I never would have expected such a short race to have so much fanfare around it, and I could practically feel the energy in the air when I arrived at grand army plaza in Central Park on race day.
I had signed up to volunteer for this race a few months ago, to get my volunteer credit as a part of the NYRR's 9+1 program, which guarantees runners a spot in the NYC marathon when you run nine of their races and volunteer at one.
I had never attended the 5th avenue mile, as this is the first year that I have really been involved with the Road Runners, but it was such a fun event. Every runner had a smile on their face, and seemed happy that they had a chance to run their best mile - this is an event that is on my list to run next year for sure!
I headed into the city on the LIRR with Jennie, who was meeting up with her family at a "Race for the cure" event in central park. My volunteer shift started at 10 a.m., so I left Long Island around 8. When we got into Penn station we hopped onto the subway, and I got out two stops later at the bottom of central park then walked over a block to grand army plaza, where the check in was for volunteers.
I was able to check in at 9:30, and then waited for all of the volunteers to arrive. While waiting there was coffee, tea, bagels, Gatorade and water for all of the volunteers. I signed up late to volunteer for this event, so I wound up being assigned to bag check in the pick up area. After a quick briefing we headed over to the pens where the bags were waiting, and relieved the first shift of volunteers.
The position was fairly straight forward, check a runners bib number as they came out of the finisher area and reunite them with their bag. The positioning of the bag check area was such that we could see the runners right before the finish line and just after, so when things were slow in the bag check (by the time the professionals were running we had one lone bag left, and two volunteers to watch it) we were able to sneak a peek at the runners as they finished the race. The finish line was just to the left of the blue tent in the photo below.
Eventually, with all of the runners finished racing, the volunteers worked together to break down the bag check area. It was a quick process, and the shift was over. We all headed back to the check in booth to return our ID badges, and collect our volunteer shirts. I was excited that the shirts were tech shirts, which meant an addition to my running shirt collection.
After the race I headed to the NYRR run center, to pick up my race bib for the following weekends 18 mile tune up in central park. It was close to the park, and gave me a little extra time to sleep the following Sunday.
Overall, i had a great time volunteering with the New York Road Runners, and look forward to doing it again soon, hopefully in a more hands on role.