Today something compelled me to run after work. I knew it was going to be dark when I got back home but it was just eating at me to get my shoes on and head out. This is what happened:
About a mile away from home, while driving from work, there was a large Dodge van on the opposite side of the road with its flashers on. I didn’t think much of it since there was a car parked behind it. I got home, played with the dog for a bit, got ready to run and headed out. I usually run on the same street that I take on my way back from work and, to my surprise the van was still on the side of the road. This is about 20 to 30 minutes after I had passed it on my way home! Now, I know this is suburbia and not many people are out and about on foot, so I was not very surprised that no one had walked by and helped. However, this was during rush hour. A lot of cars were driving by. Even more, the van was on the farthest right lane, which doesn’t have a shoulder. All cars were simply going around it. I stopped and asked the gentleman, about mid 50s, if he needed a hand. He said he needed to push it to the gas station about a block away. So that’s what we did. As we started, I noticed that the van was half full inside. Not an easy load to push. We did this for about a half block and he had to take a break. My quads were also starting to burn. After a minute or so we started pushing again When we were about 30 yards from the station a guy drove up with his mid 80s Honda Hatchback and offered to push the van. Unfortunately the bumpers of the vehicles didn’t reach each other so he parked and helped push. As we started to go onto the driveway of the gas station two other people, a college student age kid, and an older Hispanic gentleman came over and helped out. For a few minutes, there were four people helping out this single man who had found himself alone with a bit of car trouble. Finally, we parked it, the man with the van thanked us and we all went our separate ways.
For the rest of my run I keep thinking about this. Seeing everyone help out was great. We all have it in us. We need to learn how to reach out to those than need it even when they don't ask for it. We need to learn how to be good to one another. At least 20 minutes passed while the man was on the side of the road. How much longer would he have been there if I had decided to watch a movie or play video games with my roommate? I don’t know. Maybe until the guy with the car stopped by. But maybe not. Maybe it was seeing someone helping out that gave him the push to stop and give us a hand as well. Maybe sometimes we need to see someone doing the right thing for us to join them. “Someone else will help” is not the right attitude, but it happens often. So please, help someone out. Do it for them. Do it because it’s the right thing to do. If you don’t, maybe no one else will; but if you do, others will join you. There is so much we can do for one another. From the smallest little gestures to the biggest generosities, it all helps. Love is all we have, so share it with everyone because we all need it.
That was the best run I've ever been on.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Volunteering at the Long Beach ICB Marathon
Getting injured is really frustrating. However, sometimes you can get good things out of misfortunes. My goal was to run the Full Marathon at Long Beach but, since that went out the window with my injury, I decided to volunteer passing out medals to the finishers. I’ve done my share of volunteering at events, but they have mostly been museum related. Since this was my first time helping out at a running event, I had no idea what to expect.
Shiny!
The RunRacing website instructed us to arrive at 5am which is around an hour earlier than the runners. I knew there were other people working early but I didn’t know volunteers needed to be THAT early. So wake-up call was at 3:30am, drove down to Long Beach and found the Volunteer Tent. After signing in and getting a Race Crew t-shirt I waited to get instructions on where to go and what to do. Everyone on the RunRacing team seemed to know exactly what was going on. We received our directions and were taken to the finishing line where two pallets with about 80 boxes full of metals awaited us. We had to unwrap them, set up a plan to pass them out and make sure Half runners got the Half medals and the same for marathoners. The first part of the morning went really well. The group of people unwrapping were all really cool. Most of them were also runners who had done Long Beach in years prior. It was fun talking to them, taking pictures and generally having a good time getting all set up for the runners.
A shot of the crew
This is only about a quarter of the medals!
We organized ourselves to receive the runners and give them their medals the best we could. We had a couple of the RunRacing crew members giving us advice on how to do it but for the most part we knew the feeling you get when you finish a race so we had a good idea of what to do on our side. A bit before the 1:10 mark the first half marathoner crossed the finish line. He, along with the other top-three finishers were all RunRacing runners which I thought was pretty cool. Slowly more runners started to trickle in and we went about placing medals around their necks, but soon after the 1:45 mark the flood gates opened. It was an avalanche of runners finishing their race. We all worked hard to keep up and at times I saw other volunteers struggling a bit. I faltered a couple of times while placing the medals over the head of a few runners but they mostly seemed to be happy that they were done and didn’t really worried about having the medal hanging a bit off their hats or ponytails. For the most part, and this is about 99% of all of them, they were very grateful towards the volunteers, always saying thank you when we gave them the medals, and usually with a huge smile on their face. One half marathoner lady came up to me and, before I was able to give her the medal, said I was cute and asked for a hug. I readily obliged. How could I say no to that?! She was so excited and I was truly happy to be there for her and everyone else I gave a medal to.
