Yesterday morning, I volunteered, along with a fun bunch of my fellow track athletes, at our town’s annual marathon. Community service is a requirement for our school’s athletic department, and a marathon seemed like a pretty sweet gig for a distance runner like me to volunteer at! I was stationed at the finish line handing out medals, water bottles and gatorades to the runners.

Hardware!

Watching people young and old come through the finish line after completing 26.2 miles only made me more excited for when I can train for marathons. We stood at the finish line until the very last runner came through, enjoying the beautiful views. No cell service here!

Some of the marathon sponsors had booths set up with free samples. I was SUPER excited to try a new muscle milk: Light Vanilla Latte.

The vendor said it had a hint of chai! I saved it for lunch but was incredibly disappointed that I couldn’t finish one sip – GROSS. :( Just a water bottle for meee please!

I don’t know if us volunteers worked up an appetite from all our cheering or we were just bored. Luckily there was plenty of race fuel sitting around……

All around a good experience but, sounding like a broken record, I would rather be IN THE RACE than on the sidelines. Got to see some very cool and inspiring people  cross the finish line. One older man carried his wife across the finish line. A few people got off-course and ended up running 28 miles. There were some pretty wild and fantastic outfits too! Any day that I get to spend in the forest surrounded by people running and challenging themselves is a good day :)