Mister P. is Awesome

Would anyone disagree that the key to a successful event is the volunteers? Anyone? Volunteers are awesome. This weekend, I volunteered for the inaugural City of Angels Half Marathon. Therefore, I am awesome.

If I was given a choice of assignments, I would have picked something on race day in in Griffith Park (the starting line) which is very close to my home. Instead, I helped with registration the day before in downtown L.A. As it turns out, that was perfect because I knew several people who were running in the event, so by volunteering a day early I was free to watch the race the next day.

My primary job was handing out bibs and timing chips. My shift was 7:30-1:30, and it was hard work. You don't realize how tough it is on your back to be on your feet for that long while constantly bending over a table. But it was a lot of fun just being part of the excitement of the race.

Most of the runners picking up their stuff were great. My only complaint was with the two people who arrived to pick up bibs for the 25 people on their team. I don't mind retrieving all the (non-sequential) bibs, but rather than just taking the bibs and sorting them off to the side, they spread them all out over our table to check them off their master list. But we remained helpful and no major harm done.

Not every volunteer is a runner. But I strongly believe that every runner - at some point - should be a volunteer.