When we woke up on Saturday morning, the temperatures were in the low 30’s, with a “feels like” of 26 degrees. A Color Vibe (similar to the Color Run) was coming to my hometown and they teamed up with the American Cancer Society as their charity partner. As ACS volunteers, our duty was to man a water table – pour water in cups, hand out water, and cheer runners on. Easy enough?
Yes, maybe….when it’s not below freezing outside!
A six mile run was on my schedule for Saturday morning, so I woke up extra early and met up with my friend Heather. We had a great run and were wearing enough layers that the cold never bothered us…anyway. (Get where I was going there? We weren’t…Frozen….at all…..whomp whomp)
After the run, I made my way over to the Color Vibe area and met up with the others who were crazy enough to agree to volunteer with me.
Seriously, this was one of the easiest volunteer opportunities ever. When we arrived, all of the supplies were already at the water site – cups, gallons of water, and tables! All we had to do was pour, hand out, and cheer!
Officially frozen and waiting on runners to pass by…
This is where things began to get hilarious. I think we were all delirious and our brains were iced over from the cold. I heard things being yelled such as:
- Ice cubes, get your ice cubes here!
- Frozen popsicles…minus the syrup!
- Hot chocolate, get your hot chocolate here….without the hot….or the chocolate…
- Tastes like hot chocolate if you imagine it!
- Do you wanna build a snowman?
- Ice cold water, just what you need!
Oddly enough, it was SO cold that a lot of runners/walkers went straight through and didn’t stop for water at all. Our hands were all frozen stiff and my feet were like blocks of ice by the time it was all said and done.
Despite the conditions, I had a lot of fun volunteering and had a great crew volunteering with me! Thankfully, there were plenty of laughs to go around and that kept our minds off the cold.
After the race was over, we were eating breakfast when I received a call from the Color Vibe director. She asked if ACS wanted the remaining water. I thought it was just a few gallons of water, no big deal. WRONG.
As I approached the loading area, I saw this…
In total, it was 48 flats of water. We loaded it all into a friends SUV and it’s all being stored in my garage for Relay for Life and the upcoming Gleaux Run. The less I have to ask for in donations, the better! Thank you, Color Vibe!!
On Sunday morning, I watched the live stream of the WDW Marathon and drank coffee out of my Marathon mug! :) I’m so glad the Disney Parks Blog live streamed the races this year – watching online was second best to being there! It was fun to follow friends tracking on my phone, then watch them cross the finish line on the live feed! Loved it!
The races also got me even more excited for Princess! All of our reservations are set – now I just need to finalize and work on costumes for the races! I am so looking forward to a fun week, can’t wait!!
Have you ever volunteered at a race? Did you enjoy it/have fun/hate it?
Did you watch the rD Marathon live feed on Sunday?
I have volunteered at a 5k and a triathlon, both were fun!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I agree, it's fun to volunteer! :)
DeleteHow awesome that they gave you all the water! And yes...I was glued to social media all weekend watching the runDisney festivities! Can't wait till Princess Weekend!!!
ReplyDeleteMe. Either! Will be here before we know it!
DeleteLooks like a day in Michigan minus snow. Glad you had a good time volunteering. Looking at the RunDisney events made me want to be there. Slowly but surely, getting this body back into shape.
ReplyDeleteYou'll get there!! :)
DeleteI love volunteering for races! I volunteered at a triathlon and a zombie run last year and both were a lot of fun. :D (No better way to bond with fellow volunteers than to freeze with em', right!?). I love the things people came up with to advertise that water! :P
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more! What's funny, my husband came up with most of those sayings. It was rather amusing!
DeleteI was also glued to social media watching all the happenings down in WDW!
ReplyDeleteYes! So wish I had been there!!
DeleteThat is fantastic you received all the leftover water for relay for life. I ran Saturday morning with my sister and it was wicked cold. It was 1 degree at 7 am and 13 degrees when we started at 9am. The worst part was we had headwind on a hilly route for the last 6 miles! Ugh, my fingers were freezing.
ReplyDeleteThat is so crazy! I can't even imagine how cold you were! Way to get it done, though!!
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