Race Recap: LULA 5

I didn’t race this weekend so you may be wondering why I’m posting a race recap. I volunteered at a race — the LULA 5 to be specific. LULA 5 is the annual race for the wonderful non-profit organization Girls With Sole. I’ve mentioned this organization before after I read Liz Ferro’s book Finish Line Feeling. You can read my review of the book here and learn more about Girls With Sole here. LULA stands for Lacing Up for a Lifetime of Achievement. 5 is for 5 miles. There is also a 2-mile course. 

On Sunday morning, Noemi picked me up at 7:00 am and we made our way to the west side to volunteer at LULA 5. If you’re not familiar how Cleveland works, west siders and east siders do not mingle. When anyone from the opposite side crosses the boundaries, it’s a BIG DEAL. Noemi and I were happy to be a part of LULA 5 and give back to our community, and so we made it not a big deal to travel to the west side. We almost got lost but we arrived on time, and in the right location. Win win in my book!

With little girl in tow (Noemi’s adorable daughter, Bunny), we arrived at our water stop where we would be filling up and handing out water cups to thirsty runners. There seemed to be a slight mix up and we ended up being the only two volunteers at our station, but it was fun. We hurriedly filled cups and placed them on the table, eager for runners to arrive. We had some down time before the race started, so we plugged my phone into Noemi’s jogging stroller and had a little dance party with the three of us. Bunny is such a cutie pie. She had a blast dancing and helping with cups.

We were positioned around mile 3, but we were on the out (and back) of the course, so we would be seeing the runners twice.

The first runners arrived and holy moly were they fast. It’s always really fun to volunteer at a race and see just how fast the front runners are. When you’re running the race itself, unless you’re one of the first three people out there, you never really get to see how fast they are.

After the first pack came through, we had a brief pause in action, and then came the majority of racers. It was hot and humid on Sunday morning, so everyone was grateful for an early water stop. Unfortunately because there were only two of us manning the water station, we were unable to clear the street of discarded cups so racers were having to run over cups all along our block. I felt really bad, but it was more important to have the cups filled and handed out on a hot and humid day than it was to clear the road.

After what we could see as the last of the runners, we cleared the road of all the cups and just as we were heading back to Noemi’s car, the sky opened up and dumped buckets on us. It was less than ideal. Fortunately we were both wearing running apparel, which made it quick-dry, but it was still not all that fun to get dumped on. I felt particularly bad for the runners still out on the course.

All in all it was a fun day, and I’m glad Noemi and I could make a trip out the west side to volunteer for such an instrumental and important race for Girls With Sole. Unfortunately we didn’t make it early enough to grab our volunteer t-shirts before the race, but we did get them at the end. I briefly said hello to Liz Ferro herself, but she was understandably very busy so not much time to chat.

I look forward to volunteering at LULA 5 again in 2016. Congratulations to all of the day’s racers, but special congratulations to the Girls With Sole participants. You did it!

Have you volunteered at a race? What was your favorite part of volunteering?

xo