Hey, I volunteered at Hood to Coast this year to help out some friends. I showed up on time for my shift and hung out at my post waiting for the action to start. When it did it my job quickly morphed into a nightmare – stop the people from going where they want to go. What could go wrong! Instead of any signage or cones to direct the flow of thousands of people, they use only human volunteers and our assertive voices! So teams were confused and frustrated by the time they got to me, and I was stuck in the sun all day developing animosity towards runners who are so into their “experience” that they can’t see that I’m just trying to prevent them from being killed by some dumb “will run for beer” van. Basically, I was the asshole all day, and no matter how nice I tried to be about it, people acted like I was personally out to ruin their lives (other than the two people who thanked me for volunteering). There was no support from officials (coming down to remind me that my job is to stop the people while I am clearly doing just that is not helpful), not even extra water (I went through my two bottles pretty fast). At the end of my 5 hour shift, no one came to relieve me. It took half an hour to get someone else to stand in my spot, and an hour to get out of the exchange area. This is a for-profit race! This race relies on volunteers! There was no anticipation of the crowds, and no support for the volunteers where I was stationed, and sadly not of moment of fun, suck city.

9 replies on “Volunteering at Hood to Coast Sucks”

  1. Got trapped in the thick of these anus wipes while at the coast yesterday. Seriously, I feel for you. I’ve never seen such an annoying mob in all my years, and those stupid vans with the reddit meme’s taped to the back, blow up doll’s pinned to the top, corny team names, etc, etc. I wanted to drive into the ocean just to get away from it.

  2. Dang! What a racket!

    1050 teams x $1404.00 = $1,474,200

    + PDX to Coast walk

    400 teams x $960.00 = $384,000

    + High School challenge

    50 teams x $125.00 = $6,250

    = $1,864,450.00 before corporate sponsors for two days worth of event. I’m sure there are some expenses incurred but no way this takes the other 363 days of the year to organize. Even with some charitable donations (*tax write offs*) somebody’s getting paid. I’m in the wrong business. Boring to Newport Roller Skate Road Rally, anyone?

  3. But its hood to coast! That’s like the peak of the cascade mountains all the way to the pacific ocean. That’s like incredible bro. You just don’t get epic. Human beings running all that way for charity man. And what did you do to help? Stand and point? You should feel honored you were allowed to be a race marshall. Instead you cry a big long poem.

  4. ^ it’s worth noting that it’s a relay race, though. They take turns running 3.5 – 8 mile parts of the whole way.

  7. Hood to Coast is an awesome, fun experience as a runner even with all the frustrations in the event, so thanks for being nice enough to say “yes” when someone you knew obligated you to several hours of free labor to a for-profit event. Hopefully they do something nice for you to let you know it was worth it.

  8. Gotta agree. I ran it once. It’s an oversubscribed racket. Try Cascade Lakes or Ragnar NW Passage. About a fifth the number of teams, so it’s not a huge clusterfuck.

  9. THANK YOU. I too volunteered. Even WITH traffic cones showing runners the way to go, with me standing at the cones re-iterating it verbally, they still ignored me half the time or looked at me like I was speaking Dutch. Is it that hard, really? I just don’t want you to die by HTC van, OK? Use your brains.

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