The Chocolate Half Marathon - Volunteer Report

Last weekend was the inaugural Chocolate Half Marathon in Port Dalhousie. Diane - my friend and race director for Dirty Girls 6/12/24H Trail Runs - teamed up with Colleen Montgomery - owner of Montees, a running shirt company - to put this race together. They tirelessly worked to pull this off and with the help of many generous sponsors, this event was deemed a success.

Four of us - Kevin, Kinga, Stephan, and I - decided to help out for the event. Diane and Henri, along with Barney the cat, graciously hosted us at their place for the weekend. Kevin and I had to put up with Barney running back and forth between us during the night but it was all good. I guess Barney was out of sorts over the fact that I invaded his bed, and Kevin was the warm body on the floor where he could also curl up.

On Saturday, we all worked the expo at the park which served as the venue. We were put to work doing race packet pickups and providing information to the racers who came through. I arrived at the venue on Saturday afternoon as I elected to stay home Friday evening. I was immediately impressed with how organised everything was. The chocolate sponsors were set up at their stations, providing samples to all who attended. RunningSkirts.com were also there selling their skirts. Some were at a discounted price and I was able to score a new skirt at a sweet deal.

After the expo concluded, we immediately packed up some of the stuff in preparation for the next day before heading back over to Diane and Henri's where we were treated to Thai food. over dinner and drinks, we discussed the next day's strategies before we retired for a really early morning.

The next morning, my alarm went off. After waking up Kevin, I fell back asleep... Oops! Kevin and Stephan left to head over to the park where they were to assume the role of the parking police until they met up with Kinga and I at the station. Kinga and I assumed the role of the Chocolate Police. We were supposed to be at Chocolate F/X prepping the coolers to take to the chocolate stations. We both made the mistake of sleeping in and we were beating some speed records to get dressed and out of the house. We were a few minutes late after driving passed the store. We couldn't see it in the dark and ended up having to double back. Upon arrival, we were immediately put to work putting the chocolates into the coolers and loading them up into the van.

After packing the chocolates, we left the store and started making deliveries to the chocolate stations. We grabbed some breakfast along the way to eat as we worked. Once we arrived at our station, the guys showed up and they helped to set up the station.

The race started and we immediately saw the lead runners come by. One thing about our station, it was pretty busy from the beginning to the end. This was because we were also catering to runners who were running the short course for this race. While Kinga and Stephan were handing out the chocolates, I was busy scooping chocolates into the cups and Kevin was busy alternating between scooping chocolates, and retrieving discarded cups in our area. We had a lot of fun doing this - while refraining from the ultrarunning dirty talk. We saw some of our friends - Steve, Debrah, Ron, Spence, and Laurie (second female overall) - out there on the course and traded barbs with them. We knew when it was time to pack up when the sweep runners came by. Once we saw them on the return, we packed it in and headed out. Kinga and I had to pick up leftovers from one of the other stations before we headed into the park.

Our arrival at the park was loud. Diane basically sent the runners to mob us of our leftover chocolates. We were busy once again scooping the chocolates into cups and handing them out. Once the crowd died down, we all mingled with some of the other runners until the last runner came in. We sampled more chocolate - including ice cream from Kawartha Dairy.

After the event wrapped up, we all got busy with the final clean up of the park. With all hands on deck, we were able to get the park cleaned up and the trucks loaded in just under two hours. Upon arriving back at the house, all hands were on deck unloading the van and the truck before we all settled down inside for some debriefing.

The four of us departed the house just before 17h00. We all had a detour to make on the way home - Dundas Valley to run a 10K section of the Sulphur Springs course. The run started just after 18h00. While we were making great strides, I was actually feeling tired. As a result, I was also a little out of sorts and hung back in the rear to give myself some space to think. I also slowed down to a walk at times just to get it all back. It came in the final stretch when I found a really steep hill that was not part of the run and made the decision to tackle it. Kevin, Kinga and Stephan immediately decided to follow me up that hill. That was definitely a steep hill! It would burn if the race directors decided to include it as part of the course. Heading through the Headwaters Trail, we saw some unusual looking fungi that was growing. This one looked like it could glow in the dark if it was any brighter.


We also saw a deer off to the side of the trail on the way back. He absolutely looked peaceful as he kept his distance and watched us run by...

Once we wrapped up the run, we all went over to a local diner for a bite to eat. Of course, we all marvelled at the wonderful time we had and looked ahead to the next adventure at hand before dispersing to our homes and our lives.