water station – Slacker Runner

I said that a lot on Sunday!

First things though thanks for letting me know I’m not the only one! The comments on my last post were awesome, thanks guys! 🙂

I was still riding that runner’s high from Thursday when I went for a run on Saturday. While it was nowhere near the epicness of Thursday, it was still pretty good. My planned 3.8 turned into 4.5. Oops. 🙂 The weather started out overcast and chilly but I quickly warmed up. I’m still slower but I think I’ve finally, really accepted it. I just took my time and enjoyed my run. Going longer was only an oops because I had a meeting to go to with my mother. I ended up just throwing a sweater over my running gear. The only reason I felt ok doing this was because we were headed for a volunteer check in for the Harvest Marathon. I have wanted to run the half at this race for the last two years but it’s proximity to City to the Sea usually has me feeling burnt out. So instead I volunteer. My mother and her tennis teams have to work 2 stations so I hang out with them. The race has a 5K, half marathon and a full marathon. The half and the full are run on back roads through vineyards and orchards as well as farms and homes. Last year the teams were split between 2 water stations. This year we had one of the water stations from last year and a course monitor point at the 12ish mile turn around point. It was an early morning. Being up that early and not racing seemed like a crime. Have I mentioned that I love sleeping? However stopping for donuts along the way made everything better. Didn’t you know that donuts have magical healing powers? My boss said that the other day, I thought it was awesome. 🙂 We arrived at our aid station- mile 8.7 of the marathon- a little before sunrise. Fall has finally arrived, so it was damn cold, after setting up the station I jumped back in the car until it was almost time for the first runner. This is a small race put on by the high school and the funds go back into the high school athletic program. It is Boston certified but draws a smaller crowd. There were 97 finishers for for the full and 283 for the half. As for the Boston qualifying part- it has an elevation gain of 1600 feet. The aid station was at the top of a long slow climb followed by an immediate left and more climbing. I felt so bad every time a runner asked if this was the last hill. 😦All the runners were so nice. Most of them thanked the team for the water and for being up early on a Sunday. Our station had water and Gatorade which was an improvement over last year when we just had water. The port-a-potty was a huge hit too. Apparently one guy couldn’t handle the line of one and did his business behind the port-a-potty. Really?! There was no line! One runner did yell at me for the lack of race food provided and a woman from the orchard asked me if we were cleaning up after “the parade”. When I said yes, her response was that she wasn’t going to yell at me yet then. Ummm, thank you?On the whole, it was a good morning. It’s fun to cheer other runners on. Especially for a race that has no crowd support for the majority of the miles. The people who run this race rock. Now I am torn for next year- do I finally run it or do I keep volunteering? Getting teenagers to voluntarily get up at the crack of dawn is like pulling teeth so my mother will probably need help again. 🙂