Volunteering was great! I also crewed and paced after volunteering and that was also amazing! I do have an issue with the awards ceremony. As we sat there for almost an hour you could look around and see half the crowd falling asleep. The runners, crew, pacers, were all just awake for 30 hours or more. To make the runners sit there and watch elites get their awards for an hour is crazy. Then the runners had to get up and stand in long lines to get their buckles! Such a shame and everyone I was around was pissed off about it. Give the runners their buckles at the finish or give them out at the awards. Less talking about everything. Make it a quick awards presentation and hand out buckles. Picture yourself in that situation. Barely able to walk, doing your best just to stay awake, and then sitting in bleachers for an hour and standing in line for almost an hour. Pretty ridiculous!
Awesome to see a good portion of the course.
It was very inspirational to watch the runners complete the final mile on the 100 mile .
Fantastic experience. Amazing scenery. Loved assisting the runners and their support teams.
Ben and Diana were great Winfield station coordinators! Energetic, responsive, and personable.
One note about a Winfield volunteer whose son Brennan was with him. He was disrespectful toward volunteer Barbara, when she asked that the four of us making PB bagels wear two gloves instead of the one glove he suggested we wear only on the hand touching the bagel. He told his son to continue finishing the bagel he was on with the one glove, adding that it was a waste of gloves to wear two; definitely not interested in following instructions! My daughter and I took her advice and put on a second glove, recalling the instruction at the start of the shift that volunteers maintain cleanliness when handling food. Barbara walked off, upset by his dismissal.
We had several instances of misplaced drop bags or miscommunication regarding who had received the drop bags. The best example: when our volunteer called out the number of an approaching runner, as usual, we grabbed the respective drop bag, and took it to the runner (sometimes crew member, if they accompanied the runner) as they entered the aid station tent. Another crew member of this same runner approached us about ten minutes later, looking for the drop bag, which had already been handed over. The drop bag was never located by this crew member, despite repeated searches within the crew, within the tent and among the aid station area and drop bag rows. The crew member was understandably upset. Perhaps a protocol needs established that specifies the drop bag be only delivered to the runner and not to the crew, since there are multiple crew members who could receive/take the drop bag and the crew members don't always communicate with each other in the bustle of aid station. OR, checklists could be used... each bag is checked off (on a complete list of bib numbers/runners' names), and the first name of the person receiving the drop bag is written in. All this carried out by specific volunteer(s) whose duties include documenting Drop Bag Delivery.
I noticed that in last year's race (where my daughter and I volunteered at May Queen Outbound, running the drop bags), we didn't have any situations like this. The crews were not allowed access to the drop bags at all and this seemed to simplify the whole drop bag delivery process. We understand that crews might need access into the aid station, like at Winfield this year, but a system to track drop bag delivery would be helpful and could significantly reduce misplaced drop bags.
All in all, we loved volunteering and working with others volunteers (first-time volunteers Kyle and Nicole were super enthusiastic drop bag teammates) and plan to do it again next year!
Good. We had more than enough volunteers.
The shift leader (James) had a great attitude and was fun to work with. It was overall a great experience.
The aid station captains Diana and Ben did an awesome job. I had a lot of fun and would love to volunteer again!
Absolutely the most inspiring aid station on the course. Great group of people.