Want to be part of a race but don’t want to run it? How about running it?
What I mean is, signing up for the hardest job of all: why not volunteer?
There is an awful lot that goes into organizing a road race, and it starts well before race day. The race organizer or organizing committee needs to get licences and permits. Equipment such as water tables, traffic barricades, access to washroom facilities. Someone needs to recruit and organize the army of race-day volunteers, and medical people. They have to get sponsors, food, water, publicity, and, well, runners. They need to set up a registration system and figure out the best way to get the kits to the runners. There are probably a thousand other things that have to be done before the day even arrives.
Long before the runners arrive on race day, volunteers are deployed as course marshals – these are the nice people who stand at the barricades to make sure the traffic stays off the roads and the runners turn in all the right places. Other volunteers set up water stations, start and finish lines, markers, signs and flags. Still others direct parking, take late registrations, hand out numbers, set up the recovery area, and do miscellaneous gopher work.
The work can be thankless, too. While the race organizers are generally very appreciative, I have been very embarrassed to see some volunteers treated poorly by disgruntled citizens who think roads are for driving on, and worse, by runners who are too tense for the event.
Yes, if you want a challenge, sign up to be a volunteer. Runners, thank a volunteer.
Volunteers: I thank you from the very bottom of my heart, for without you, there would be no race.
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