I have never run the Buffalo Marathon despite living here for the last 23 years. One year I ran as part of a relay team and twice Alex and I ran the Saturday 5K. Last year Alex ran the half-marathon. For the last 8 years, Alex and I have volunteered at the Buffalo Triathlon Club mile 2/mile 4 water stop (unless we were out of town).
As the race starts at 6:30 AM this requires waking up before 4 AM to be there at 4:45 AM to start setting up the tables and filling thousands of cups. Alex is an early riser like me but I was surprised the two years that Alex got a friend or two to join us. The BTC gets a charity grant for staffing the water stop and this year my masters swim team (Nickle City Splash) also participated so I signed up for four-hour volunteer shifts for them as well on both Saturday and Sunday.
Knowing that my training time would be limited on the weekend I scheduled a full day of training on Friday.
I had sent out an invitation on the triathlon club’s facebook page for an “unofficial” open water swim (OWS) at 7 am Friday and was happy when there were 5 of us. It was my third Lake Erie swim of the spring at Wanakah Beach in Hamburg (the Official ones don’t start until mid-June but my first race is June 1st). The water was up to 65 degrees (it had been 53 and 57 earlier) and only a little choppy, the air temperature was up to 70 by 8:30 AM.
Halfway through the swim I heard a loud motor and looked around for a boat until I realized it was a Sheriff Department Helicopter circling overhead. I was worried maybe they wanted us to get out of the water but after I waved they circled and headed south. They were probably out on a practice flight to be ready for all the drunk boating incidents on the holiday weekend.
After drying off I drove the 20 minutes East to Chestnut Ridge Park in Orchard Park (my go-to hill training site as it is very flat in Amherst where I live).
I had planned to bike 50 or 60 miles with 3000 feet of climbing but after I hit 2000 feet of climbing in the first hour I had to replan my route and even though I took “less” hilly roads I passed 3000 feet and decided that I would stop at 3500 feet regardless of distance. So I “only” biked 48 miles but 3.5 hours was enough. It was almost 80 and sunny and I was not well acclimated to the heat yet. I had also done a 90-minute brick (60-minute bike and 30-minute run) the day before which would not usually be the case before a long bike day (but….volunteering all weekend).
I saw these gorgeous horses at the top of a big hill.
I did a 15-minute run off the bike and actually, my legs felt strong and I managed a close to 9 minute/mile pace.
After stretching, driving home, and unloading all my swim and bike gear I would have been happy for an early dinner and bed but…. my friend Ron was in a new band and they were playing their first show.
I am glad I went. The vocalist was AMAZING. Ron’s guitar playing is always great. The drummer was also excellent.
I was glad I went as there were only a few dozen people at the small pub/club. They played a nice mix of Soul and classic rock songs. I stayed only a little past 9 pm as it had been a loooooong day. I look forward to seeing them play again later this summer.
Saturday morning I just did an easy 3 miles on the treadmill and then an hour of Yoga/core work in the basement. I got downtown more quickly than anticipated which was great as just as I got to the convention center the first wave of the kids’ fun runs was starting.
Look at the form of the boy in the 0-3 age group!
I got my (AWESOME this year) volunteer shirt and headed upstairs to the registration area. I was first assigned to folding/rolling the runner shirts.
I only had to do that challenging task for about 30 minutes before I got promoted to the registration desk.
Great artwork on the volunteer shirts.
I just had to check people’s IDs and then the “runners” would collect the bib and shirt for each athlete. There were a good number of people from Canada, I thanked them all for visiting our country, and one woman from France (Je parl au pous Francais….?). I was told it had been very busy for the first few hours of registration and it was still moderately busy for the first hour or two but then slowed down a lot. I had brought “lunch” with me as I wasn’t sure if/what they would have for the volunteers. Of course, being Buffalo there was plenty of comfort food!
They did also have salad and sandwiches so I could have eaten healthily even if I hadn’t brought my own meal.
I was continually getting “Lightening near your location” alerts on my phone and by 1 pm people were looking soggy…. and they all asked if we had bags. We did not have bags. Usually, at a race, you get your bib and shirt in a bag and can then put other goodies you get at the race expo into it.
