Hydration Station Winner
By James Baker
Skywrighter Staff
The Professor, Mary Anne and even the Skipper too did their part to help give participants an extra burst of energy and push them to the finish line in the 13th annual United States Air Force Marathon.
The “Gilligan’s Island” hydration station was one of 23 themed locations on display at different segments of the race. Volunteers provided water and Gatorade to thousands of marathon, half-marathon and 10k runners while dressed in costumes and music playing in the background. The castaways earned the Wright Flyer Trophy for the most entertaining, motivating and creative station.
Mike Jervis of the 88th Communications Group, Raymond Boston of the Air Force Institute of Technology and Tina Hall of AFCSC were on hand at the awards luncheon where they picked up their trophy, which was presented by Wright-Patterson vice commander Richard J. Hazdra.
“Everyone was talking about what an outstanding job the Communications Group did and how they helped push so many those difficult miles towards the end of the race,” said Col. Hazdra. “They all did an outstanding job.”
Marathon Director Molly Louden said stations such as these are vital to the success of those who take part in the challenging annual event.
“Any kind of distraction is a positive for runners looking for anything to help take their mind off of things when they hit that wall,” she said. “All the stations did an exceptional job but I thought the Gilligan’s Island group was worthy winners. They did a great job.”
Just a few of the positive comments by the 9,969 athletes that took part in the run included several members saying their encouragement took them a long way toward their ultimate goal.
“I thought their costumes were great and they were very enthusiastic throughout the day,” said one unidentified runner. “I would like to thank everyone for putting on a first class marathon and I will definitely be back next year.”
The award is voted on by marathon participants, which makes being named the winner even more of an honor.
“It is a huge accolade for us to win something like this,” said Jervis. “It was the first time the Communications Group has won and we were all very excited.”
Contributors to the team theme also included Monica Jones who did a lot of the legwork getting the day organized and Buford Goodwin, who was the Skipper.
Jervis said the only drawback for the premise for him and those within earshot was listening to the Gilligan’s Island song continuously for seven straight hours. He said they are looking forward to coming back in 2010 and making an even bigger impact.
“We’ll be back next year and already thinking about an even bigger and better theme.”
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