4am wake up call



with some of the girls at the marathon

The softball team I help coach volunteered at the Chevron Marathon Sunday and although I got three hours of sleep, it was cold for the first few hours, and we had Gatorade thrown at us after the runners drank it was all worth it! Note to self: if i want to leave on time with three teenage girls-wake them up 30 minutes early not 15 minutes early! Who knew they needed to put make up on and fix their hair at 4am....I never, I mean never, woke up as a teenager put make up on and fix my hair at 4am, I just didn't care!
Back to the marathon, we helped volunteer with the The Todd Krampitz Foundation handing out Gatorade to the marathon runners as well as cheering them on at the 10th mile. (My favorite sign read: Chuck Norris never ran a marathon!) There really is an exact science to having the Gatorade taste good for the runners...three stirs only, and if there are more we have to throw the whole thing out and start over! We had to place 300 cups down, fill with Gatorade, place card board down, stack 300 cups down, fill with Gatorade, place card board down, stack 300 cups down, fill with Gatorade, place card board down and finally place 300 cups down fill with Gatorade. Then we waited for the runners, if you blinked you would not have seen the winner of the race...his time was under three hours! The first 100 runners had body's that you see on posters and pins on Pinterest...I am sure 0% body fat and drank no Gatorade! The second group of runners were the experienced marathon runners, runners who probably ran in one marathon and have been addicted to running as many marathons as they can and one out of every 10 grabbed Gatorade.  The next group of runners were the dedicated runners, runners who do not run for money or sponsorship but run because they take pleasure in running....still something I am working on....and one out of every three grabbed Gatorade. The last group of runners/walkers...each grabbed Gatorade and some even stopped to say thank you.... were the runners who wanted to accomplish competing in a marathon and determined to finish the race even if the cops abandoned them and told them to move to the sidewalk instead of the street. There were couple runners, young runners...age 6-8 youngest, there were older runners...a lot of older runners which was very inspiring. One of the last runners in the marathon was an older woman with a shirt that read. "I had a hip replacement 6 months ago!" I got tears in my eyes as we clapped and cheered her on! I know the experience in volunteering at the marathon is only going to push me more to train harder and not give up on running this marathon next year! Hopefully not only will I be in the dedicated runners group but I will have the softball girls along side with me!

By the way check out http://www.tkfoundation.org/