Desert Classic Marathon volunteer report

"I should have been running this race," I kept thinking.

I had been planning to run the half marathon last weekend, but had to change those plans a couple weeks ago when I started having issues with my ankle.

"Well, if I can't run it, I might as well volunteer and help out."

Volunteering for races is a lot of fun. It's a different experience being on the other side of the water station handing out the water instead of running by and taking it. I've volunteered for a few races before, but this was my first time at a water station, and I gotta say the water station is a lot more exciting than the registration table.

I was teamed up with Rio and her daughter, and we made our way to water stop #1, 1.5 miles from the start. When we got to the stop, the supplies were already there, but we had to get it all set up, which was a little difficult in the dark (trying to read the directions on the sports drink package and calculating how many ounces are in 5 gallons), but we managed with time to spare before the runners got to us. While we waited, we enjoyed a beautiful sunrise in the east, and a sweet moonset (is that a word?) in the west.
As it was my first time at a water stop, I had to work on my hand-off skills. My hands got spilled on a few times starting out, but it didn't take too long getting the hang of it. I think I only missed one hand-off the entire day. That's if you don't count handing sports drink to my friend who called out water (in my defense, though, he did reach for the wrong hand). Luckily, he was only 1.5 miles from finishing his first marathon (in stellar time, by the way), that he didn't mind at all.

Hopefully, this ankle thing will take care of itself really soon as I've got lots of running plans. But if not, I'll be back to volunteering, that's for sure.