volunteering day - done

yesterday, my alarm went off at 5AM. there still exists a time that early in the morning. incredible.

i managed to get out of bed at 5:15 and was just about ready when jess rang the doorbell. we made it to our station underneath the bronson bridge on queen elizabeth before 6. we had bagels and muffins and started mixing gatorade.

gatorade is a nice little sports drink, but is very very sticky when you are covered in it. we were a little short-staffed and so very busy when the 13,000 runners came by. the half-marathon is the most popular race with something like 9,000 runners. incredible. and they mostly all came in one huge pack that lasted about an hour. that's a lot of gatorade.

i saw a girl i went to highschool with and my gym teacher who also coached field hockey (i played left-handed, yes, it IS possible with a right-handed stick. i also got very efficient at walking on the sticks. i would show you sometime but i don't have one field hockey stick let alone two). both were running the half.

the day went by much faster than last year.. somehow. it was still 8 hours. we were in the shade thankfully. i've seen the burns other people got.

oh, and did you hear about the big scandal where some elite runners went off course for a while and were disqualified? these runners come in from africa and other places and depend on the prize money to support their families. it's an ugly part of having such a big event run by volunteers, who are often high school students with mandatory community service hours to fill. one article i read even pointed out that the volunteers at the post were students, which i don't think is appropriate. anyone could have made the same mistake. i could go on but i won't. just read the papers or the internet and check it out.

my body is still recovering from the physical activity and my mind is still recovering from the lack of sleep and home time. i'm thinking i might need some time off. soon. but we'll see. i don't get paid if i'm not here.