SoJo Aid Station 17

We got to help out with the SoJo Marathon again this year.

We were aid station 17.

We got to have the half marathoners come through, as well as the full marathoners.

We decided our aid station would all be cowboys.

Here is Amanda, and my brother Greg. The two of them, along with Shannon, manned the water table.

Who is Shannon you ask?

First, let me tell you a story about a little boy that came by our aid station. He was about 5 and he had a pin on him that said it was his birthday. We let him put on one of the cowboy vests and a cowboy hat. His mom took pictures....a few minutes later he came back up by the table and said "I didn't want to be a cowboy, I just wanted a drink of water." Oops, our bad.

So back to Shannon....she came over to our table while we were setting up. She is deaf, and it was very difficult to understand what she was saying. We assumed she wanted to help with the aid station, so we gave her a shirt, and a bandanna, and put her to work. I'm wondering if she could talk if she would come back and say, "I didn't want to be a cowboy, all I wanted was a drink."

Here is aid station 17 in action!

Caitlyn had the job of handing out Vaseline to those runners that were having personal problems. She had one guy stop and pop his blood blisters right next to her table. I think she will be scarred for life.

My long time friend Betsy, and her husband Bart, and their daughter Erin came and manned the Gatorade/Coke station. They are awesome!

#86 is Brian Curtis. He serves in the Stake Presidency with Dean. This was his first half marathon. His wife and kids were here to cheer him on.

Here is the first marathoner.

In the picture below, he is lapping the last of the half marathoners. That was nice of him to pass her in front of our aid station.

At aid stations, you can have Gatorade or water, or both. So at some races, the volunteers will ask if you want water or Gatorade. Our Gatorade was at a different table, so at our water table, Greg would ask if they would like water or agua. I'm sure he got some pretty weird looks.

We decided since we have a tradition of going to Cafe Rio after long races, that's where we needed to go.

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