Army Run

The Ottawa Army Run is now becoming a can't miss event on Ottawa runner's calendars. The army theme has a broad reach and this run is able to catch many people that may not necessarily be interested in running otherwise. The race expo features military vehicles for runners to explore and the race has lots of army related touches such as the camouflage themed race shirt, the adrenaline pumping giant cannon start and the dog tag "medals" given to those who complete their events.

Two distances were offered to runners this year, a 5k and a 21k. The weather was perfect for a run even if towards the end the sun started beating down and making it a bit warm for some runner's taste. (That's what I heard anyways, I was shielded away in a tent the whole time :) Lots of smiling runners achieving personal bests or otherwise just having a good time on what some called a fairly challenging course.

I couldn't fit the 21k in my schedule again this year so I decided to volunteer for the baggage check. This is my favorite volunteer selection since I get to see the runners before they start the race, anxious, nervous, confident and focused and I also see them after, tired, beaming, proud and sometimes barely able to walk :) We processed a lot of bags this year, the estimate I hear was about 2000!
We didn't lose a single bag even if we got a few scares where some people would mark 2 numbers on the bag. In theory, the first finisher gets the bag back and finds their friend. In reality the first finisher gets the bag, cannot find their friend and the second finisher not knowing they are not the first finisher are also looking for the now gone bag. We had a few nervous people that got reunited with their friends while looking for the bag. Eventually everything worked out but the stress of not finding the bag combined with the soreness and tiredness of having just raced did create some uncomfortable moments. Notice to runners out there, don't expect us to check your car keys, ID, visa card, room key, pocket change or wallet. These will get lost so we won't even accept them. Some people were checking in their jacket. I guess it's all right but still causes a lot of problem and is a risk for runners that the jackets will get damp / dirty since they will be on the ground, probably with a bag on top.

It's always fun to be involved in an event even when I don't run it. There's this feeling that I get around runners that makes me feel at home! It's also pretty cool to see the events from the other side and figure out how everything works out in the background. To all those that raced the army run and thank me for volunteering: THANK YOU! Thank you for being out there and creating this vibrant community

Giving Back

Not competing in this year's army run gave me an opportunity to experience the event from another point of view: that of a volunteer. Life as a volunteer at a race is quite different. While I did have to wakeup even earlier than if I was racing (shift started at 6:30am), I did sleep much better without the excitement/anxiety of an upcoming race.

My day started with a short run (~3.5km) to the bus stop, since local buses don't run on weekends where I live, especially that early on Sundays. I got to the bus stop just in time for the first bus of the day. Woohoo.

When I got to the site, I was surprised to see so many volunteers out there already. The sweat check was run by the same person who runs the sweat check for the Ottawa race weekend, a much bigger event, so we knew we were in good hands. The volunteer crew consisted mostly of high school students earning their community credits under the Ontario school system. Some were really productive and engaged, while some other were clearly there just to get easy credits. One of the kid there was really impressive always getting bags before even being asked and moving so quickly nobody could keep track of him. Good job! Another young girl was interested in studying kinesiology and thought the event was really good to get closer to her interests.
Our tent was pretty big and divided into two areas, one for the 5km where I worked in the first half of the shift and another one for the half marathon where everyone worked to retrieve bags after the 5k was all done since there were so many of them:
The numbering system worked well enough even if it wasn't always perfect. To my knowledge we didn't lose a bag and the most it took us to locate one must have been about a minute with an average time of under 15 seconds.

Experiencing the event from this perspective was awesome. It felt almost as good as competing. Seeing all those runners happy and beaming from their performance or consoling the ones that didn't do as well as they wanted was quite an experience. I don't think I ever met so many runners in a day. I met colleagues (current and former), friends, family of friends, even the guy that sold me my last pair of shoes. Some of the girls working beside me thought I knew everyone until I pointed out that I was simply reading their names from their bib :)

Thanks to all the athletes that were nice and thankful for our work and congratulations to everyone for their amazing performances!