Dallas Marathon 2011: Benjamin Hager

Dallas Marathon 2011: Benjamin Hager

If you have always wanted to partake in the Dallas Marathon but aren’t up to trekking 26.2 miles, volunteer as a course guide, Dec. 8 at various times.

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Marathon day in Dallas is one big party. If you don’t join the festivities, you might turn into one of those grumps complaining about the noise and traffic (it is  going to be there one December day a year, like it or not). Take it from me—I’ve been spectator, volunteer, runner and grumpy person. Being the latter is no fun.

For many years For the Love of the Lake, a nonprofit benefitting White Rock Lake, has been responsible for rounding up the many course guides needed to ensure a safe, fair and successful marathon.

How to join?

Visit this, where you can sign up to monitor a specific area of the course. If you have questions about the responsibility, Bernadette Schulz can answer them. She can be reached at bschulz01@sbcglobal.net

Once you are registered rest assured you will receive a proper crash-course on route monitoring.

Here’s a summary of the sort of spectacle you can expect at certain points on the route:

Volunteers at miles 0-4 or 5-8 are likely to witness hoards of ecstatic bubbly runners. Smiles, dry clothing, good posture — all things that will fade as the day wears on.

Volunteer at any position  between, say, 9-18, and the increasingly weary marathoners will most intensely appreciate your guidance and words of encouragement.

Volunteers posting up after the 20-mile marker should be prepared to meet with some serious humanity.  You know when your wife was in labor with the twins and you just could not say the right thing? That is a little bit what it is like to work mile 20 and beyond. The runners appreciate you. They do. They are just in too much pain to know it.

While you are out there volunteering, keep an eye out for the subject of this month’s feature story, Miles to Go, Brandon Cumby, the guy who got electrocuted while in a tree, plunged to almost-certain death, then promptly decided to resume his marathon training.