Saturday, December 4, 2010

Volunteering Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the West Hartford Mitten Run.  It's the last run of the 2010 season for the Hartford Marathon Foundation

I had originally planned on running this race, but opted out because I didn't feel like paying the entry fee (triathlon training is becoming an expensive habit).  Instead, I opted to volunteer instead; no reason to still not partake of the event, right?!  So I have to show up around 915 tomorrow to get my "orders" and "instructions."  I'm told I will be a COURSE MONITOR, whatever that might mean; my guess is the person who stands at a corner and keeps the runners from going in the wrong direction (I have personal experience that will admit signs are not always sufficient, haha). 

Whatever it is they have me doing, I'm looking forward to being on the other side of the race this time.  I've had a LOT of fun racing and have always had the feeling that I might enjoy being a part of the group that sets up and manages a race, so this is my first chance to see if I do.  If so, I might have to get in touch with HMF and see if there is any other way to more permanently volunteer or work at these types of races.  Otherwise, I'll make sure to volunteer at individual races here and there in order to make sure I do my part to help out - It takes a lot of volunteers to get all the races I've been in together, to set them up, to run them, and to break them down smoothly and I'd hate to think I've never done my part to help. 

I'll come back tomorrow with my synopsis of how it all went.  For anyone out there who does race, I would highly encourage you to take a race or two throughout your season or even off season and volunteer.  It's not only helpful to give support back to the groups that you make use of to race with, but it's extremely helpful (at least it makes sense to me) to have actual racers volunteering; no one knows how to help better than those who have been through the situation themselves.

Good luck to all my friends in the race tomorrow!  I'll see you out there.

Ciao.

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