I did my best to place the medals on everyone’s neck, while saying congratulations and, if I could, doing it by name as some runners had them written on their bibs. I truly believe that getting your medal after a race is the official seal of accomplishment, so I wanted to try to make the experience the best I could for every single person. Some of these runners looked like veterans who have ran dozens of races, but there were also those whom this was their first experience finishing a race, or just doing Long Beach, so I wanted them to truly remember the medal part. To share that moment with these complete strangers was truly an experience that cannot be duplicated anywhere else. Alas, at 10:30am, only 3 hours into the race, I had to pass my duties to another volunteer and head to my real job. However, during the 1:45 that I spent passing the medals out, I must have given at the very least about 300 of them. I like to think that most of those people will remember that moment for some time.
I have a newfound respect for race organization, and mostly for RunRacing. I knew a lot went into setting up a race, and sometimes as runners we take for granted the amount of work that for months leads up to those 2 to 8 hours people spend on the course. From the portapotties, to the bibs, to the entertainment, mylar blankets, water bottles, and medals, the work that goes behind the scenes of a race is astounding and the orchestration of all this has to be near perfect for runners to have a great experience. RunRacing did a great job in the small part that I was able to see, and I’m sure that this was the case for the rest of the hundreds of things needed for this Long Beach ICB Marathon to be the success it has been for years.
They also had this awesome sand sculpture. you can't beat that!
Lastly, if you have never volunteered for a race, take my word for it and please do it. You’ll have a deeper appreciation for all the effort everyone involved puts towards making the race go smoothly, and will make you feel even better the next time you get that medal placed on your neck.
The RunRacing website instructed us to arrive at 5am which is around an hour earlier than the runners. I knew there were other people working early but I didn’t know volunteers needed to be THAT early. So wake-up call was at 3:30am, drove down to Long Beach and found the Volunteer Tent. After signing in and getting a Race Crew t-shirt I waited to get instructions on where to go and what to do. Everyone on the RunRacing team seemed to know exactly what was going on. We received our directions and were taken to the finishing line where two pallets with about 80 boxes full of metals awaited us. We had to unwrap them, set up a plan to pass them out and make sure Half runners got the Half medals and the same for marathoners. The first part of the morning went really well. The group of people unwrapping were all really cool. Most of them were also runners who had done Long Beach in years prior. It was fun talking to them, taking pictures and generally having a good time getting all set up for the runners.
We organized ourselves to receive the runners and give them their medals the best we could. We had a couple of the RunRacing crew members giving us advice on how to do it but for the most part we knew the feeling you get when you finish a race so we had a good idea of what to do on our side. A bit before the 1:10 mark the first half marathoner crossed the finish line. He, along with the other top-three finishers were all RunRacing runners which I thought was pretty cool. Slowly more runners started to trickle in and we went about placing medals around their necks, but soon after the 1:45 mark the flood gates opened. It was an avalanche of runners finishing their race. We all worked hard to keep up and at times I saw other volunteers struggling a bit. I faltered a couple of times while placing the medals over the head of a few runners but they mostly seemed to be happy that they were done and didn’t really worried about having the medal hanging a bit off their hats or ponytails. For the most part, and this is about 99% of all of them, they were very grateful towards the volunteers, always saying thank you when we gave them the medals, and usually with a huge smile on their face. One half marathoner lady came up to me and, before I was able to give her the medal, said I was cute and asked for a hug. I readily obliged. How could I say no to that?! She was so excited and I was truly happy to be there for her and everyone else I gave a medal to.
I did my best to place the medals on everyone’s neck, while saying congratulations and, if I could, doing it by name as some runners had them written on their bibs. I truly believe that getting your medal after a race is the official seal of accomplishment, so I wanted to try to make the experience the best I could for every single person. Some of these runners looked like veterans who have ran dozens of races, but there were also those whom this was their first experience finishing a race, or just doing Long Beach, so I wanted them to truly remember the medal part. To share that moment with these complete strangers was truly an experience that cannot be duplicated anywhere else. Alas, at 10:30am, only 3 hours into the race, I had to pass my duties to another volunteer and head to my real job. However, during the 1:45 that I spent passing the medals out, I must have given at the very least about 300 of them. I like to think that most of those people will remember that moment for some time.
I have a newfound respect for race organization, and mostly for RunRacing. I knew a lot went into setting up a race, and sometimes as runners we take for granted the amount of work that for months leads up to those 2 to 8 hours people spend on the course. From the portapotties, to the bibs, to the entertainment, mylar blankets, water bottles, and medals, the work that goes behind the scenes of a race is astounding and the orchestration of all this has to be near perfect for runners to have a great experience. RunRacing did a great job in the small part that I was able to see, and I’m sure that this was the case for the rest of the hundreds of things needed for this Long Beach ICB Marathon to be the success it has been for years.
Lastly, if you have never volunteered for a race, take my word for it and please do it. You’ll have a deeper appreciation for all the effort everyone involved puts towards making the race go smoothly, and will make you feel even better the next time you get that medal placed on your neck.
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