This year, I volunteered for a shift at the marathon expo on Friday and at the 5k finish line on Saturday. I highly recommend doing either (or both) of these -- whether you're running the marathon or not.
My flight out on Friday from Dulles was supposed to leave at 6:30am, getting me into Chicago several hours ahead of my shift. I was figuring on dropping off my bags at the hotel, getting something to eat, arriving at and taking in the expo for a decent amount of time before checking in at 11am for my shift. Murphy decided otherwise. After multiple delays (and infuriating changes of the story from United about what was happening with our plane), I finally landed in Chicago at about 11:30, and got to my hotel at about noon. By the time I got down to Cermak Road, not only had I not had any real meal yet, I was hours late for my shift. (I had e-mailed them and called in advance of my check-in time to alert them to the delay.) I remembered rom my prior jaunts to the expo (in 2016 and 2021) that White Castle was en route. Mmmm... the smell and taste of those sliders. So good, and something I get a hankering for once every several years. I quickly ducked in to get a few cheeseburger sliders and scarf them down while walking towards the expo. I actually arrived at the expo at about 1:30pm. It wasn't all that busy at the entrance, but was chaotic inside the main area (as expected).
Dutifully following the signs directing me through security and the runner check-in (even though I wasn't planning on getting my packet first off), it was obvious that I should just pick up my bib, etc. immediately -- get it out of the way. I was one of likely thousands of people who were astonished with the simplicity of the check-in process. Chicago Marathon has instituted a system whereby you do the initial ID check right past security, and they tell you which of about 35 stations to go to to get your bib. By the time I walked over to the correct counter, they had my bib in hand and were addressing me by name immediately. What the...? It took a split second to recognize what happened, and I was highly impressed. They need to flag this system at least to the other majors. This was brilliant, and helped speed things along. It would be even faster if there were more volunteers, where each station had not only one person to do the actual check-in with the runner, but at least one other person to pull the bibs. There were a few times where my line got backed up with 2 or 3 people who arrived right at the same time. (Line being no more than 3 deep? Great!)
After picking up my t-shirt and bag, and checking in for the Abbott Age Group Championships (and getting another wristband for my collection), I meandered around the expo for about 20 minutes before I was able to check in for the last shift of the expo: 2:15 - 6+ pm.
Chicago definitely had a good system in place for checking in and training the volunteers. We all checked in via our QR codes in the e-mail we got a few days in advance, and specialty by specialty, we were separated into groups to have our individual training, leaving all of us who were dealing with the ID check and bib pick-up as the last (and largest) group. Shortly enough afterwards, we went out and relieved the prior shift. The traffic flow was fairly steady, but it was never overwhelming. (The same is likely not true for the people who were checking people in on Saturday.) Nearly everyone who I greeted, typically bib in hand, was flabbergasted and asked how I knew who they were without seeing their ID or check-in e-mail. Everyone was impressed by the system. The main reason why I ever had a line of multiple people was because the vast majority of people who I checked in were also Abbott Age Championship competitors, so I had to give them the spiel of where to check in, in addition to pointing them to the shirts and bags. It worked out well that I had flown through the expo earlier, as I could better describe where they needed to go.
After the expo (and getting an unobstructed photo of the 6-Star Finishers Wall (above)), I met up with a group of people for dinner for a little while before heading back to the hotel to crash so that I could wake up at oh-dark-thirty to check in at 6am for my 5k volunteer shift at the finish line. (My hotel was at O'Hare -- a 45-minute L ride in.) First thing: join the ever growing group of people who were taking the medals out of the boxes they were in and put them on one of several racks that will enable a much easier time of awarding them to finishers as they cross. 12,000 medals takes quite a lot of man-hours to properly stage.
Next up, I joined in with helping set out some of the Haribo gummies, and then putting out bottles of water. Soon enough, everything was properly staged, and it was a few minutes until the start of the 5k. We braced ourselves for the runners arriving starting a little over 15 minutes hence. One of the people in charge of the area had advised those of us manning the table with water to stand behind the table and merely restock - that the runners would take the bottles themselves. After maybe 4 or 5 people finished and were clearly not in a state of mind to pick up their own bottles, I moved out from behind the table and picked up a bundle of one dozen bottles at a time to hand out. This was definitely the right move, especially as the trickle turned into a flood of finishers. Being able to quickly hand over the bottle and keep them moving along (in a very tight finisher's chute) got them cleared much faster than if they had to get to the table and pull the bottles out of the plastic that bound the bundles of 24 together. Everyone was very appreciative, from the speed demons to the back-of-the-packers. And it was great seeing several little kids who clearly completed the 5k with their parents and were bewildered by just how many people were surrounding them.
And, seemingly just like that, the last finisher crossed and I was able to leave shortly thereafter. I made my way down to Chinatown to position myself for lunch, but took advantage of the library at the L station to stay warm, check my e-mail, and even take a brief nap. The highlight of the day was heading a few blocks away to MingHin Cuisine for some great dim sum. (I really need to go with additional people to have a wider variety of items to eat.)
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