Last Saturday I volunteered at the Western Pacific Marathon/Half/10k/5k. Despite waking up at 5:30 and standing around in the sun for 8 or so hours without pay, I had a BLAST

The race took place at the Quarry Lakes in Fremont. It was a beautiful day already at 6 in the morning when I arrived at the park. I was quickly greeted by super friendly and organized race director Jasmin, of Brazen Racing. She assigned me to aid station #1 and introduced me to the other volunteers I’d be working with. We all gathered our gear (water, fruit, tent, first aid, cooler, etc.) and headed over to our spot which would be the first and last aid station for all the distances except for the 5k.

The great thing about this race was the variety. The 5k had a mix of super speedy people, walkers, and kids. (The female winner of the 5k was a 12 year old girl! Her time was 22 minutes I think. So cool!) The marathon had some serious runners as well as people who were there for their first marathon ever. It was also an official Boston Qualifier, so there were pacers throughout the course. (Funny thing though the pacers were always running by themselves…)

Overall, there were 1600 runners on the course so we were pretty busy for the first hour or so after the guns went off. (The start times were staggered in 15 minute increments: marathon, half, 10k, 5k).

That table full of water was refilled like, 5 times! All those water jugs underneath were gone 2 hours later. We had another table filled with all yummy goodies that people hit hard later in the day.

After the starts, we had a nice lull until the 10k, half, and marathoners looped back around. We were about a mile and a half from the finish. It was super entertaining watching people right before the end of their race, no matter the distance. Some people sped by us with determination on their faces (BQers probably). Others stopped, chatted, and hung out with the snacks. Some kept coming back to the table to stuff their faces with gummy bears and M&M’s, probably postponing that last mile and-a-half as long as they could. Overall, everyone was polite and super happy to see us. 

I stared longingly at all the runners all day long. I ended up getting a little antsy and went on an ice cream run with a fellow AS1er. (Aid Station #1er. Duh.) We jogged a mile to the finish, grabbed some IT’SIT’s, and jogged back to our station. Yes, I jogged on that path in those slippers. Yes, my feet were filthy by the end of the day.

All in all it was an awesome day. I love all things running and it was great to be surrounded by runners all day long. I’m often so consumed with my own running and my own training and my own racing that it was good to be a part of someone else’s race day for once. I will definitely do it again and I’m infinitely more thankful to those volunteers who come out and support the races that I run.

Speaking of races, I’m running this race on Saturday as a training run for my upcoming 50 miler. The longest I’ve run since American River 50 is 11 miles, so this race is gonna be a doozy! I’m just hoping to complete it in under 8 hours. And hopefully recover fast enough to be back at it on Monday.

To anyone out there who has volunteered for a race: THANK YOU!!!!!!!