Flying Pig Marathon 2009: Friday May 1, 2009

Friday May 1, 2009:

On Friday May 1, 2009, Kellie Kammer, Brittanee Brauning and myself all met up at the College of Mount St. Josephs parking lot to car pool and all drive and be together going down to they Convention Center in Down Town Cincinnati. This is where we will be working and helping out with anything the organizers needed at the Flying Pig Expo. When we first got there we knew we had to find Mary to get assigned tour work location and to get our assignment on what she wanted us to help her with. At first we just help set up with getting information packets together with maps, questions about that marathon participants might have together to hand out at the beginning of the expo. Myself and Kellie started to get the packets of information together while Brittanee and a few high school volunteers handed out the packets. One thing that I learn when I was putting together the packets of information is that it is time consuming. A lot of people don’t think about the behind the scene little things that all make a organization come together. I didn’t think that we where going to be handing out papers but come to find out that the only reason we got placed to hand out papers was because they thought us three were part of the high school volunteers.
After about less than an hour Mary came over and found us and told us that she needs our help and fast. The three of us looked at her concern on her face and knew it had to be something important. We put down all our packets and followed Mary to help assist her in the problem she needed us to help with. When we walked over to the area there was a huge line of people all waiting to get their information for late registrations for the marathons, half marathon, relays, 10k, 5k and all little piglet events. Mary then introduced us to Jim and said “Jim these three ladies are here to help you.” He then quickly gave us a quick run though of what he needs us to do. All three of us picked up the task at hand pretty fast. We knew what we had to in order to help assist all the people waiting in the lines.
We where assisted to check and register all runners, their bib numbers and running chips for their up coming event or marathon of choice. I found myself learning a lot about myself and how I had to handle each and ever questions or concern that would come up. I had to multitask for each customer that would come up to me. I knew that it was very important that I did each and every step in order to insure that nothing would get lost or not registered. Also many of the customers that would come up with me would be come over whelmed with the amount of information they need to accomplish before getting their event packet. I did have some customers that had some attitudes and I knew that I had to be very professional when handling each situation. I was now working for the Flying Pig marathon and didn’t want to disappoint them. From about 12 pm until 7 pm I was working non stop. This was a lot of physical work on the body both mental and physical. I had to keep my mind focused and also had to keep running back and forth to get each different packed of information for the events. At times many families would come up register all family members at once. It was very hard to keep all their information straight and not mix any bib numbers with the wrong event. It was a lot easier for me to multitask, talk with customers and also keep organized due to my skills I have learn in other jobs. Of course, it helped that I was a runner in the Flying Pig Marathon for the past three years and I was able to answer questions that I myself had the first few years I was a participant.
Even though I found it hard as to the physical aspect of the job, I really liked having the ability to help others and direct them to the right area of the expo. I found it a lot easier for me to help other with questions asked because I’ve been in a few marathons myself. I know all the little things that help make the experience a lot easier and enjoyable. I tried to tell Kellie and Brittanee about many of my own personal experiences also.