A view from the other side of the table....

This past weekend I had the opportunity to work as a volunteer at a marathon and ultra-marathon.  I use the word volunteer loosely as I was coerced by the offer of a gift card at my local triathlon shop to work their table.  It was a loop course in a local park on the trails, and it was my first opportunity to work on the volunteer side of an endurance event.  A definite new perspective, and something I would gladly do again.  After spending 4 hours working the table I came away with some things, some of which I knew and some of which I did not.

1.  Some of us stink.  Now I'm not talking your run of the mill been working out and sweating a little stink.  I mean no regard for deodorant, living in a sweatbox, gag a maggot off a gut wagon stink.  I saw several competitors repeatedly because it was a loop course.  I would see them making their way to our table and have to mentally prepare myself for the soon to be assault on my olfactory senses that was their odor.  So in all seriousness people, lets try and get some super deodorant on race day cause that was not pleasant.

2.  Hills are the devil.  Our water station was at the top of a hill on an out and back trail in the loop.  I didn't see too many runners as the day went on.  By the time they reached our table they were in either shuffle or flat out walk mode.  Cussing that hill with every step.  Seriously it was pretty evil of the RD to put a water station at the top of the hill.  This thing was pretty steep and pretty long.  The trails were open to the public during the race and a lot of bikers and runners were coming up the hill.  It was steep enough to induce granny gear on some bikes and some people were even walking their bikes up the hill.  Therefore, hills are evil incarnate.

3.  I got a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell.  We had cowbells at our station and would ring them feverishly as every runner approached.  The participants seemed to like it and made several comments as such.  I've run a few races and found it to be a little uplifting as well.  But every time they would come up the hill, we'd set to ringing and they would smile and wave at us.  Then fill up on water and sport drink and head back out to a cacophony of cowbell.

4.  People prefer the taste of lemon lime sports drink over fruit punch sport drink 2 to 1.  This was an actual study I did while working the table.  We burned through twice as many lemon lime bottles as we did fruit punch bottles.  While talking with the participants I found out the fruit punch was just too sweet.  Interesting.

5.  Sanitation people c'mon!  Several times during the race I had to block access to ice by an overzealous participant looking to stick their sweaty hands straight into the ice chest for some ice.  That is what we as volunteers are there for.  If you want some ice please let us get it for you.  We use cups, not our hands and will give you as much as you want.  Really you can have plenty, just keep your grubby meathooks out of the ice chest.

6.  Interesting cool down strategies.  Some I'd seen with the water over the head, and ice put in the running hat.  Then there were a few I hadn't seen.  Ice in the sports bra, and then one guy would get a hand full of ice on every visit and put in down the front of his shorts.  Yikes.  I mean there are just some place I don't want to be THAT cold.  I wonder if  he had a shrinkage problem after the race.  Also what if you got frostbite, and they had to amputate....I'm just saying.

7.  Everyone in this sport that I've met has been pretty nice.  Everyone expressed their thanks repeatedly for our volunteering.  Really we had the easy jobs, I mean we were sitting in the shade until you came up then we hydrate you, check you out to make sure your still cognizant of your surroundings, etc and sent you on your way while we returned to our lawn chairs in the shade.  But you are welcome and congrats.

It was really a great experience.  Four hours and two sunburned legs later I came away with a greater appreciation of both volunteers and participants in these races.  So the next time I'm out on the course I will try and keep all these lessons in mind, and definitely listen for more cowbell.