Friday, May 07, 1999
THE VOLUNTEERS
Water to wire, army of 3,000 make the race go
BY SCOTT MacGREGOR
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When Mike Boylan received an Indian wood-carved flying pig as a Christmas gift from his wife in 1997, little did he know that five months later, he would leave his law practice to become executive director of the Flying Pig Marathon.
Boylan had no inkling at the time what lay ahead. But when organizers of Cincinnati's first marathon asked him to head up the operation, Boylan, an avid runner and former Roger Bacon High School track coach, couldn't turn down the chance to help out.
“There's a real spirit of civic involvement in this city,” Boylan said. “That's one of the reasons I wanted to do it. ”
If not for that spirit, Boylan and his staff of two — the only three paid professional staff of the race, plus a receptionist and a few clericals brought on board for final preparations — might be running Sunday's show with little help. Instead, more than 3,000 volunteers will help pull it off — 2,000 of them on race day alone, plus the 1,000 who have been hard at work for some time.
Take Denise Hovey, a teacher's aide at a Montessori school near the Flying Pig office who has come in every afternoon to process the entries of all 6,000 runners. Boylan calls her “by far” the most valuable volunteer and “the right person at the right time.”
Then there are the 1,400 volunteers who will work water stations during the race, plus about 200 course monitors, 100 timers, 50 at the starting line, 150 at the finish line and 100 members of the Rotary club working with wheelchair athletes.
Already, volunteers have canvased neighborhoods affected by the course to inform residents of street closings, and helped run a fluid station at the Heart Mini-Marathon. They'll also help with pre-race activities such as the kids' fun run.
The water station volunteers — the largest and perhaps most important group — come from 31 non-profit organizations, ranging from the Lakota and Scott High School track teams to the Special Olympics to Habitat for Humanity. The volunteer effort has been so large, Boylan said, at one point he had more groups than fluid stations.
“Raising them one at a time didn't make sense,” Boylan said, “so I put out the call to the non-profits. These are things they can do as a team.”
Boylan will return to his law practice at Coen, Todd, Kite and Stanford in June, but he says he'll miss the community spirit he has seen come alive.
“I've met more great people in this city because of this,” he said. “If I were independently wealthy, I'd keep doing it.”
Flying Pig Marathon Guide
