The main things I look for when I'm running a marathon are the shirt and the medal: are they still going to be shirts that I want to wear after I run the race, and am I going to be proud of the medal afterwards? It's the main reason why I am not going to run the Salt Lake City marathon again: the shirt was so terrible that I basically never wore it again after I ran the marathon.I also think it's one reason why we like the Baltimore marathon so much. Since it's sponsored by Under Armour, the shirt is always good.
This year, by the time I thought about signing up for the marathon it was already over $100 registration fee and I knew we couldn't afford that. I was definitely interested in participating the festival in some way, though, so I decided to volunteer! There are always hundreds of people who are helping pass out snacks for the marathon, get everyone to all of the right places, and cheer people on as they run the races. The main motivation for me? They usually get a T-shirt for volunteering ;-) And, again, because Under Armor sponsors the race, the volunteer shirt is also a good shirt.
I signed up to help with the 5K/half marathon start line. That meant I had to get there at 5:30, so I left home at 4:30, parked like a mile away, got a little lost, but found my way to the start line and was only a little late. I got my shirt, got a volunteer doughnut, and was assigned to the main organizer of the start line. I basically helped with whatever he needed, so for a while I was moving tables and things. But eventually, I ended up holding the Wave 1 flag for both the 5K, trying to answer runners' questions and embracing the race atmosphere. There are always people nervous, runners are trying to find their friends, getting their music ready, and everything else. It's a good time. :-) The 5K started at 7:30, and the half marathon started at 9:45.
By this point, I was not the only volunteer helping the main organizer. His son showed up with a friend, and at about 6:30 another twelve guys showed up. When I saw this group of guys, I had no idea where they were from, but after a half hour I figured they were one of two things. They were either firefighters, or they were convicts on a good behavior program or something. They were all men, all middle-aged, weren't very well-spoken, and a lot of them took several smoke breaks or were vaping throughout the morning. They also did a lot of standing around watching, partially because there wasn't quite enough for 15 volunteers to do, but also because they were very comfortable standing around. They play a prominent factor later on in the story.
After the 5K started, we had a couple of things to do before we started getting ready for the half marathon. One of them was get the start arch, under which all of the runners run to begin the race, ready for the half. This entailed pulling the arch down and changing the banner from "5K start" to "half marathon start." They had a very smart way of doing this. They had attached both banners to the arch, and attached the 5K banner over the half marathon one with zip ties. Then, after the 5K was over, you could cut the zip ties and the banner for the half marathon would be right there. The only risk to this? The arch is an inflatable arch So you can definitely cut the zip times, but you had to make sure to cut the zip ties without cutting the arch.
The organizer handed Exact-O knives to me, his son, and his son's friend to cut the banners. The other volunteers, who I heard were from "Baltimore Station," were the ones pulling on the ropes holding the arch in place so that we could reach the banner to cut the 5K one off. There were two banners, one on each side, and we cut through the zip ties for the first one without any problems. We switched to the other side and cut through the bottom zip ties no problem. Then we started working on the top zip ties, and I got through my zip ties quickly, as did the son's fired. We both look over at the son, and he's struggling a little bit. As I watch, one of these other volunteers comes over, takes the knife out of the son's hand, says: "I got you," and promptly cuts the final zip tie and slashes a six-inch gash into the inflatable arch. I think the son and I sat there stunned for a minute, all while air starts gushing out of the arch. It sounded kind of like when Baymax is taping up his holes in Big Hero 6: you could DEFINITELY tell that something was wrong. And what does this other volunteer do? Just walks away, trying to avoid responsibility for what happened. Thankfully, the organizer came over, realized pretty fast what happened and had some duct tape to tape over the hole. But, I'm sure they are going to have to tape that up on the arch every time they pull it out, so that particular volunteer will live on in infamy.
After the race was over, Rebecca and I looked into what the "Baltimore Station" was. Turned out, it was a halfway house for veterans who are trying to get their lives back in order. While I applaud the community activism of those volunteers, it's pretty funny when my first impression turns out to be more right than not. :-)
After the half marathon finished up, I headed back home and was feeling motivated. I changed into some running clothes, pulled on my new Baltimore running volunteer shirt, and headed out for a great run. The shirt worked so well! I was glad for the chance to stay connected to the race, even if I wasn't running it.
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