With less work, I kept myself busy by making sets of 4 safety pins (like they have at the “fancy” races).
I also took some time and wandered around the Expo which was much more extensive than I remember from years ago.
I saw a beautiful black lab and at first, kept my distance as with it’s vest I thought it might be working but it was just the pup of a woman who had a spot at the expo for her dog training business.
It was just drizzling by the time I headed to my car and on the way home I grabbed some Indian food. This bird was VERY excited I had filled the bird bath that morning.
I watched the local news to see the detailed weather forecast for the rest of weekend (good for race on Sunday, rainy for Memorial Day Monday) and was surprised to see a familiar face during the story about the Marathon.
BTC hat made it into the video…. “influencer” !
I went to sleep “early” but the 3:55 AM alarm was still jarring. After a 5-minute shower and then an early breakfast and a walk for a surprised Fifa, I was on the road by 4:20 AM. With 40 BTC volunteers, they had already set up all the tables by the time I arrived at 5. I helped set up cups and fill them with water (I ALWAYS avoid the sticky Gatorade tables) for a half hour and then had some Tim’s coffee and a tasty rice-crispy treat.
It was VERY foggy and about 60 degrees. The fog hung around until almost 8 and then it stayed overcast for a little longer before it got very sunny. The half-marathon racers and fast marathon runners had PERFECT conditions, it did get pretty hot out late in the morning for the slower marathon people.
Ethan was ALL about the spoon for some reason. I wore my shark hat (that I wore in NYC marathon last year) and had my cowbell. There was soft moss growing on the Buffalo statue, in a few years he’ll have a full fur coat.
First male and female runners.
There were 1500 full and 3700 half runners, plus some relay teams.
As only the stragglers were still reaching mile 2 but most people were now on the way back and at mile 4 we moved across to offer them water and cheers.
We did the wave for the last 2 racers.
NOTICE that there is not a single cup on the ground. While most of us were handing out water and cheering and watching the racers, a few dedicated BTC volunteers spent all their time sweeping up the cups and bagging the garbage! After a second cup of coffee and another rice crispy treat I walked the 2 miles downtown to the convention center.
The fast half-marathoners had already finished, and I passed several with their medals while walking. You can see how overcast it still was at 9 AM.
There were a LOT of swim team members assigned to “shirt exchange” duty.
I helped out there for a little while but then found some other friends working at the food table in the post-race party room.
It was nice that there was enough food for not only the athletes but also all the friends and relatives, there was also beer. And… Kiwis! With special kiwi tools, cut them in half and then scoop out the fruit!
My friend Jaime was doing the full marathon and I heard he was hoping for around 4:20 so I headed down to the finish line around then and managed to get a great photo of him (and got to pet a nice golden). You can see how sunny it is by then and it was upper 70s.
I went back inside and helped with the food for another hour but by then there were very few people still on the course so I headed back to my car. It was another 2-mile walk and I see now my phone says I walked 21,000 steps today (and was on my feet continually for 8 hours), so much for a “rest” day.
Roosevelt was inaugurated here in 1901 after McKinley was shot by an anarchist at the World Fair/Pan-Am Expo.
While walking back to my car I was going against the direction of the course so I was able to cheer the last few dozen people out there. I passed a few people with less than a mile to go and told them “Less than a mile, you can beat 6 hours!”. At mile 25 I saw the last person on the course with the convoy of official vehicles right behind her. She seemed very happy and to be walking comfortably. I stopped to clap and told her “I always say it is a lot easier to run a 3-hour marathon than to tough out a 6-hour one, good job!”
I heard there was no prize money for the Buffalo Marathon so no international top runners.
The male winner was almost 20 minutes slower than the men’s world record and the woman was 40 minutes behind the women’s record.
Fifa was very happy to see me after the long day apart.
We settled in the shade and I listened to some Jazz (and the birds) and did my blogging.
The forecast looks bad for tomorrow so I guess I’ll be biking in the basement.
With it’s 6:30 start time, GREAT volunteers, flat course, and amazing post-race party I now realize that I should run the Buffalo Marathon! Will be doing it in 2025! See you there, on Sunday, May 25th, 2025!