Enjoyable read as always. I’m curious about the volunteers who encouraged you when you were feeling bad. Is that something they are encouraged to do, regardless of how a competitor really looks? Would a volunteer be permitted to tell a runner, “I think you’ve had it, pal,”?
It's a very good question, and it depends where in a long event like Manitou's the volunteer is stationed. Volunteers at aid stations are there to provide a combination of food and drink (in limited quantities), medical aid if needed, to help someone off the course who is ready to quit, and also to serve as cheerleaders. In that last capacity, their good humour, their encouragement is really important and infectious. The laughs I had at Silver Hollow with Alannah and co., even as I was throwing up, were enervating. Something that didn't make it into the article was what looked like the station "captain" at the 30m mark, with the drop bags and the chairs, who reminded us all we should be smiling, that we signed up for this and paid good money for it. That said, that 30mile midway point is where the largest number of people do quit, as it's the last time they'll see a road till the last 1.2 miles of the entire course, and the volunteers there are not going to talk someone into continuing if that person insists they are done.
On a very long event like this, and even on the Escarpment Trail Run, aid station volunteers also have to enforce "cut-off times," and good volunteers, later in the course, will be monitoring people for signs of real exhaustion. Events like these have "sweeps" (working in relay on a 24-hour event like Manitou's) who walk in at the back of the field but it's no fun for them to come up on someone who has completely lost it and maybe has 2-3 hours till the next aid station when they will be walked off the course.
Another thing I didn't mention is that I volunteered twice for the late night shift at the final aid station at Willow, and once we were out all night because of exactly what I mentioned above - someone who should have been denied permission to continue at the previous aid sstation but was allowed to keepo going. We had to wait for the sweeps to bring the man up, and then get him off the mountain at 5am! Also over those two years I saw a wide variety of competitors in those later hours, some were happily cruising along confident they'd make the finish line cut-off and otherwise without a care in the wrold, others who looked completely beat up, and in a few cases, were specifically asked if they really wanted to continue. In my case at Willow, my friend Amy was great at ensuring I kept moving - at this point, it's almost harder to quit the course than just complete it - but she did tell me the next day that I "looked like shit."!
Enjoyable read as always. I’m curious about the volunteers who encouraged you when you were feeling bad. Is that something they are encouraged to do, regardless of how a competitor really looks? Would a volunteer be permitted to tell a runner, “I think you’ve had it, pal,”?
It's a very good question, and it depends where in a long event like Manitou's the volunteer is stationed. Volunteers at aid stations are there to provide a combination of food and drink (in limited quantities), medical aid if needed, to help someone off the course who is ready to quit, and also to serve as cheerleaders. In that last capacity, their good humour, their encouragement is really important and infectious. The laughs I had at Silver Hollow with Alannah and co., even as I was throwing up, were enervating. Something that didn't make it into the article was what looked like the station "captain" at the 30m mark, with the drop bags and the chairs, who reminded us all we should be smiling, that we signed up for this and paid good money for it. That said, that 30mile midway point is where the largest number of people do quit, as it's the last time they'll see a road till the last 1.2 miles of the entire course, and the volunteers there are not going to talk someone into continuing if that person insists they are done.
On a very long event like this, and even on the Escarpment Trail Run, aid station volunteers also have to enforce "cut-off times," and good volunteers, later in the course, will be monitoring people for signs of real exhaustion. Events like these have "sweeps" (working in relay on a 24-hour event like Manitou's) who walk in at the back of the field but it's no fun for them to come up on someone who has completely lost it and maybe has 2-3 hours till the next aid station when they will be walked off the course.
Another thing I didn't mention is that I volunteered twice for the late night shift at the final aid station at Willow, and once we were out all night because of exactly what I mentioned above - someone who should have been denied permission to continue at the previous aid sstation but was allowed to keepo going. We had to wait for the sweeps to bring the man up, and then get him off the mountain at 5am! Also over those two years I saw a wide variety of competitors in those later hours, some were happily cruising along confident they'd make the finish line cut-off and otherwise without a care in the wrold, others who looked completely beat up, and in a few cases, were specifically asked if they really wanted to continue. In my case at Willow, my friend Amy was great at ensuring I kept moving - at this point, it's almost harder to quit the course than just complete it - but she did tell me the next day that I "looked like shit."!
Hope that helps!