I. d. from Orlando (1/7/07)
It was a hot day this year (70's and 80's!) and it was well known in advance it would be. However our water stop had even less water than previous years and 2/3's of the way thru the day, we were out of water at mile 19. Runners swore at water stop workers, some runners saying that they had been without anything to drink for 4 miles, as other stops also were without any beverage or food. Whoever was in charge this year is a total buffoon.
I worked the water stop and was witness to the anger and pain of the runners. Many of us even used all of our own supplies of drink and food for the runners. It's good that some people had brought their cars to the stop as their cars contained these supplies. The runners did understand that Mickey mismanagement was to blame, however they still were so mad and upset, they just had to let it out. I will never work another Disney marathon again, having seen this and also witnessed how the management treated a large group at our water stop, because they had brought their cars to the stop (like they had been doing for many years! I'll not go into it, but it was really embarrassing and the lady who dished out the abuse should be relinquished of her duties.
I will go into it instead - this person told everyone that they would not get the one-day Disney passes that they were entitled to as volunteers for the water stop, because cars had been driven to the stop. This even affected people who had not brought cars, but had taken a bus to the site! This lady again exhibited all the intellect of a buffon. I hope management of Disney will severely admonish this person.
I had a different perspective this year at Disney, I was a "volunteer"
for the 1/2 and full marathons instead of running Goofy. I use the term volunteer loosely because Disney gives each volunteer a one-day park pass good for a year for each shift work. My husband thought it was great - instead of spending $190, my daughter and I scored 4 tickets @
$67 each along with 12.5 hrs for the required HS volunteer work, not too bad.
Kate and I ended up working the bag check for the 1/2 marathon. Note to
self: never pick this job again. I thought it wouldn't be too bad but we had to get there at 2:15AM and didn't finish until 11am. Note to
runners: when they tell you to put your bag check items in the plastic bag provided, DO IT! We did end up improvising - with a roll of duct tape, you can do anything! I don't mind duct taping keys and phones but the socks ..... They started the 1/2 marathon in 3 waves. Even after the last wave started, we still had people rolling into the staging area asking which way to the start - I pointed in the right direction but didn't have the heart to tell them it was about a mile to the start.
What's 1 mile? Kate and I sat around for, what seemed like forever, waiting for the runners to finish. Once most of the runners started coming in, crowd control started getting to be a problem so I was recruited to keep the spectators out of the runner area. Runners were dropping like flies. I must have ran to the medical tent a million times to get help for someone having problems. Disney has some work to do on this issue -they put the medical tent at the finish line but didn't have anyone in the staging area which is like 1/4 mile (or seems like it) from the finish. You have to weave your way around the sea of runners to get to the med tent. Spectators aren't allowed back there so I had to escort several frantic parents of minors that went to medical at the finish. After about an hour of this they finally got this mobile medical unit (looked like a golf cart) out there to help people. They also ran out of medals. Boy did I hear some "un-Disney" words from the runners. Then... someone "found" a box of medals. Also heard they ran out of water.
The marathon was much more fun. We were at water stop #13 (just past Magic Kingdom) and we've done these several times so Kate and I got our own table, set it up quickly and then waited for the runners. We always make sure we get water and not powerade - way too messy. I am always amazed at the lead runners and how fast they are going. They make it look so easy, like they are hardly moving but try to hand them a cup of water and its like sticking your hand out to a moving vehicle. I wore my Badwater hat hoping by some chance I might get to see a lister - I did have one lady ask me if I ran it and I laughed and said no, just crewed.
I did tell one runner with an Ohio State shirt on that that wasn't allowed in FL but then he said "Go Gators" and I said that was ok. The runners were all so polite and thankful and I've never handed out so many cups of water in my life. People were taking 2-3 cups at a time and I knew it the heat was tough on them. We almost ran out of water and they did run out of the oranges and bananas-thanks for eating yours off the ground, John!
Looking forward to see the Goofy listers next year!
J B
Ocoee, FL
FLSharon
Great!! I told the CM in charge of the area in which i was volunteering on Sunday about the lack of water at various places for the half. She just wanted to argue with me saying it wasn't true. Thank heavens everyone doesn't have their heads in the sand here..
