Many Thanks go out to all the volunteers at todays Five Way aid station!!!!! A cool story at the end that I witnessed was when runner 145 was coming back in to our aid station with 4.7 miles to go to the finish. She made the hard cutoff by two minutes and the look on her face was just asking us to pull her but, as in all things ultra, everyone helped and encouraged her to continue on to the finish. The runners guide book said she had to finish by 8:00 PM to be an official finisher and the runner was looking at the time and saying there was no way she could finish in time. We told her to forget the time and just move forward - knowing that regardless of an official finisher status that she would feel great crossing the finish line regardless of what time it was. After runner 145 left and headed down to the finish we packed up the last of the aid station and made our way down to the base. The event village was mostly deserted by this time but there were 20 or so staff waiting for runner 145 to arrive. Then we got a report she might be lost. Bicyclist were dispatched to see if they could locate our missing runner but they quickly returned because the light from runner 145s headlight could be seen in the distance. Everyone at the finish like broke in to a cheer and you could see the runners pace increase. Spontaneously the finish line welcoming party formed a human tunnel and as runner 145 crossed the finish line she ran through the tunnel to receive her official finishers medal. The runner was overcome by joy and turned to me and thanked us for pushing her out of the aid station. She then fell into the arms of her pacer and and they shared an incredible moment together while everyone was still cheering. You never know when you offer to volunteer for a day whose life you might touch, but today it was runner 145. Thank you everyone for making this moment possible.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 04:38:44 +0000
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