Ever year our team volunteers at the Virginia 10 Miler race. It is great way to get out into the community
and give back. This year was particularly special as we got to witness many
men, women and children cross the finish line of the 4 Miller event. The day of
the Virginia 10 Miler, was a rainy day but that didn’t stop the race from
happening or the participants from finishing.
When the team arrived, we were
given instructions for the run. We were instructed that we would be giving out
medals to the runners as they crossed the finish line. To prepare for this task
we started to open up boxes full of medals and placed them on each other’s
arms. After fifty or so medals, they got
heavy. Arm Workout! After we got as many medals as we could on
each other’s arms we lined up by the finish line waiting her our finisher.
When the first runner crossed,
Donnie Cowart at 19:52 (official results obtained from VA10Miler.com) it was
exciting to see how happy he was after we handed him a medal and congratulated
him. More and more people crossed over the finish line, but another special
site was when disabled children and their parents crossed the finish line. The
kids were so happy and it was great to see such enthusiasm of them and their parents. Their innocence and happiness instantly
brought everyone else happiness and peace. This was such a big accomplishment
and it was so amazing to witness the joy on their face when we handed them
their own medal. They forgot about the cold rain that morning and just pushed
through.
The experience
of volunteering at the VA 10 Miler was inspirational for our team. You could see that the experience lit a fire
in all our souls and helped us to keep pushing through congratulating people
for the rest of the race. It was fun and
encouraging to watching everyone finish strong.
When the race was nearing the end, in the distance we saw the last two
finishers of the race round the corner.
We ran to them and cheered them on as they ran their last couple of
meters. From experience we knew those
last couple steps are hard after a long run and this is a practice that we take
with our own team when someone is finishing their runs. As a team we try to
encourage each other to push that last little stride so we run up next to the
person and cheer them on for support. Seeing them cross the finish line gave us
the best feeling anyone could have.
After the Virginia 10 miler we headed down to practice. We were all freezing cold, soaking wet, but
ready to work hard due to the inspiration from all the finishers of the 10
miler that we saw that day. We practiced
hard and by the end we felt ready for our Fall Ball Tournament the next day.
The Fall Ball tournament went very well the next day and a
lot of our success on the field is attributed to the inspiration that we gained
the day before by all the runners and walkers that crossed the finish line. Our
success has made us excited for this coming season. Although it is always nice
to be successful on the field, off the field our team enjoys giving back to the
community.
This volunteering experience made
our team closer but also started a fire in us.
To see the passion, dedication, and hard work that these people put into
running the 10 miler, made us reflect on how we could apply all those great
qualities toward our team and a great season come Spring. Go CatLax!
Written by: Dana Cavallo '19 and Nicole Dorton '19
