PatLV23: Manitoba Marathon

Today is the day of the 2007 Manitoba Marathon. During this event, a number of different races occur all over Winnipeg. One of them is the Great-West Life 2.6 mile Super Run. Mean (who works at Great West) volunteered us to help out handing out water for this race. I didn't really have much of a problem with this, until I found out we might have to be there at 6am And I got even grumpier when I found out we had to be there by 5:45. That didn't matter much because we were our usual slow moving selves in the morning. Then the taxi we took (there were no buses yet this early) couldn't go to where we wanted because a lot of the roads were closed. We spent some time trying to find the station but our map reading skills obviously need some work. Eventually we make sense of the directions and make it to our destination. We spend some time getting oriented on what we would have to do, like how to hand out water and preventing the racers from pushing-over the tables. We also met the other volunteers including some Filipinos. Soon the first few runners arrive and we were able to hand out water with no problems. It wouldn't take long though for the expected crowd to arrive.

They've already wiped out our table (of probably a thousand cups) in the above picture. There were 3 other tables and they were cleaned out too. There was enough water for all but there weren't enough cups. The racers just drop their cups after drinking. This is the result:

We cleaned it up in no time though.

After cleaning up, we went on our way. Most of the crowd that arrived were kids with their parents. So I was wondering where the pros were. (I didn't know yet that there were multiple races) As we headed for the parking lot (our new friends offered to give us a ride), there was a small group of people set up at Pembina/Bishop Grandin calling for us to join them. I noticed there were people running up the street. This was probably the main 26.2 mile race. We decided to stay around and watch.

The people by the side of the road were actually trying to recruit a cheering squad for the racers. They handed out clappers and gave out some snacks. A (presumably) Tim Hortons van also came up and started serving some coffee, juice and cookies.

A lot of the racers seemed to appreciate the cheering squad which grew a bit more after we arrived. There was also some loud upbeat music playing in the background. I guess this helped them gain a little bit more energy.

Here are a few interesting sights. I regret I wasn't able to snap up a photo of a guy dressed in a Batman costume, and 2 women wearing tiaras.

There are a few more pics not posted here. Feel free to view the full photo album: