I've been wanting to forever volunteer at the BMO Vancouver Marathon but for one reason or another, have not done it, that is until this past weekend. My friend, Debbie, wanted to get back into volunteering and wanted to start with a marathon and asked if I would join her. I told her I would love to. So, this past weekend we volunteered on Saturday for Package Pick-Up and then again on Sunday, raceday handing out medals to those who finished the course in the Half and Full Marathons.
I met up with Debbie on Saturday in the lobby of Canada Place. Together we found our volunteer check-in booth only to find out they had no shirts for us to wear. We were told to head down to hall to Exhibit Hall C where our Team Lead would meet up with us in the hall before we went in. Sure enough she did. Once we got in, Debbie asked her about the shirts. The TL replied that they were 'stolen'. This wasn't good. So, we were taken behind the blue curtain of the registration and package-pickup lineups to the 'sweat shop' was. I'm kidding. It was where the packages were being assembled.
Turns out, because we didn't have our proper t-shirts to wear, they couldn't put some of us out in the front lines to deal with the runners so they decided to have us assemble the packages instead. We filled them with Deep Relief Gel packets, brochures for walks and other medical advice from the sponsors. There were many of us back there so it went rather quickly and the supplies also started to dwindle fairly quickly. The room was almost empty of supplies by the time our shift was almost over.
After Debbie and I took our break, we came back to find out that a shipment of shirts had made their way to the room we were in. Unfortunately, they were gone again when we got there. Our TL hunted down two shirts - one in medium size and the other in XL. I took the medium sized shirt. Debbie opted to get a shirt on race day in a smaller size. We stayed and finished our shift from 11-2pm and then we left. We were given the blue bag as a souvenir since there were tons of those left.
The next morning Debbie and I met up at the Tim Hortons on Burrard by the train station. We walked over to the Renaissance Hotel for volunteer check-in. Once we checked in, Debbie was able to get a shirt in a smaller size to wear. We were wrist-banded with the words "Finish Line" on our left hand and a letter "V" was permanent markered on the back of our right hand to get us through security to the medal area.
These were the medals being handed out for the day.
The energy in the streets was amazing. Music, dancing, runners from the morning 8 K run and those coming in from the Half were all around. I saw one runner trying her hand out dancing with the dancers to the song "Feel This Moment" by Pitbull and Christina Aguilera. We wandered over to the medals and joined the process already in motion. Basically, we armed ourselves with medals. Ladies Full Marathon medals on our right hand and Men's Marathon runners on the left hand. As Debbie demonstrates in this pic.
distributed to the runners as the crossed the finish line. There were a lot of us at the finish lines armed with the medals and there weren't a lot of runners coming in at that time. One or two would trickle across the line and there was a lot of waiting around for a group to run in. Once the flow started coming, it was busy and a lot more fun.
At one point, there was a man who had just finished running the Full marathon and he was coming towards me for a medal. As he slowed down, his daughter, who must have been around five or six years old, shot out and gave her dad a big hug. I looked at her and asked her if she would like to put the medal around her dad's neck. She nodded so I handed it to her and she put it around his neck with the biggest smile. Totally made my day.
Handing out medals was fun and our group cheered and congratulated the runners as they came in. It's amazing to see that it's not just the skinny, athletic types who are running the full and half marathons. It's people of all shapes and sizes and for many it was an emotional journey. Some collapsed at the end, others just cried when they saw John Stanton, founder of the Running Room. He was also there handing out medals to the runners. I've been wanting to do a marathon run for a while now. If I do, I'll join the Running Room clinics. I'm just hoping that my asthma doesn't hold me back.
After all this, Debbie and I ate our lunch in the city and then parted ways. It was a great way to spend a weekend with a dear friend. It was also amazing to be a part of something so special in the city. Congrats to all those who ran. Maybe I'll be out there running in next year's marathon.
I'll have my BMO Marathon Certificate next week. Another one to add to my growing collection.
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