On volunteering...

[sawyl]

For posterity, here's the short piece I agreed to write for the Riverside parkrun people after volunteering last week:

Having run at Riverside for most of the last year, I'd been meaning to volunteer for a while. Last week's recruitment drive finally gave me the push I needed and I signed up to be a marshal for Saturday's run.

Arriving at the Quay Climbing Centre slightly earlier than normal, I met up with the other volunteers, we agreed which positions we were going to take, and we hurried out to signpost the course. As I'd run the route last week, I offered taking the position by the exit from the university playing field where I had to ensure that no-one turned left to follow the old route to the bridge on the way back. After a few nervous moments while I was setting up - did I have the key to the gate into the playing field? Were the signs in the right places? - I was ready well before the first of runners appeared, after which I was kept busy waving people left on the way out and, in almost no time at all, straight on as they came back.

The whole experience was good fun and I enjoyed myself greatly. Volunteering gave me a completely different perspective on parkrun. I saw the work that went in beforehand and how smoothly everything was ironed out. I got to see everyone from leader to tail runner make it round the course and had the opportunity to cheer for all of them. I got thanked by more people than I can count - one person even complimented me on my sign placement! - and it was particularly rewarding to feel as though I was giving something back to the parkrun community. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who hasn't done it before.

Rather to my amused embarrassment, the colleague I met first thing on the bus this morning had already read it on the Riverside FB page and they were decent enough to say that they didn't think it was too bad. They seemed to think it did a pretty good job of getting across the point that volunteering isn't nearly as onerous or nerve-wracking as it might seem if you haven't done it before.