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The Other Side of Running Events

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SVPete:
I thought it might be interesting to "see" what does into producing a running event ... I'll be volunteering at an aid station at a small-medium sized trail run. The organizer has been doing Thanksgiving morning plus Saturday After events for, well, years. Two venues are used, the Thanksgiving Day event being 5K and 10K distances, and the Saturday event adding a half Marathon distance. Runners who complete a distance at both receive a connector medal that connects their two finisher's medals into a "mega medal". There are short children's runs, "Little Turkeys", for young children. Both events have start/finish areas in their respective parks, and are done with permits and assistance from rangers as needed.

The quickie (?) summary description over, here are the volunteer stations and names of people staffing the stations:

QUARRY TURKEY VOLUNTEERS 2022

SET UP AT PARK 11:30AM:
Father Dale & Sharlet
Frank N
Leo & Virg
Rocio
Felicia R
Craig

PARKING:
Will
Gary
Glenn
Lorna
Rich & Christina
David & Kerry

QT & Crans: (Costumed)

RABBITS on bikes:
Half –Andrew
10K –
5K – 

Race day reg: Tammy
Half: Dorothy
10K:   Katherine
5K:  Rachael W

Little Turkeys:   Angela M, Jessica C

TSHIRTS:
Deval
Fanny

MERCH:
Angela M

SWEAT CHECK:
Jean S

AIDS:
AID 1: Blythe: Christine, Jess M, Helen H, Thuy P, Jaisan S, Faith F
AID 2:  Brian C: Ciara, Alyssa, Zenith, Christoph, Kaitlyn, Sophorn
AID 3:  Tommy M: Pete S, Cesar Z, Min K O, Jeremiah, Brian H,
AID 4:  Sheri:  Pat B, Thin A, Leslie C, Dexter E, Erik H.

COURSE MONITORS:
Madeline D  (Aid 2 - 10K turn around)
Pat V (Aid 1 – 5K CM)

PHOTOS:
Julia (out on course)
Sheri (Aid 4)
Dan C (Aid 2)
Warren (start/finish)

Finish Area FOOD:
Katelynn
Stephanie S
Gaby R
Anthony & Jason M
Ria S
Henry G

FINISH LINE WATER & MEDALS:
Fanny
David & Kerry after parking
Gina
Jessica C after Little Turkeys

MEGA MEDALS:
#3

AGE GROUP AWARDS:
Tammy 

PACK UP:
Rachel
Sama
Alex A
Anuj
Jolly
Albert

SWEEP:
Troy J – Half
Nikki S – 5K

Looking over the list briefly, I recognized about 20 people (out of 76) as volunteering regularly at this organizer's events (myself among them, FWIW). Sweepers are runners or cyclists who stay behind the last finisher, for safety, and retrieve course marking flags. The Little Turkeys volunteers assist parents with herding their "cats" (errrr, Turkeys). Normally there would be a group of volunteers for day-before-event packet pick-up (shirt and bib), but that was done the Wednesday before T'giving, for both events. Photos are free, but not indexed by name or bib number (wearing a distinctive shirt helps).

The couple who own the organizing company and a few of their employees will also be working the event, and I suspect that "#3" may be their older munchkin. So, for an event with what I expect will have 500-700 finishers of the three distances, there were 80-90 people helping put it on. Employees are paid, of course, and volunteers receive an event T-shirt and a "free" entry to a future event.

Aid stations with this organizer have water, electrolyte drink, GU packets (100 calories, electrolytes, and some flavors have caffeine), and a variety of sugary and salty snacks (even 5K runners burn off a few hundred calories and sweat out electrolytes). The tubs with aid stations' supplies also include pitchers, ladles, gloves, sanitizer and wipes, cleaner, paper towels, knives (fruit) and scissors etc. (i.e. food handling stuff).

SVPete:
I was at Aid 3, which only saw half marathon runners and walkers, 158 in all. There were a total of 519 finishers of all distances. beside the hydration and snacks, possibly the most important duty of volunteers is to watch for runners who may be in trouble. Usually that simply means chatting up runners as they get their whatever or pass through the station. For I think my first time, I paid particular attention to a couple of runners. One is a guy I know is in his mid 70s, for GP. The other looked really tired, and I made sure he was "with it" (not doing it obtrusively).

Texacon:
I just read a headline that said some crazy woman was stopped from a mass casualty event at a Turkey trot. Was it yours?  They said she was trying to drive through the runners.

KC

SVPete:
The event I was at was a trail run. While it would not be impossible for a car to get on the trails, it would have been very difficult. Looks like it was in Florida:

Florida woman stopped from driving vehicle into 5K runners during race, police say

https://www.fox23.com/news/trending/florida-woman-accused-attempting-drive-into-runners-participating-5k-race/7UD67MULG5GBZC7V6I77N6KJRY/


--- Quote ---ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Florida woman is accused of attempting to drive her vehicle into the path of runners during a 5-kilometer race on Thursday, authorities said.

Ashlee Lauren Morgan, 38, of St. Petersburg, was arrested and charged with two counts of felony fleeing and eluding, leaving the scene of a crash with property damage, reckless driving, and resisting an officer without violence, according to Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office online booking records.

Police said Morgan was traveling at about 60 mph in her 2019 Range Rover Velar toward the Coffee Pot Turkey Trot race in St. Petersburg, WTVT reported. According to the St. Petersburg Police Department, Morgan drove around officers and refused commands to stop.
--- End quote ---

Street runs usually have very heavy police presence along the course, often with cars blocking entry from side streets along the course (trail runs suit my mild agoraphobia better, but I have done a good number of street and road (=rural) events. But there's only so much police can do to prevent a determined would-be killer.

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