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.