Looking Forward to NYC Marathon

If all goes to plan, on Saturday, my phone will ring. I will be told where and when to be somewhere on Sunday morning. I've volunteered at the NYCM for about 15 years.

I've gathered tear-offs from bibs in the pre-chip days. I've recorded leaders numbers in Brooklyn. I had the pleasure of sitting at the finish line with Arthur Lydiard in 2004 (after doing early duty). I appeared in Runner's World Magazine, in the background of a finish line photo. I've clipped chips from shoes several times. I had runners vomit just inches away. One year after an overnight storm, I chased down some brooms and got some other volunteers together and we swept the wet leaves off the roadway in the chutes (where the street sweepers hadn't been able to go). I once had to drag a porta-john out of the way of an ambulance. I normally know what I'll be doing several weeks ahead. This year, I'm assigned to a jump team, and I have no idea what I'll be called on to do. The jump teams can probably be best described as "bodies to throw at problems as they arise."

I do know that whatever I'm asked to do, it will be necessary. It probably won't have the glamour of giving blankets or medals to finishers (jobs which I've never had). I'll do it, and I'll be glad to do it. Why? Because it needs to be done and because someone, somewhere, did something sometime to make a race I was running better and I must repay that effort.