Weeks ago Cheryl and I signed up to be volunteers at the first ever Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon. We asked to be at the start area and were assigned a shift of 4:00 AM to 10:00 AM. The marathon and 1/2 marathon were scheduled to start at 7:00 AM.
Cheryl tweaked her ankle on Friday so we decided that she shouldn't go on Saturday - good choice 'cause we walked a LOT!
I got up at 3:00 AM and left the house on the Gold Wing at 3:25. As I rode past the Valley 6 Drive-In Theaters, the movies were STILL showing! Talk about an all nighter!! haha
As instructed I was confronted with a road closure along my route to the volunteer parking area. I asked the cop where volunteer parking was and he replied, "YOU are volunteering!?" "Yup," I replied. He asked where my parking pass was and I said in my pocket under my chaps. "OK", he said, "They'll want to see it up ahead." As I rode past a few more cops they all watched me suspiciously... Like, why can't a volunteer show up on a motorcycle? Huh?
I checked in about 3:45 AM and was almost immediately assigned to a team and whisked off to the start line area. There we had to attach banners to the portable fencing along the chute leaving the start area. It felt like we covered a mile of fence! haha
Then on to the bus unloading area. There we got on each bus as they arrived and instructed the runners where to go ~ what was where ~ especially the port-a-pots. LOL
Then back to the start line area where we performed crowd control. We initially were stopping runners from getting in to "corrals" or groups farther up than they were assigned. Some grumpy people when they realized their friend and they were assigned to different groups...
Once they reached the 27th group (there were 36 altogether) we were moved on to clean-up duties. I was assigned the duty of unclipping the poles/signs marking the various corrals from the fencing. I then unclipped the sign from the poles and disassembled the pvc pipe.
Following that I was done and home just after 9:00. A little sore today, but probably not as sore as the 25,000 participants who ran/walked 13.1 (Half Marathon) or 26.2 (Full Marathon) miles. Here's a summary of the event.
It was quite a festive event. From music and balloons at the start area to bands at every mile marker along the course.
The winner of the full marathon, Peter Omae of Kenya, finished with a time of 2:18:17. That means he ran a pace of 5:17 EVERY mile for 26.2 miles!!! Whoa!
I am thinking if I start training now...
