Rock And Roll Half Marathon

Location: McCormick Place

Date: Saturday, July 19, 2014; 8:00 am-12:30 pm

I often scout the Make-A-Wish website for volunteer opportunities and had found this one, though without much clue on what we would be doing.  I was at a concert the previous night and got back to my place quite late.  As the alarm went off the next morning, I wasn’t really sure if I would be able to do it, but a commitment is a commitment.  I took a cab to McCormick and went inside to the information to ask for directions.  The lady over there said that she had no clue and I immediately thought that I was in the wrong place….again.  Well, it wasn’t that bad since I just had to relocate to another wing, which can be a hike in this gigantic place.  I followed the signs to a hall and it did look like an Expo was being set up. I guess I had arrived.

I was stopped at the entrance by a lady who told me to return at 9:30 am.  After convincing her that I was in fact a volunteer, she let me through.  I checked-in and got my shirt and a goody bag.  They asked if I was here for the whole day or just the morning session. Considering that the morning session was over 5 hours, I said that it would be enough for me thank you very much.  Besides MAW volunteers, there were other folks as well and I asked who else from MAW was in attendance so as to stay with them.  I located a couple of them and we wondered if MAW had a specific task at the event, but leaned that it was pretty much the same for all volunteers. 

The organizers took us to the registration area to explain our tasks and it was essentially to assist in bib pick-up for the participants.  We were to be placed one person per corral – they were numbered from 1000 up to 36,000.  The runners would come as per their corral number and we were to take their package pick-up form, check their ids and then give them their bib, which also had a tag that went on their shoe to record their time; a gear check ticket, one for their t-shirt and finally one for a beer after the race.  We were also to give them an envelope containing pins for their bib and finally point them towards the t-shirt pick up place through an arch.  Whew.

The pink balloon

The lower numbered corrals meant that those runners were expected to finish faster.  If people in higher numbered corrals wanted to switch to lower corrals and thus start earlier, they had to get the corrals changed.  On the contrary, if the faster people wanted to start later, there wasn’t an issue.  If we were to encounter any problems with registrations, we were to direct people to the “Solutions” desk, which was identified by a Pink balloon over it.  In fact all desks had unique colored balloons with “Beer Garden wristbands” being Black, “Corral change” being Yellow, “Registration” being Purple and I also saw several other colors.  I said that we needed a cheat sheet just to remember all of that.  I was with couple of other MAW volunteers, Taylor and Michele, and we took over adjoining corrals.  I was on #15, which meant bib numbers from 15001 to 15999, though for some reason the numbers ended at 15500.  One of the organizers stopped by to check on us and on chatting with her I learned that this was a multi-city international event and as a part of her job, she goes from city to city.  She said that she was headed to Dublin next week.  "I would be visiting the suburbs of Chicago", I said.

My station

Around 9 am people started coming in and after greeting them I would check their id and find their bib saying, “This is the tag which goes on the shoe. These are tickets for gear check, t-shirts and beer. Here are the pins for the bib.  There's a wrap in there to tie your gear check bag.  You can collect your shirts through the archway.  Good luck".  And yes, I had to do this again and again. There was a lady from New York City and I mentioned how much I loved visiting there and definitely prefer their pizza to Chicago-style.  I saw that someone was from England and I thanked her for coming this far and told her to visit the sights.  In fact there were a lot of people from out of town and I hoped that they would be able to enjoy the food and drink of Chicago after their race.

Yeah, I had all sorts of visitors!

I have always enjoyed these interactions during my projects, especially when I have worked the registration desk at various events.  There are always unique people that you end up meeting, like a girl who had forgotten her id, but said that she could show me her ‘Facebook’ profile as evidence.  I guess this is truly the world we live in now. There was even a lady with a dog in her bag.  I saw a little girl with her mom and asked if she was planning to run as well.  She said not in the race, but then proudly stated that she was starting to run.  I wished her luck and said that soon she would be able to take on her mom. One girl said that she had come straight from running a 5K race today and I congratulated her.  She said that after her half marathon tomorrow she would get that medal and then another one for finishing both.  Plus there was one more for being a fundraiser.  I said that once she had gathered her 4 medals, I expected nothing less than a pose with all of them, which the organizers could use on their promotional materials next year.

Almost everyone who came was friendly, though a few of them weren't interested in small talk and wanted to get out as fast as possible.  One lady came in running in and when she realized that she had to fill out the package pick-up form first, said “Why do you have to make it so complicated”.  Then she ran to fill out the form, ran back to hand it over, picked up the bib, and then ran for t-shirt.  Maybe she was double parked!  I had to send a few people to the "Corral change" booth and a few to the "Solutions" desk.  Then there was a guy who wasn’t sure which corral he belonged to since there were 3 others with the same name.  But overall it was a smooth time.

My fellow MAW volunteers got relived at 12:30 pm, though I was still there.  After some time I went over to the organizer and said that I was here just for the morning session and would appreciate if they could find a replacement for me.  She thanked me for my service and sent over a new person whom I trained and was now free to leave.  I walked about the expo area which was full of merchandise for runners and it was now rocking with people.  I did now know how MAW had been connected with this race, perhaps receiving some promotion through them.  A lady had asked me how I was involved with MAW and I had said to her that I was a “Wish Granter”.  She had then told me how her friend’s son had his wish granted, which was throwing out the first pitch at ‘St. Louis Cardinals’ game.  Man, that’s a cool thing for a kid to do.  No matter what their connection to this event; any opportunity to help out an organization like MAW, is definitely worth the effort of getting up early.