Northface Endurance Challenge..50 miler, 50K and marathon

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No I did not run 50 miles!  I'm not that crazy!  I did volunteer at the Northface Endurance Challenge race again.  This is my fourth year helping with this race.  I have to get up crazy early (3:30 am..which for the record is earlier than when I am actually running in a race.) It is a  fun , but long day of giving back to my fellow runners!  I love cheering on the runners, talking to some of their families, and seeing some awesome people do things that I don't think I could do!

We headed over to Great Falls to arrive at 5:45 a.m. to help set up the aid station.  We would see runners from each of the three races taking place on Saturday. They had a 50 mile race, a 50K race and a marathon. We had to get there early to set up the food and drinks along with place the 50 miler runner's drop bags out for them.  

As we were hanging out at the Marathon mini-mart (as Megan liked to call it.)  I was in charge of writing down the bib numbers of the runners coming in to the aid station.  Our aid station was a smaller aid station to help out the marathoners.  They got some nutrition and turned around and ran back to the start.  The 50K and 50 milers ran past us for a few more yards to get their bibs marked and enjoy some nutrition from the larger aid station before they headed to do some laps in the woods. So the Marathon mini-mart did not really get busy until later in the morning since the Marathoners were not starting until 9 a.m.  Jamie and myself were in charge of writing down the bib numbers of all of the runners.  Jamie would yell out the number as I wrote them down.  Needless to say as the day progressed my hand started to look like "The Claw" from writers cramp.  

The marathon mini-mart crew!  

It was a great day for running!  Low humidity and low temps for June..by that I mean started out in the 60's and worked its way up to low 80's.  It was much better than the heat from last year's race when a lot of runners had to DNF.  Since we have volunteered at this race for the past 4 years, it was great recognizing some runners from previous years.  Also it was funny because the Northface guys running the show remembered our awesome aid station talents too! I think it may be turning into a yearly family reunion!  You know the kind of family reunion where you only see that one side of your family once a year at the family reunion..yeah that is what it is turning into for us.