The Vitality Big Half is a half marathon that takes place through Wapping, the Docklands and the more northern parts of Southwark and Greenwich. With 20,000 entrants and 1200 volunteers, there's room for everyone to get involved!

With a particularly strong contingent of GoodGym runners (it passed through at least 3 different GoodGym areas), it was equally important that we helped show our support for them (& the other runners, of course 😅)

And so, early on a windy Sunday morning, 10 GoodGymmers gathered to volunteer at a water aid station for the Vitality Big Half.

We were situated just after mile 8, which meant that there was a good while to wait after our initial setup was done (there were genuinely burst blisters from the amount of water bottles that were opened in anticipation of the deluge of runners we expected at peak times). After the disappointment of realising that the super convenient supermarket located almost directly opposite our aid station was super inconveniently closed until our shift finished (and so couldn't be used to grab breakfast), some GoodGymmers made the valiant trip to a nearby gelato shop for hot drinks for everyone. This was greatly appreciated on such a day! We also had some bananas, ginger nut biscuits and homemade chocolate fudge to keep our energy up while we were waiting :)

There was also some entertainment while we waited, both in the form of a neighbouring steel band and in the form of dodging random parts of an overhanging tree that insisted on falling on top of us. Thankfully though, we didn't have as much entertainment as much the adjacent water group, who had a metre long branch fall by them!! This will definitely be listed as a potential hazard the next time we do race volunteering 😅😂

After a while of waiting, the first wheelchairs started to whizz past us, followed by Sir Mo Farah (not celebrating too early with the Mo-bot at mile 8, and not too keen on our proffered water, but we cheered extra loudly anyway 😄👍) After that, the number of runners built up to a crescendo while us volunteers concentrated on streamlining our water distribution chain. We took care to swap in and out of roles so that no-one got stuck doing one job the entire time, and to occasionally remember to drink something ourselves: it's thirsty work giving out water, but the time goes so quickly!

We started to pack up as the stream of runners became a trickle, and so we were pretty much ready to go at 12 when our shift ended. Everyone seemed relatively bright-eyed and bushy tailed at the end of our shift (or at least more so than they had at 7am that morning), so that probably means that we all enjoyed the experience!

Thanks to everyone for volunteering: I appreciate all of the common sense responsibilities you assumed, often without me even asking! ☺️