Volunteer Report: Western Pacific Marathon, Half, 10K and 5

Posted by Katie

Speaking of volunteering… Matt and I volunteered at an aid station for the Western Pacific races put on by Brazen Racing on Saturday. I have always looked into Brazen races, they do so many cool trail races in the east bay but yesterday was my first event! I have to say, I was impressed by their aid stations and their appreciation for volunteers, I will definitely run one of their races and volunteer again.

http://www.brazenracing.com/westernpacific.html

This race is in Fremont, so we absolutely felt we should either run or volunteer. With a marathon coming up in 3 weeks, volunteering seemed like the more logical choice. We were situated at aid station #2 so we were at the 10K turnaround and the half and full marathon ran past us and then turned around to run past us again. I thought this might lead to a crazy rush of people at the water stop, but the way they staggered the start meant the flow of runners was pretty constant, but never over whelming. When I run a race, I expect to see water, some type of sports drink, and maybe Gu. Brazen races really goes above and beyond in aid station stocking, three flavors of gu, and TONS of food  basically what I would expect in an ultra (see photo).

Aid station goodies

The other sweet thing is the volunteer swag. Volunteers are given a tech shirt and sandwiches for lunch. In addition depending on how long of a shift you volunteer for, you are given a full or partial credit for a future Brazen race! Sweet!

In other news the big 20 mile long run was today and it went... um, good and bad? The first 9 went perfectly, the next 11 were a huge struggle. Hopefully the taper helps. 

-Katie