You get a free shirt AND hat for volunteering?! Can I steal some bagels too??

The inaugural Gettysburg North South Marathon was one I was actually contemplating about running before I ran Yuengling Shamrock. As someone without a lick of full marathon experience, I thought it would be completely feasible to run two marathons within a few months of each other as a newbie - I assumed whole hearted enthusiasm would carry me onward if my quads gave out during any marathon. Turns out motivational running quotes only get you so far (approximately to mile 20) before you realize Steve Prefontaine quotes don't do jack or shit for torn arches. Thank god plantar fasciitis set me straight. Whew.

So I volunteered myself, Travis, and my best friend Andrea (the word wasn't so much "volunteered" as much as "signed up without really telling either of them first") to help out with the race for two days - and it was an amazing experience being on the other side of the race. The other volunteers were extremely friendly and it's a great atmosphere to realize how supportive and encouraging the running comminutity is - and apparently a lot of other injured runners had the same idea as myself and still wanted to be a part of this marathon.

We helped with registration yesterday and today was non-stop with late packet pickups, bag checks, table set-ups, passing out food, and just admiring all the finely sculpted men that had to strip down bare chest to try on their race shirts (I'm happily married though, I only glanced because I have an overwhelming concern with appropiate mens' shirt sizing). I could really go on and on about how impressive the Gettysburg Marathon was - all the runners said the course was challenging but fair - but the goal of this post was to convince every runner to volunteer at least once because of all the general good running feelings, the sense of betterment, oppurtunity to meet other althetes, yadda, yadda, yadda, and the FREE SWAG that is illustrated below:

Ignore the dog trying to bogart in on the shot, he's an attention whore who has a better PR.

The volunteer shirts were red airy tech tees and the gray/blue hats were so nice that runners were asking to buy them at lightening speed. Plus, I don't have any fire engine red shirts in my running wardrobe, so this debilatating arch injury that lead to my (some would say utterly heroic) volunterism was all meant to happen - according to the running gods, all hail Under Armour.

Volunteer at a race to truly appreciate how hard everyone behind the scenes works.....or just volunteer for the free shirt and hat, I can't judge you over the internet.