Making a mountain out of a marathon

We came, we saw, we organized – on a still-dark Sunday morning in October, the Rotary team of baggage handlers arrived at the event village of the Yorkshire marathon on the campus of York University. The morning shift was there early – from 6.30am – and in no time the tables and numbering carefully put in place by the organisers had been re-organised based on long Rotary experience. There would be no snaking backwards and forwards in our part of the tent: numbers went from front to back only, with our responsibility encompassing those runners numbered 4500 to 7500. Easy.

Over the next couple of hours, bags and accoutrements took their places in the rows. A rucksack here, a jumper there, a full mountaineering pack with water bottle and warm clothing hung around it filling several gaps all by itself. Some experienced people had elected to bring something other than the ubiquitous ‘black rucksack’ that was the principal feature of the baggage mountain. There was a pink bag with berries on it: guess how quickly that one was found when the time came? There was a supermarket carrier bag – maybe not the latest thing on the elite runner circuit, but a delight to lay hands on amongst thousands of black bags on the table.

The only word for the final hour to the race start time was frenzied. Bags poured into the tent until the team members receiving them were walled in like skeletons in an old building. Still they took the offerings from the athletes, dumping bags behind themselves and turning back for another so as not to hold up the runners on their way to the start. Once the participants had all gone off to torture themselves for 26.2 miles - one runner had a tee-shirt that said ‘26.2 – just another Sunday’ – we could focus on dismantling the mountain from the back.

The morning team were very glad to see the afternoon volunteers arriving just as the rush of finishers really began. With the rain now pouring down, we were able to find and hand over bags quickly and efficiently, to the great appreciation of the exhausted runners. Impressively, the winner of the race, teacher Edward Buck (2 hrs, 18 mins) asked if we would hold onto his bag for a bit longer as he was off for a ‘warm down’ run! Slowly the laden tables lightened and emptied and the dry area in front of our section was filled with runners changing clothes, topping up with fluids and rubbing medicaments into sore muscles. They were all very grateful for our care of their kit.

It was great fun to be part of such a huge community event, with much money being raised for charities as part of it. Many thanks to all the Rotarians and their partners and friends, and the Friends of Rotary, who made up the brilliant baggage handling team.

Rosemary Cook