Dam Volunteering

This morning Jacob and I got up at 6:40. Almost an impossible time to function for us. Why? We wanted free t-shirts. Every year Rexburg hosts a marathon from the Teton Dam all the way into town and the volunteers are supposed to get cool t-shirts that look like this with their logo on the front and "Dam Volunteer" on the back. (I don't know who these girls are.)

Instead, we got these dam ugly things.

There were either small or extra large shirts. So, here I am looking like a neon balloon in a small shirt at almost 19 weeks pregnant. Here is Jacob waving like a flag in his extra large.

We were dropped in the middle of nowhere at 7:30 at 23 and half miles from where the race started at 5:00 and 10 miles from where the half marathon began later. We didn't see anyone for about an hour. It was cold and windy. Being dramatic, I swore we were left to die. If it weren't for the old farmer spraying pesticides on his crops, I would have had no hope for survival. Eventually we saw the first runners who looked like this was a Sunday walk in the park for them. They were smiling and cheering for us, the volunteers, the ones who were supposed to be smiling and cheering for them. Then came the middle of the pack, some where happy, some were not. Then, the end... Some people were okay with us clapping for them and telling them they were almost there. Others looked like they wanted us to shut up. But there was certainly no one cheering for us by then. Couldn't they see that we was standing there since 7:30? That deserves something.

As soon as there began to be what felt to be 5-10 minutes between each runner, I was done. A volunteer van would pass our corner every once in a while to pick up volunteers, but they would just stare at us blankly like we didn't have these hideously bright matching neon shirts on. So we made like the slow runners and walked 3 miles back into town. On the way we passed some houses. One house in particular had a dog that Jacob was playing with through the fence, until the dog came through the fence and didn't want to go back. We had no idea what to do and it didn't have a collar. I started yelling at the house that we had their dog, but the house sat there. Finally a runner came by and heard what had happened. So she picked the dog up and shoved it back through the fence. Why didn't we think of that?

All of this has taught me an important lesson though. Never get up at 6:40 for a free t-shirt, because the shirt will be ugly, and it wont be fun.