The Buckeye Striders and friends had a great time working a water stop at the Spirit of the Marathon Half Marathon today. We had just 9 people, though 11 volunteers are recommended. At first we were doing great keeping up with the number of runners. In the middle, when the crowd was at its largest, we were struggling a little to keep up. I don’t know how people who work water stops at large races do it.

We could tell when the elite athletes had all passed our stop because we heard our first thank you!

The runners were friendly and appreciative. The 12 or so walkers in the race were even more happy to see us.

It was really nice to see the race from the other side of the table. I have a much better idea why some water stop volunteers get tired of waiting for walkers. Since we were between miles 4 and 5, there was not a huge gap between the leaders and the last people. It was a lot of fun!

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