I don't know why I picked this race really. I wanted to get it out of the way, before all the good volunteer spots are taken. It never occurred to me that volunteering in the thick of winter might be a bad idea. Until I found out that I was expected to show up at 6:30 in the morning.
I woke up at 5 this morning. Then I woke up again at 5:30. And hit the streets around 6AM. I am lucky to live close to the park. Some of my co-volunteers came all the way from the other boroughs. And of course the NYRR staff was on site since 4:30AM. So, I didn't get to grumble much.
The master of food distribution, Eddie, who told us that he has been doing this for 25 years, gathered us around and told us what to do. The NYRR had taken care of the setup, so all we had to was wait around until the start.
This race was supposed to be run on Saturday, but the NYRR moved it to Sunday because of a possible snow storm. The runners were told that they would get their 9+1 credit even if they couldn't run. Still, there was a good turn out. One runner pointed to the pace truck and asked me: "Will the truck take us to Bellevue after the race?". No offense to the runners, but the general opinion among the volunteers was that we were the crazy ones.
After a smooth start we moved to the finish line and waited for the leaders. Men's race was a very close finish among three athletes at around 26-27 minutes.
Despite the cold and the early morning wake-up and the commute; it was a lot of fun. Talking with other volunteers about running, free bagels, bananas and T-shirt and the best of all, watching everyone finish with a smile. I think I will be back for more volunteering the weekends I am not racing.
But not before March. Sorry Eddie.
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