McNaughton Park 2007 – Volunteers Report

McNaughton 2007

Hi. I was too injured to be ready to have a shot at completing one of the McNaughton events (50, 100, 150 milers) so I volunteered instead.

I worked the lap counting station from 6 pm on Friday to 6 am on Saturday, and then again from midnight on Saturday to 6 am on Sunday.

I have a “volunteer’s report” here:

http://blueollie.wordpress.com/2007/04/15/mc-not-again-mcnaughton-trail-run-weekend/

I also paced Joe Galloway for his 6′th and 7′th 10 mile loops on Saturday afternoon/evening.

Don’t get me wrong; I wish that I wouldn’t have been injured and I would have loved to participate in this race (50 Km in 2003, 50 miles in 2004, 100 in 2005 and DNF at 50 in 2006).

But working the race gave me a different perspective on things and I just loved the experience.

What I noticed is that, aside from a rare perfromance from an elite athlete, just about EVERYONE slows down on a course like this.

People who blazed the first 10 mile loop in 1:25-1:40 were doing over 3 hours per loop at the end. The hills and the mud suck it out of everyone.

Also, in the past, there were times toward the end of an ultra were I was going very, very slowly and wondering “why did I even bother to train if I am going to be going this slow”.

Trying to pace an ultrarunner without having any training under my belt showed me why. Those dinky 20 miles at a snail’s pace left me sore!!!!

(no reflection on Joe, but he was 21-29 hours into his race when I paced him)

So, now I understand that my training for the ultras that I did finish indeed did me some good; I wouldn’t have even finished without that training.

So, a hearty congratulations to all finishers and to the people who gave it their all prior to DNF’ing (though I had a hard time saying “dnf” to someone who got 100+ miles in the 150 mile event)

And a very loud “well done” to Andy Weinberg (the RD) as well.

ollie

ollie nanyes
peoria, Illinois
http://www.nanyes.org
http://blueollie.wordpress.com/