Giving Back

Since my race schedule will stay empty for the next several months, I decided to give back to the community that's given so much.  I was lucky.  When I first started running I was part of a very small group that not only taught me everything I know about running marathons, but have become amazing ambassadors of the sport in Columbus and around the US. And now they're in charge of the Columbus Marathon.  This year the marathon partnered with the Nationwide Children's Hospital (we are so blessed to have one of the best children's hospitals in the country!) and have done amazing things with this partnership.  There were 26 children champions chosen; children who's lives have been impacted by the hospital.  These children each were designated a mile on the course where a station was set up with the children and some had their mile decorated.  Although I didn't go down to watch the marathon, I know mile 18 had thousands of origami butterflies strung throughout the mile.  How cool is that?  In addition, there were other champions who races thousands and thousands of dollars for research at the hospital.

Anyway, because I couldn't run the race and knew I probably wouldn't get my buns out of bed Sunday morning to watch the race (I had to work a wedding Saturday night), I decided to volunteer for the race.  I signed up to work a double shift at packet pick-up at the expo on Friday, meaning I was there from 11:00am until 7:00pm.  My job was pretty simple, ask those picking up their own packets for ID and verify that all the information matched inside the packet.  If the person was picking up for another person there had to be a confirmation email, an ID, and then the person had to fill out a little form saying they were picking up the packet for the other person.  All very simple.  Except, there weren't enough volunteers so at some points, I kid you not, I was covering about 8 tables all by myself.  A day of standing, running back and forth, and basically being "on" the entire time....I was wiped out.

Would I do it again?  Um, I don't know.  I certainly wouldn't sign up for a double shift.  I certainly wouldn't do it again while I was pregnant as there was not enough opportunity to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom.  And next year, I'd prefer to be running the race.