I always love when any 2 of my hobbies can combine. And that is exactly what happened on Saturday morning! I was asked to volunteer at the Hilton Head Island Half Marathon with my Rotaract students. Rotary is one of the main charities who receives proceeds from this event. And since we are the college group associated with Rotary, it just made sense to volunteer!
It was a super chilly morning, I think it started out in the 40's and maybe warmed up to the mid-50's by the time I left. We were instructed to get to the start line by 7am, and the race began at 8am. When we arrived, no one really knew where we were stationed. We just huddled, trying to keep warm, until 7:30am, when we were told to get in a van to be dropped off along a course.
This was a little annoying. We were paired up with Interact, the high school equivalent to our group. High schoolers do not want to volunteer alone, and the race organizers were dropping the students off one-by-one along the course. Some were being left in very remote locations. I would not be a fan of this, especially if my child was one of the volunteers.
Right before the 1 mile mark.
My job: Have the runners run around the cone, prevent them from cutting the corner. The race organizer stressed how important it was to run AROUND the corner. Then, he gave me a vest and flag and left.
My apologies for such a blurry picture.
Thank goodness I was stationed near a water stop! Even better that it was a water stop sponsored by the Jiva Yoga Center. These ladies were awesome and were dancing machines. We were cold and trying to find ways to keep warm.
Time flew by quickly and all of a sudden at about 8:06am, the first runners started coming! I think they were a little annoyed that there was only one of me telling them where to go, and the cone was super small. I wish there would have been rope, or a better barrier. The runners were great! Thanking me and asking simple questions. It was a great mix of fast and slow runners, since there was also a 5k and 10k happening at the same time.
At 8:17am, we had our last 5k'ers! We cheered them on and showed our love just like the 1st runner at 8:06am. We packed up our station, and walked back to the Finish Line. I was only at the 1 mile mark, so I decided to use the mile as a little run! It was super cold, so props to all of the runners out there. I am definitely not a fan of running in the cold.
I made it back to the finish line, in time to see some 10k'ers and the first half marathoner cross the line!
Congrats to Greg Picklesimer who finished in 01:13:06!
Holy smokes that is fast! Good job to everyone who set a PR and finished strong.