VoluntEARing Disney 2010 Marathon Weekend Day 3

So after a cold and VERY EARLY day on Saturday we were ready for a late shift (6am-2:30pm). It was FREEZING cold when we checked out of the hotel but at least it wasnt sleeting! Just horridly windy! We made it to Wide World of Sports and got checked in, got our Navy Blue Jackets and our lunch bags and headed out to the busses to head to Epcot. Today we were working the Goofy Medals tent. The Goofy medal is awarded to a racer who does both the Half and The Full Marathon during the marathon weekend! CRAZY PEOPLE!!!! That is a LOT of running!! 39.3 Miles to be exact!! CRAZY!!!

So we get on the nice warm bus and we sit.... and sit.... and sit.... and sit for OVER AN HOUR! At the Wide World Of Sports..... SITTING.....getting overheated in all our layers...It was not fun at all. We were on a bus with the Massage tent workers and they were ANNOYING AS HELL!! Oh Wow.. it was like being on a school field trip bus! They were so worried as to why we wernt going and I tried a few times to explain to them that we couldnt drive on the roads untill the racers wernt ON THEM any more but they didnt seem to understand that at all. They seemed to be happy just bitching in their baby blue windbreakers so I just sat there and listened to them, for an hour.....*sigh* next year we are TOTALLY taking the early shift! lol

Once we arrived we headed over to the Goofy Tent. All the medals were lined up on pegs to hand out... James and I decided to stand outside and cheer on the athleats as they came down from the race medals, Medical and water. We were right before the Snack tent, the picture area and the baggage. We were also giving out the Perfectly Goofy Medals which was for everyone who has run EVERY SINGLE Goofy Race in the time it has existed which is 5 yeas now! To me that is AMAZING! We had checked in some of the Perfect 17 racers the day before and Those are the people who have run every single race that WDW has ever done! And they were ALL in the 40's, 50's and some even in their 80's! Another reason to just love Disney!!!! They treat their loyal people SO well!
For the next few hours it was a sea of people! Clapping and cheering them! Congradulating them! Smiling and patting on the back! We chatted with other VoluntEARs and Medical staff that were with us. They told us that Disney was going to be doing a Dopey Challenge next year for the 5k, half and full! KILLER!!! Runners get my extreme props because I dont run... I dont jog and I dont like to do either! I will walk and walk and walk but.... no running!!!! So to do all three of those is amazingly awesome to me!
James and I were asked my a Team Leader to go help at the Finish line with medals for a little while and we were happy to go! Why not? So we treaked up to the finish line and got to actually hand out medals to people! It was SO much fun! Sure people were icky and sweaty and smelly and cold and snotty and some even smelled like Pee but.... lol... how many people can say that they got to put a Medal around the neck of a first time runner who just beat cancer??? I can !
I got lots of hugs and saw tons of costumes and heard funny stories and saw a LOT of criers and it was fantastic! I am so glad we got to go up there and participate that way! We also worked for the last 90 minutes at a security gate across from the medical tent. Letting people in to see thier loved ones who had to go to medical. That gave us a lot of time to people watch which was fun. Costumes and phone calls and just over all happiness!
Come 2:30pm the Marathon as a whole was over and it was time to head back to WWoS. We got checked out and hole punched and got tickets and another lunch ;) ! We were SO tired! Glad to be heading home but SO happy with the time we had!
Pictures will be in the next entry!