"Thank you, marshal"

Many years ago, my brother and I did the Great North Run, a half-marathon in and around Carlisle. Towards the end of the run, as we approached a road, one of the Marshals stepped out to stop any traffic, calling out to us "Come on, don't worry, we'll look after you."

At the time I was surprised to find myself suddenly welling up, and even now, just remembering it, I feel a little tightening in my throat.

It's not that I feel particularly vulnerable when I'm running, but there's something about the presence and encouragement of race marshals which can bring quite raw and ill-defined emotions to the surface. 

Since I started doing Parkrun with Hannah, most Saturday mornings, I've had a regular fix of this strange relationship, and Hannah has been saying for some time that we ought to volunteer occasionally. 

Well, today was the day we did it for the first time. We went to get our own run in beforehand, and then reported for duty as "funnel managers"*.

I love seeing people running, so Parkrun is almost overwhelming for me. My Extra gives you just a hint of the number of people running around Peel Park, this morning. 

And being a funnel manager was almost too much, watching all the different expressions as people made it over the line having completed their five k. 

It's really no great demand to congratulate each one as they cross the finish line, quite the reverse in fact, and it was wonderful to find myself on the receiving end of the phrase you hear all the time at races: "Thank you, marshal".

*For reasons that I'm not going to fully elaborate but to do with tracking times, having completed the course, it's important that runners stay in order as they proceed along the path ("funnel") from the finish line.