Volunteering for the Walt Disney World Half Marathon

On Saturday morning I was up bright and early (1:15am!) to volunteer for the Walt Disney World Half Marathon.  My shift was 2am to 7am and I would be working at the Pre Race Water table.

 As always I had a great time volunteering, despite the super early start time.

Volunteers parked over at ESPN Wide World of Sports, checked-in, picked up our snack bag, our volunteer jacket and then boarded a bus over to Epcot.

It was extremely cold that morning and I had on 4 layers of clothing and would have been happy to have more!  Luckily as soon as we got to Epcot they had hot coffee and hot cocoa for the volunteers.  

Once we started working pouring, and pouring the the water I didn't feel cold anymore. 

The time flew by as we watched all the runners head over to the start corrals.  Watching everyone heading off, I definitely had half marathon envy, but knew my time would be coming soon enough the next day for the marathon!

Watching 20,000+ runners pass by was something else.  I never thought the stream of people would end.  

Can I please say tell you that runDisney runners are so nice and friendly!  I got more "Thank yous" from the runners at 4:30am then I have ever heard volunteering anywhere else.  I do believe runners should always thank the volunteers, but I also know how happy I was helping them out before their race. 

Once all the runners were off and racing, we headed over to the finish line area to help set out bottles of water. 
Once we were done "working" (can you really call volunteering at Disney World "work"?) the wheelchair winner was about to cross the finish line and shortly after the male and female winners.  It was fun to see the end of the race... all before 7am!  The winner took about an hour and 10 minutes to get through the course and the female winner took an hour and 16 minutes.  So awesome, congrats to both!
Finishers of this year's half marathon received this awesome medal...

I headed back to catch the bus to my car, but not before getting in a picture with Chip & Dale... I was at Disney World after all, gotta take advantage of those fun perks!