What: GMA Water Station Volunteers Needed!!
When: May 30th 2010
Where: Vermont City Marathon mile 25.5 Water Station
It is exciting to see the long course season come into full swing and it is great to see the new and old faces starting in the clinic, eager to work on their technique in the pool. For those of you who don't know me, I am Tim Bard, a regional coach here at GMA. I started our water station at the Vermont City Marathon two years ago and it has been a lot of fun since!
This will be the third year that GMA has come together to support each other and the Vermont City Marathon, providing a valuable service to the runners handing out vital liquids on the home stretch of the run! As you may know, a marathon is 26.2 miles and we have the honor of being at mile 25.5. It is a point of pride for me that the runners coming by, see our GMA banner and hear the cheers from our team for the last push of their race!
The marathon committee has commented the last two years how they have received such great feedback about our water station and how energetic and supportive our team has been! The runners have given a lot of very positive feedback too about helping them finish strong with the cups of water and gatorade and with the great enthusiasm and support our team has shown. It is awesome to show other sports and organizations that GMA swimmers aren't only supportive of swimming and their team mates but they are also supportive of athletes in other sports!
I want to thank you all who volunteered the last two years and am very excited to see some new and returning GMA faces at the marathon!!
The structure will remain the same. There will be two shifts, so if you can volunteer for one or both shifts that would be great! Last year the two shifts started at 9am and 11:30 a.m. with about 30 minutes overlap during the time when the greatest volume of runners go by. The marathon will probably go until about 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. The sign up is now posted on the GMA website, so you can sign-up electronically today! Here is a link to the main information page on the team website: http://www.teamunify.com/EventShow.jsp?returnPage=%2FEventsCurrent.jsp&id=77440&team=negma
The fun starts with cheering on the wheelchair division and then the elite runners. The race finishes with the main pack of runners, some of whom are running the whole marathon and some of whom are running as part of a relay. It is great to see all the training that people have put into getting ready for a marathon pay off. It is also entertaining for us to see runners in costume and runners with a variety of goals and ambitions for the race. I am sure that this year, as in years past, we will see plenty of former and current GMA swimmers, coaches and parents running the race as well!
All volunteers, whether that be swimmers, family members or friends will get a Vermont City Marathon T-shirt! So when you sign up I will need your t-shirt size as well as address and email. Vermont City Marathon sends out a thank you each year!
If you have any questions please contact myself or Laura.
Thank you and see you on deck and at the Marathon!
-Tim Bard
Contact me at wyltbam@gmail.com
