Personally, the idea of spending my Sunday morning running 26.2 miles does not appeal to me. I did cross country in eighth grade, but let’s be honest: I was kind of a joke. I had challenged myself to stick through the season, and I did, but it was middle school. The amount of time, commitment, and perseverance that is required is to prepare for a marathon is insane and cannot be compared to middle school cross country practices. Maybe middle school cross country practices on steroids.

However, this does not stop many individuals. Every year, thousands participate in marathons. Being born and raised in a Chicago suburb, the Chicago Marathon is of special interest to me. But I’m not planning on running in it anytime soon. So I volunteered instead.

On Oct 9, I woke up at five in the morning to travel to one of Chicago’s ethnic neighborhoods, Pilsen. Pilsen (18th Street, to be exact) is the nineteenth mile on the course. Fun fact: most marathon training programs don’t encourage athletes to run the full 26.2 miles anytime during training. At most, runners build up to 20 miles in the couple weeks before the marathon, so although the runners are more than halfway done when they arrive at Pilsen, they’re really on their last leg. I had the honor of cheering them on while passing out water.

When I first arrived, tables were still being set up. I received a volunteer uniform, which consisted of a cobalt blue, Nike zip-up jacket, a matching baseball cap, and a lanyard with an ID card. (I got to keep everything, by the way. Talk about some good mementos!) I immediately was put to work. The sun wasn’t even up yet, but the entire block was busy; the “water aid station captain” and his second-in-command coordinated the volunteers and in about an hour, we were ready for the runners. Then, the party really got started. Let me just say, the DJ was fantastic. He played better music than I have ever heard played at any school dance I’ve been to so far.

The competitive runners trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon or any of the other World Marathon Majors arrived early in the day, in small clusters, zooming past the water and Gatorade stations. All of the volunteers held out cups of water, but only a couple of them actually took the offer.

They were running by so fast that for some, it took several tries before they were able to grab hold of the cup steady enough to not spill it over. It was a very heart-pumping experience. About an hour after the competitive runners, came the gigantic rush. The hardest part of the job was keeping the tables well-stocked with cups of water. I lost count of how many gallons of water I used up. I poured nonstop for what felt like two hours.

My favorites were the people who started dancing to the music as they passed by. Some would start doing the running man (no pun intended) or fist pumping. It was great to see participants so happy and lively, despite the pain I imagine they were in.

Another interesting thing I observed is that a lot of marathoners wear t-shirts with relevant, funny sayings on them (think: “Everything hurts and I’m dying”, “26.2% body fat”, “I run because I really like food”). I had no idea that was a thing.

I definitely thought this experience was worthwhile. Volunteering was a lot of fun and it made me feel like I was part of something important. I saw runners from all over the world, both women and men, young and old, able-bodied and disabled, all with the same goal in mind: to cross the finish line waiting for them in Grant Park. It was extremely inspiring.

To be honest though, towards the end, I couldn’t wait to get home and take a nap. I felt bad for the runners that were in the back because they did not get the same amount of cheering as the runners in the front. They definitely deserved it, even if they were walking. They made it to mile 19 after all and that’s quite the accomplishment.