We are fortunate to have many races-running, cycling, triathlon–in our area to choose from. You know the drill, you decide to do a race, register online, pick up your packet, show up at the start, complete the race, collect your goodie bag, eat a free meal and then go on about your business. Have you ever considered the “business” of putting the race on?
Recently, Endurance sponsored a water stop at the Nashville Half Marathon and I helped out at all the water stops as best I could.
To make the race a reality, the race director essentially put together a staff of over 150 people in a short period of time and instructed them on their individual job duties. The kicker? All these staff members were volunteers and as such didn’t have as much motivation, shall we say, as a paid employee would. But, these volunteers made a commitment none the less and should accept their responsibilities with enthusiam. Without the help of dozens of people, none of these races could take place. Most of the time, the organizational aspects of putting on the race are transparent to the racers. The only time a competitor considers this part of the race is when something goes wrong.
At the Nashville Half, one group committed (that is, had volunteers willingly and of their own volition sign up, attend a meeting, etc) 60 volunteers to the race. That’s a fantastic and noteworthy act by this organization (to remain nameless). The race director felt comfortable that the race would go well with the help of this large group, along with the help of smaller groups (like Endurance’s six volunteers–thanks, y’all). The problem was that on race day only 16 of the 60 actually bothered to show up. Imagine trying to pull off a race with 1,500 entrants and 30% of your staff “calls in sick” for the day. You can imagine that there were going to be some problems.
The most visible of issues, from the racer’s point of view, was that one whole group of volunteers didn’t report to their water stop–at all. The first water stop was at mile 2.25 (which was mile 11 on the way back) so many of the runners didn’t bother to slow down there. Who would? They should have, as the temps rose into the mid to upper 70′s these runners didn’t know that the first water they would come to would be eight miles from the start line! The unmanned water stop was at a critical point on the course as it turned out. The other bad news, when the runners finally got to the eight mile water stop there were only two of the expected and counted on 10 volunteers there trying in vain to fill enough cups for the onslaught of quickly dehydrating runners. Understandably, many runners were very upset and some were in real danger of dehydrating.
So, what’s the point?
Simple. If you partake in many of the races that happen around here you need to consider volunteering for at least one of them as a sort of “pay it forward” act to ensure that these races continue.  As the ancient Gospel of Paul says, “If you don’t work, don’t expect to be fed.” Yes, I understand that you pay an entry fee for the privilege of participating but that alone isn’t enough for you to say “I don’t need to volunteer, that’s somebody else’s job.” Without volunteers the races don’t happen, without races you go out and run 13.1 miles with a couple of your friends. You already do that and a race is a lot more fun, isn’t it? That’s why you need to volunteer for a race.
