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Every year, during the first weekend of January, is the runDisney Marathon Weekend. For the past 5 or 6 years, my family and I have been voluntEars for it.
Since it starts on a Thusday, for the 5k, and we're always at work, we don't start volunteer work until Friday, the day of the 10k. And even then, we don't get there until late morning, so it's too late to do anything with the 10k. Instead, we work the Expo, and the ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex.
This is the HP Field House. This is where we go to check in for our shift. Until this year, it's also where participants went to pick up their bibs. Directly behind the photographer of this image is the Visa Center. This year, packet pickup and gear bags were all in here, along with some vendors. The HP Field House was home to the rest of the vendors (and our check in, of course).
We worked Shirt Exchange. We've done Packet Pickup and Gear Bags in the past, and this is by far our favorite. This is our view of the rest of the Visa Center.
In the top right corner, you'll see the runDinsey banner. Below that, where the black curtain is, is the spot where they had Jeff Galloway. He's something of a marathon celebrity, as he invented (or at least, made really popular) the run-walk-run method of training and doing runs. He also has a Pace Group, that is the official runDisney Pace Group.
This was the lunch they provided for us. Ham & Cheese on a bun, a bag of Lay's chips, an Apple GoGo Squeez, and a chocolate chip cookie. They also had Turkey & Swiss, PB&J (just an uncrustable), or a Vegan option, if you so desired.
Saturday morning, we were doing Runner Direction. We were posted at the backstage area of EPCOT, where a lot of cast members came to work. Since we got there early enough, we were allowed to wander the park.
Here's the Fountain Of Nations, with a CROSSWALK flag. No idea how that worked, as our post was past this, so we didn't see it in action.
This was our post. It's located to the left of where you enter EPCOT. Basically, this was an S curve. We had to make sure everyone followed the path. Once it got busy, though, we basically just cheered them on, since they could all see where the people in front of them were going. In November of last year, we were here for the Wine & Dine Half Marathon. For the 10k, we were positioned on the other side of the crosswalk, just out of frame on the right side. We were just Screaming Fans for that.
This is the Lead Wheelchair coming through. This is very close to the end of the course. After they passed us, they went out into the parking lot, and to the finish line. They had... I think it was just 0.2 miles from here? Very close.
These guys were cyclists. runDisney puts out a call for cyclists to ride the course with the wheelchair participants, as well as one each with the lead male, 2nd & 3rd male, lead female, and 2nd & 3rd female.
This was the 2nd wheelchair. The Half Marathon had a LOT of wheelchairs this year. Normally, we don't see more than 6 or 7 wheelchairs, but this year, we lost count! The full Marathon, however, only had a handful of wheelchairs.
This is the Lead Male, along with his cyclist leader.
Second and Third Males, who were close to each other.
Very close. At the Wine & Dine Half Marathon, we were Course Monitors inside Animal Kingdom, and the Lead Female was about this close to the Lead Male when she passed our position. She ended up winning, by 6 seconds!
Here's the Lead Female and her cyclist.
By now, it's later in the morning, and the costumes are starting to show up.
These three guys were dressed as Cinderella, Country Dress Belle, and Ariel.
This is Haley, of EPCOT Security. She had fun cheering them on, and also helping Cast Members coming to work to cross the flow.
She was also nice enough to answer some questions we had about Disney Security.
This guy. This is Victor. He was fun! He was giving all kinds of encouragement as people passed by.
He'd even run with them from the turn to the gate into the parking lot. It wasn't really very far, but it worked. He got many people who were walking to start running.
He really helped, and gave a positive vibe to the area. Lots of people smiled as they passed.
There were even people doing the Dopey Challenge (do the 5k, 10k, Half Marathon, and Full Marathon, all back to back), who remembered him from the 5k & 10k.
Quite a few asked if they'd see him for the Full Marathon, to which he said, "You bet!".
Most of these people were walking when they got here, and Victor motivated them to run.
Those trees are where the gate is, so you can see he didn't run a long ways with them, but it seemed to be enough.
Of course, we had to wonder how many people just saw Disney Security, and thought, "Oh no! He's saying to run, so I better run! Don't want to get in trouble!"
And then you had these 3 guys, dressed as two officers, and a bank robber, complete with bag of money with a dollar sign on it.
Victor had some Junior Officer stickers that he gave them.
He was very enthusiastic, and really enjoyed what he was doing. And it just made us happy watching, which rubbed off on others passing by.
Across the way, there's a gnetleman, waiting for his son to catch up. This happens quite often. Someone will be there with a person or group, and get ahead, so they'll stop and wait.
Welcome to Sunday, and the full Marathon. This was the section of volunteers after our section. They had candy. But you had to go up a hill to get to them and their candy.
Here we see some of the Hollywood Studios Streetmosphere cast members who were there to cheer, along with a volunteer who took a photo with them (note: that is not me).
We were the PowerAde and water stop at Mile 23. This is what they saw coming in.
It was around this time that the Streetmosphere people said something funny, but also, kind of mean, but in a fun way. One of them said, "Bad news! Tomorrow is leg day!"
A goup of Chimney Sweeps from Mary Poppins.
Each had a small version of the chimney sweep brrom from the movie.
And there was someone dressed as Mary from the scene with the sweeps. Not a version of Mary that you see very often.
This guy, and one other, stopped at each mile marker, and did a number of push ups equal to the mile they were at. So, they dropped and did 23 push ups here. That was 276 push ups. And by the time they finished, they had done 351.
The end of the crowd. By this time, it was almost 1:00 PM, and we'd been out there since 5:00 AM.
The final pacers, telling everyone they were X mins. ahead/behind pace, and that they needed to keep it up/pick it up in order to avoid being swept.
After the last person went by, they quickly disassembled the mile marker. They were very efficient.
A goodbye picture of the Hollywood Hotel, home of the Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror ride. It was a good time, and we look forward to our next volunteer trip!