Hey everyone! You all (well, those of you who’ve been reading for a year) got to follow me through training for and running the Chicago Marathon, but now you get to see what it’s like to be a volunteer!
Marathon weekend started off on Friday when I headed down to the expo at McCormick place with Lindsay. We took a shuttle to get there (I took a bus downtown to get on the shuttle) and it was free and surprisingly quick!
Lindsay and and I walked around, sampled things at the booths, got her bib and t-shirt, and she did a little shopping in the Nike Marathon Shop!
We also made sure to get a really good shot “with” Hal Higdon for her…
Since the water station we were volunteering at (mile 18) was probably the furthest point from my apartment and we had to be there at 6:30am, I ended up having a sleepover at Kelsey’s apartment so we could just grab a cab together in the morning. We had some snacks, made some posters, and before we knew it we were up in the morning and off to Mile 18!
It was at Taylor and Loomis, which is in Little Italy and an area I’ve never explored before. It was REALLY cute and I definitely want to go back!
By the way, check out those great track suit jackets… I felt like a male basketball player in mine. Probably won’t be wearing that again.
We got assigned to a water table and had to place all the little cups out, fill them all up, and then layer cardboard on top and do it all over again.
Look at that beautiful table. We were quite proud of ourselves.
Our job, as I’m sure you guessed it, was to hand out water! Perk of being friends with Erin, a site coordinator, is that we got water as opposed to Gatorade. I was afraid of getting Gatorade all over me from people spilling, but water I was okay with!
Our job, however, was more difficult than anticipated. Mostly because there was an over-achieving man standing right in front of me. He would stick his arm out so far and kept edging over the line we were supposed to stand behind that I not only couldn’t hand my water to people until it started getting really busy, but I couldn’t SEE anything. Serious pet peeve.
As you can see above, he also ruined my photos of the elite coming through…
Anyway, despite wanting to murder one of my fellow volunteers, once the crowds of runners started coming through, time really flew by quickly! We saw Lindsay and then Bethany, but I missed a couple other people I was looking for. It was really hard to spot people out of the crowd, especially when you’re trying to focus on passing out water, not spilling and going back to grab more cups!
And of course one of my favorite parts was watching the elite runners come through. Seriously, these guys look like they are on a Sunday stroll, just jogging along.
Once the crowds started to thin out, Kelsey and I were sent to clean up cups. She shoveled the cups and I held the trash bags… let’s just say all I wanted to do after that was wash my hands…
One thing I didn’t realize about volunteering was, although time flew by, it was EXHAUSTING. I may not have run a marathon but I was on my feet for 8 hours on Sunday and I just collapsed when I got home!
Congratulations again to all the runners who were there, it was so fun to cheer you all on! And yes, it totally gave me the racing bug again…
Have you ever volunteered or spectated a race?
What is a pet peeve of yours?
Which would you rather drink, Gatorade or water? I hate Gatorade… so water for me!