just amazing.
Then there were those who spent everything they had to finish. Did you know there are designated Catchers at the end of races? I didn't. Some people give all they have for the race and then they just collapse. We only had 6 or7 and only one fell hard. There was this guy who looked kind of queasy as he finished and I asked if he was okay. He said yes and as he started to fall on his butt he said "maybe not." I told him he was amazing, encouraging him and all. He turned and looked at me and told me that I was amazing. I laughed it off and replied that he had just run a marathon not me. But it got me thinking. The whole thing was put on by volunteers, without us the thing wouldn't be happening. Maybe I was just a touch amazing.
I helped Lani with the half-marathon for a while when there were to many people handing out marathon medals. She was cheering for everyone that came across, not just clapping but yelling and waving her arm. I liked that so I started to do it too. When the marathon medal people thinned I went back and started to do what Lani was doing for the half-marathon runners. It made the finish that much better for me.
I think I even made a difference for some of the runners. When new volunteers rotated in they thought I was crazy, I was yelling my lungs out "COME ON! YOU CAN DO IT. KEEP RUNNING, KEEP PUSHING. GIVE IT ALL YOU GOT. !" Was mostly what I yelled. Plus my hands were red at this point from clapping. But then the new volunteers caught on and started to yell and through out high fives. It's all about the energy you put into it.
I think one of my favorite parts was after the 6:00:00 mark. After that the runners that were coming in were the exhausted going at it in the hot sun people. They are the ones who needed the cheerleader energy. They trickled in with maybe 5 minutes in between. I could see them two stop lights down and that's when I would start to yell. Most of the crowd had gone home by then so it was me and the other volunteers. At this point my stomach muscles were cramping and my voice wasn't at it's best but I kept cheering. I even had to bend over sometimes to get any air so I could yell.
Around 6:30:00 the admin people were going to shut down the time and pack up. I turned to them and asked could they keep it open just a little longer? i could see some runners still. They said they would try but they were told to shut down at 6:30:00 I don't remember the real time they turned it off but it was a good while later.
As we cheered someone down the finishing chute of the other volunteers said "I want to go out there and run them in, can we do that?" I turned and replied "I don't know, but lets do it!" So she and I took off and met up with the person "Can we run with you?" they nodded and we did. It was amazing. We did that for the rest of the groups I was there for. We would run them to the finish and wait for the next people to come, then run out to meet them. One of my favorite replies was "I'm walking it, but I would love the company."
During the 5:00:00 hour the photographer walked past as I yelled someone in "Are you still at it?" "Someone has to do it!" I laughed in reply. When he left, around the 6:00;00 hour he told me that we were amazing and he had told the announcer we were the best volunteers and we deserved something. As I was waiting to run someone else in the announcer leaned over and told me that we were amazing volunteers and thank you for doing an amazing job.
Those were awesome self-esteem boosts but I really hadn't thought about it much. I was too focused on giving the runners that last minute encouragement. And now that I think about it, it was just nice to help out.
I will totally be at that finish line next year, cheering on those runners. Anyone care to join me?
My awesome sister
Me and my awesome sister. Way to be up before the sun!
1 comment:
That is so inspiring!
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