TailChaser and I decided that the Shakespeare Marathon and HM was not something we wanted to enter, (Tailchaser had spent the previous 2 weekends running HMs which was fair enough. I don’t really have an excuse….). So lured by the promise of run entry vouchers, we signed up as volunteers. With our only experience of marshalling from Parkrun, we thought how different could it be?
The information was late arriving, with us only knowing what task we had been assigned on Friday. The request to turn up for a 7.30am sign on and briefing was a little unwelcome, but with the race starting at 9.00am, perhaps not that unexpected. This morning at 4.30am a revised WhatsApp message was sent with a 7.00am sign on. Many people (including me) did not read this until it was too late and therefore it was all very chaotic when we arrived at the venue.
We had asked to work together and to have a spot that was with in reasonable walking distance from the venue. We were a little disappointed to be posted to one of the marshal posts furthest away and as the instructions said we would need to get ourselves to the post, we had organised ourselves with bikes to cycle out. At the briefing we were offered a lift to post and there was some suggestion we should be split up to cover another post. Thankfully that didn’t materialise and we decided to take some control and informed them we didn’t need a lift as we would be cycling out. We went and asked for out hot drink voucher (they had forgotten to give it us at sign on) and had a coffee to warm ourselves up (it was only 2 degrees and we had already been standing about for some time). It really was no surprise that the coffee vendors had not been briefed about the volunteer vouchers, but that was soon resolved and we were warmed up a bit.
We arrived at our post (at 20.5 miles on the marathon course) with a good 2 hours to wait for our first runner. It was a lovely spot on a cycle/footpath with somewhere to put the bikes, a nice hedge to keep off the cold wind and some sunshine. We conversed with dog walkers and cyclists and enjoyed some of our picnic refreshments (we were well prepared with food, drink and chairs).
The WhatsApp messages kept us informed on how the runners were progressing and we had news of some marshals closing down as all runners had passed them before we had seen our first. Less thrilling was the numerous requests for help from those near road closures getting dogs-abuse from disgruntled motorists.
The race lead cyclist rode past announcing the arrival of the first runners. We were on our feet waving pom poms, jingling a bell stick and yelling encouragement. It was about 20 minutes before more runners arrived and then there was a steady stream of them for several hours. The yelling, pom pom waving and bell jingling did not cease throughout!!
The day warmed up and the runners looked hotter, as the 5 hour 30 min pacer passed us we were seeing more competitors who were walking and looking fatigued, hopefully our noise and encouragement cheered them on, we certainly got quite a few smiles!!
The Tail runner passed us at about 2.30pm and we started to close down our site. One of the organisers passed us (walking), took our hi-viz and said we were free to go. It was then just a case of riding the 6 miles home. The chat seems to suggest that (despite what I’ve said in this post) most marshals found the experience really enjoyable and thanked the managers for the excellent organisation. I certainly enjoyed cheering on the runners and we had a fab spot for the day. May be I will do it again (as long as I don’t get a spot near a road!).
The photos include a picture of the first lady to come past us and of William Shakespeare in full costume who had time to stop for a selfie. The quote in the title is for the runners, especially those who were weary when they passed us, so impressive, with 20 miles done and 6 more to go.
Weekly chat June 14-20 - surpassing our limits