SLC Marathon

Yesterday was the Salt Lake City Marathon. My sis-in-law Melissa has been a volunteer captain the last couple of years but was out of town this time so she asked me to cover for her. It was a lot of fun! I had to get up at 3:00AM on my Saturday so I could get ready and be at the Starting Line (Olympic Legacy Bridge) at 5:00AM. I wasn't able to go to any of the volunteer meetings so I was pretty clueless as to what to do, let alone be a captain.
I don't think I helped much, but I did the best I could! I had 4 other volunteers that helped me through the day. Some of them were pretty retarded to work with and weren't a help and ended up leaving early. But! Two of them - ROCKED. The people I worked with, Vicki and Courtney, made the whole day worth it. We were volunteers for the VIP/Hospitality section. So pretty much I met the head sponsors, SLC Mayor, etc and made sure they got food and their passes, etc. And we got to eat at the Skybox Sports Grill at The Gateway which was right above the finish line, so we got a great view of all the runners coming in.
It was my first time being apart of a Marathon, or even seeing a major race. It was very inspirational. Seeing the community come together to cheer each other and strangers on was amazing - almost emotional. the first 9 miles of the 26.2 mile course is downhill, the rest of the way pretty flat w/ little inclines, but still more downhill. The winner made it in 2:23 hrs!! That is just absolutely CRAZY to me! he averaged 5.3min miles - nuts! It was almost depressing to see thousands of people run that long and be in such great shape! Props to my uncles, aunt, and mother-in-law who are all marathon runners, amazing.
Amongst all the volunteer craziness I'm glad I was able to enjoy myself, meet new friends, and be engulfed in the whole experience. I am excited to do it again, I decided it'd be good to get involved and see if I can go to the meetings next year to see what I can contribute to make the event run more smooth. This was it's 5th year and an amazing event already, but much improvement to be made. It would be really fun to get involved. I suggest it to anyone out there who will be around next year! You get a fabulous t-shirt, lots of free food/drinks, and an awesome experience. They also had a half marathon, 5K, Bike tour, and kids marathon. . . lots of options to for the whole family.