I just volunteered for the GUTS (Georgia Ultrarunning and Trailrunning Society) aid station at mile 22 of the Pinhoti 100-mile trail run in November. I've never volunteered before, being the self-centered bastard that I am ,  and I am unexpectedly pumped about this. It should be fun.

Anyone else care to share "volunteer" stories?

I volunteered at a 50K the first time this spring, I was supposed to run it but wisely decided my foot would not be happy with me.  Volunteering was a surprising amount of fun, I got to meet a bunch of cool people, got to feel the excitement of the race, got the good feeling of helping out people (and not just any people - cool ultra runner people).  Another bonus was that at a slow time for our aid station, I took off for a hour on the race course (moving off trail for any of the racers)

 

I then volunteered at the 50 & 55 mile mark of the Burning River 100 in August.  That was even better, because I had never really even seen a 100 miler, and it was so inspiring.  Made me want to try it (again my foot disagrees).  I was there from 6 PM to 11 PM, the tail end of that aid station.   First I was counting runners, this was just a good cheerleading job, and I needed to write down bib #'s and call them into the race tracking company who was updating results online.  I was manning the beverage refill next.  What I discovered (and this might not be true at mile 22) is that the runners did not respond well to "What do you want this refilled with?"  it was too vague and we got some blank stares..  We had to get more specific - "Do you want Gatorade?  Heed?  Water?  How much ice?  Then, fill up their Camelbak or whatever as quickly as possible, but we had plenty of time because they often visited the food station while we filled up whatever they were drinking out of.  When it slowed down, I started going a bit further down and asking incoming runners if they wanted their drop bag, and then I would run back to the station and find it for them while others handled the beverage.

 

One runner took way too long to get from the previous aid station to ours, and it had grown dark and he had no head lamp.  We had the park rangers hunting for him, and along with another volunteer, I put on a headlamp and started from our aid station running back to the previous one looking for him.  Fortunately the rangers found him quickly and got him in his daughters' car (he wanted to continue, but appeared to have a head injury and had way missed the cutoff at our aid station).  I was kind of hungry to get in a nighttime trail run though, so when we started packing up the aid station and the organizer said something about picking up trail markers, I quickly volunteered.  It was surprisingly difficult to run the trails on the night, picking up flags and sign posts, but it was one of my favorite runs of the summer!

 

This weekend I am volunteering at the Towpath Marathon, which includes a 10K and half marathon, so I expect the runners will want quicker service than my previous volunteering experiences.

 

I love volunteering.  It probably saves me from signing up for races that my current conditioning should not allow!  I am also lucky to live very close to some of the nicer trail runs in my area, so it is very convenient for me.

 

Have fun!

Crewing is a great way to help but it does not officially count as volunteering for the races that require service hours to participate.

 

 

I have volunteered for races anywhere from 5Ks and fun runs for kids all the way up to 50Ks and 12 hour events.  I completely agree with your comments that the longer the race and the further into the race you are the longer you have with each particular runner.

 

Manning an aid station is usually fun.  Each station becomes it's own isolated city and party.  As T_runner describes there are so many things you can do to help the runners and over all race.  Plus you get to hang out with such fun people.

 

I am sure you will have a great time and do a wonderful job.

Perf, this is a good thread! Thanks for starting it.

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I am new to Ultra Trail running and have very little experience with volunteers, however, I completed my first 50K last Sunday and I am very thankful for the volunteers that worked the aid stations. Most of the volunteers were very inexperienced as volunteers and most of them wore non-runners and/or non-athletes so they did not really understand what the runner(s) needed. I found that one of the volunteers at that race was extremely valuable to me. He knew the entire course because he rides it on his mountainbike. This meant I came to rely on him to give me hints as to how to read the map and how to remember clues as to where and in which directions to turn while on the course. As I was one of the very last runners on the course I ran by myself for almost 8 hours and I had to make all decisions as to where to turn by myself. Thus this volunteer was a wonderful help to me and I came to trust his advice. I ran with a map in my pocket - every time I was in doubt I pulled out the map and double checked - this was also a very good thing. Otherwise I would have felt lost on many occasions. I suggest that the aid stations are equipped with maps that they can hand out to runners that have lost theirs or need one. 

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t_runner, you sound like a wonderful volunteer. You provide exactly the kind of help that a runner needs. You understand what the runners need, which is so important. I am inspired by your post and I think I am going to volunteer at least one race next year. I am going to try to talk my kids into going with me so they can experience the race atmosphere too - they can't go with me when I run the race since they are too young to be by themselves for so many hours. (2 boys, 11 and 14). I would like them to be able to see what I do when I am out there running.