Holy Water

Today I volunteered at the Boston Marathon, setting up hydration stations in Ashland (mile 4) so the 25,000 amazing athletes could have a refreshing sip Gatorade or water. It was a great experience and I had so much fun! I've worked fluid stations twice before (at the New York City Marathon) but that was just handing out cups. Today I was there from the beginning. We walked up and down the street carrying wicked heavy boxes of water jugs, set up tables and covered them with plastic, mixed the Gatorade and prepared the water cans, and laid out the layers of cups. After the race we all stuck around and worked together to rake up the sea of paper cups and Gu packets and a lone bag of Doritos (I do not approve). It was very well organized and everything went super smoothly.

We all got sweet jackets and the volunteer coordinator even brought us doughnuts and pastries and FRUIT and BAGELS! I was super happy (my name is fruitbagel for a reason).
Since we were at mile 4 today, as opposed to mile 14 for New York, the swarms of runners seemed to go by very quickly. It definitely did not seem like there were 25,000 runners. Volunteering in New York was thus a little more fun because the runners were more spread out, and a little bit slower over all since it was later in the race. Also, there's no qualifying time for the NY Marathon, which actually leads to smooth sailing in the cup-transfer front. You see, in Boston today there were many water cup explosions and splashing due to the speeds at which the crazy people were running.
I definitely remember way more people in crazy costumes and outfits in New York. Today I only saw Spidey and some lady with flame colored hair.

So as you know, I handed out lots of cups of water today. Because of my astonishing good looks and muscular biceps, I was the drink distributor of choice for many a runner. INCLUDING none other than Robert Cheruiyot! That's right, I gave a cup of water to the winner of the 2008 Boston Marathon!!! We had a connection- I felt it. I was so excited to see the lead pack of hot African dudes approaching, and even though the volunteer director said the Elites were technically not allowed to take water, I held out my cup and Rob just took it! (Yep we're on first name basis now cuz we're mad tight after today). It was so cool!!
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Congratulations to Alison Black who ran today for charity for the Liver Foundation!! She's the bomb diggity!
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Anyway, thinking of both marathons (NY and Boston) as well as the Olympic Trials yesterday made me super excited for NYC 2008! Yep...I'm registered! :)

Today I went for an easy 6 mile run to see if I got any special energy power transferred from Robert Cheruiyot. But alas... it was just an average run. And by average run I mean amazing run because I love running!