2009 ENDURrun Ultimate Pre-Race Meeting

The pre race meeting and packet pickup took place at the ENDURrun race director’s house. Lloyd Schmidt is the mastermind behind this unique running event. He and his family are the main volunteers and driving force behind the scenes.

Participating in a small home run race does have it’s advantages. Firstly, the race director knows your name! Lloyd walked over and gave me my race kit, which consisted of a reusable Saucony bag, in which was the technical race shirt, a forest green golf shirt (with ENDURrun logo), a Saucony water bottle, a map of Waterloo (only the out of town participants got a map; nice touch!), a pair of Saucony socks, and an ENDURrun 2009 pin.

It was great mingling with the other runners. There was a sense of tension in the air; anticipation of what is to come. From my estimates, about 3/4 of the runners were returning participants.

Lloyd kicked off the meeting by introducing the principal volunteers behind things like the water stations, course marshals, and post-race food preparers. Everyone was very friendly, and put to rest many of the questions I had. One of the things I found really amazing was that they (the volunteers) bend over backwards to accomodate pretty much all runner requests. If someone wants Clif Bloks on the course at the half mark, they’ll have them there. If someone needs to have some special fluid potion or fuel available, they’ll make sure it is.

He also had quite a few pictures on display of past ENDURruns. It was cool looking at the runners, and seeing many faces in there, in the room, repeating the event. We also got to see some of the trophies, and “bling” available.

Lloyd also provided a nice spread of fruit, vegetables, muffins, and coffee/tea/pop and other drinks. Most runners mingled for 15-20 minutes afterwards before departing.

I’m now all ready and packed for my first event, the half marathon. Clothes are laid out, fuel is set up, shoes are by the door. Hopefully I can get some sleep tonight and be calm cool and collected for tomorrow. Good night!