Volunteering at the Missoula Marathon

Since neither Jim nor I were participating in the marathon this year, but we wanted to be part of the event, we decided to volunteer our entire family at an aid station. So we got the boys up out of bed at 6 am and drove to town. We were able to choose the aid station in front of Cafe Dolce, which is at around mile 10 of the 1/2 marathon, mile 23 of the full. Jim handed out water, I poured water and gatorade, and the boys handed out gummy bears.

I was really hoping to see more of the people who came through, but most of the time my head was down, focusing on pouring liquid into cups to keep the tables full. The boys did a fantastic job for about two hours (I even saw Ike down there doing a little "gummy bear dance" for folks). When they started getting bored, we walked down the street to our friends' house (and trampoline) where we had lunch and a really nice afternoon.

I did get to see the winner of the full marathon come through (Keifer Hahn finished in 2:30:37) and that was pretty awesome. He was cruising. It is so amazing to see people like that run, especially for me since I am usually in the middle of the pack and tend to just see others like myself plodding along. He just looked so strong and solid. The next full marathon runner didn't come by for another 15 minutes, he was that far ahead.

This was the first time volunteering at an aid station (we have helped out in other parts of the race process) for any of us Chases, and I think we all got something out of it. On an intellectual level, we know that volunteering is a good thing, as we have so much appreciated volunteers who have helped us out at other races, and we foresee more in the future. What we didn't realize was how good it FEELS to volunteer. I'm still not sure how the boys processed the experience, or what they will remember about the day (maybe just the trampoline?) but I hope that in some way they learned something...well, even if they just had a good time, it was well worth it.