Chicago Marathon

Chicago Marathon

As part of my community service final, today I chose to volunteer at the Chicago Marathon. This was the second year I helped out at the marathon, along with most of my cross country team. Each year it begins horribly, waking up at 3:30 to catch a bus leaving Stevenson at 4 am, we are all tired and cranky from the start. But the atmosphere of the race soon wakes us up and fills us with excitement. This year things were a little different for volunteers, a little tighter due to the bombings at the Boston Marathon last year. Security was increased, to make sure everyone would be safe. It's sad that it was necessary, but I'm glad that it was able to make the marathon a better and safer place for everyone. We set up tables, poured water, handed it out to runners at the 6 mile station, and did clean-up. I always love watching the elite runners zoom by, running at a pace that I, as a varsity track and cross country runner, can't even keep up for 1 mile. It's insane to see how much training and hard work that all of the runners put into this day. And its not just the fast ones, its every single one of them, pushing through all 26.2 miles with such admirable perseverance and determination. It inspires me, makes me want to do it someday. What I really find interesting are the runners who take the effort to thank us repeatedly for giving them water. They are the rockstars, completing this amazing feat, yet they still take the energy to tell us we are awesome and thank us for our time.