OK, perhaps I should call this trial by ice.
As in, it was so cold the water at the water stop froze between when we poured it and when the girls arrived.
Yeah.
This past weekend was the Girls on the Run 5k. I’ve volunteered many times for this race and others. This was my first time, however, being the manager of the water stop. And I was rockin’ it. I got there crazy early and another helper and I set up the stop. We were quite thankful for the Knuckle Lights I won from Another Mother Runner, as there were no streetlights above the water stop.
As dawn was breaking, the rest of the water stop crew showed up. We poured water. And poured water. And poured water.
And then we noticed that some of the first poured cups were frozen. And that the water in the gallon jugs was freezing.
Umm…
Eventually, we dumped all the frozen cups to the side and repoured water as the race was starting. Even some of that was frozen in the 8-10 minutes before the first girl arrived. Eventually it became a situation where we poured as a girl walked up and there ended up being a bit of a wait for water. We did our best and most of the parents and girls were pretty understanding.
Lessons learned:
- Don’t pour the water so early when it’s that cold.
- Preferably have a car or two nearby where water (and people) can be kept warm.
- If you have a choice between a running jacket and a parka, wear the parka.
- If you think you need another layer, you do. Don’t dress like you’ll warm up running the race.
- Bring multiple pairs of gloves. Gloves get wet. Then the fingers of the gloves become a solid block of ice.
In the end, we all survived and hopefully the girls all got enough water. I did finally thaw out by sometime on Sunday afternoon and my Fit Meter recorded a rockin’ 11,000 steps!
Your water stop story made me laugh because we used to live in NoVa and a few years ago at the Reindeer Romp at Reston Town Center, it was also so cold that the water froze. Girls were dumping their extra water on the road and it was freezing immediately. There’s nothing more fun than dodging patches of ice with thousands of other people!
We’ve seen pictures on the news here of how cold it is over there. It’s hard to imagine while we’re sweltering and hiding from the summer storms.
Thats awesome that you were able to help out, Girls on the Run is a great thing and I wish they had that when I was younger!!!
Frozen water is no good for races but sometimes it’s super hard. Heck I have had long runs where the water froze in my hand held water bottle before!
Wow! That’s cold. I didn’t even walk the dog yesterday. I took her out today, but at least it wasn’t windy!
oye that’s crazy, way to go on being a volunteer in that!! I think that’s so much harder because you are not able to warm up!