This looks awesome! You put in a lot of thought and work, and I'm sure the runners appreciated it all.

What mile were you located at, and how many runners came through?

Couch - I was not the aid station captain, just a grunt worker and the clipboard/check-in king. Our station was at mile 78.1. We had 160 runners check-in (field of 200), with only 6 drops at our location. Our station was open for 14.5 hours.

Mandy - No spreT sighting. He was way down the other end of the course.

Thanks for sharing XT!

Great pictures--everyone should be on the other side of the table at least once a year.

usual hijack meandering

My mindless tip:  I have a backpack that goes to aid stations with me when I am

helping.  It is full of odds and ends and who knows what all.... just stuff that might be

needed somewhere at some odd time.

a few extra AA and AAA batteries

a roll or two of duct tape

a roll or two of adhesive tape

a few of several sizes of those neato little plastic tie thingies

several small-size packs of wet ones, handi-wipes, diaper wipes, whatever (scentless)

several single LED flashlights, throwaways, for folks that are one station away from their lights or whatever

a few extra shoe laces

scissors

tweezers

eye drops (artificial tear things)

matches or fire starter (lighter fluid kind)

a knife (exacto kind for slitting open the ever tougher plastic wrap), 'nother kind for cutting sandwiches

in quarters, slicing tomatoes, bbbyyy

I have given away the insoles from my shoes, hand bottles, a headlight (guy was on his last lap and his

died), gloves, long sleeved shirts (got two back in the mail weeks later), windbreakers (lost one, got one

back), and other stuff that is fun to think about.

At one run we (Kathy and I were the aid station) thought the weather would turn ugly (mostly cold) and

we had a box full of old running shirts to hand out to the cold, slow, and tired as the evening passed.

The almost always returned thing:  stocking caps -- we had a dozen or so with us, hand out a bunch,

got eight of them back.

Pulled into one aid station, surprised to see the Chevy and Kathy there.  She said they were short on

people.  I noticed someone asleep in the front seat and in the back seat.  She smiled and said they

just wanted a few minutes rest.

Make sure you have the proper clothing, especially at the "we're here all night" points.  You don't get

to go for a run to warm up.

XT!!!!!!  So great meeting you Saturday night.  Or was it Sunday morning?  I have no clue.  Thanks for sitting and talking to me.  I enjoyed the time there and didn't want to get up from that chair but I knew I had to.  Maybe next time I can shoot for that sub 30!