Since I was unable to run Pinhoti this year, I decided to change things up a little bit. I called Todd and told him I would like to volunteer. So last weekend, me and my friend Jacob headed off to Alabama to run Porter's Gap AS (mile 68). It was raining as soon as we go into Alabama and it wouldn't stop until the next day. We arrived at Porters gap with plenty of time to spare (about 3ish) and began to set everything up. Once we had everything set up, someone arrived with everyone's drop bags so we laid them out and put them in numerical order so that runners could find them efficiently as they got in. With everything ready to go we cracked open a beer and made a bacon egg and cheese sandwich and enjoyed the calm before the storm (of runners that would be coming).
After awhile, the first runner came through and didn't need anything and ran on. The second came about 30 minutes later and just filled his bottles. 30 minutes later another came and refilled his bottles and grabbed his drop bag. "Man this is easy!" I thought. It wasn't long after that though that runners came through in a steady stream and had us running around trying to make sure everyone had what they needed. I must have made 150 grilled cheese sandwiches for everyone before the night was over. Luckily my Alabama friend Sonia was there to hang out and help while she waited to pace another friend of mine Sunny.
**Side Note: It was Sunny's 1st 100 miler and she did an awesome job. Congrats Sunny!
We finally shut the aid station down at 3:30 and packed everything up to head back into town to catch some sleep before driving back to Macon. All in all it was a blast! It was just as fun as running the race except it didn't hurt NEAR as much. It was also very humbling. As a runner I know how important it is to have someone there waiting for you on the other side of the table when you come into an aid station. Now I know how much work it takes to set up that table. I couldn't be more thankful for those who help us runners do what we love.
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