Yesterday morning (2 December), I drove to the St. Louis Artists Guild in Clayton for the Missouri Professional Communicators (MPC) meeting. It featured a panel discussion with the owners of three St. Louis Independent bookstores: EyeSeeMe African American Children's Bookstore, Betty's Books, and The Novel Neighbor. These owners discussed bookstore trends and their favorites for the holiday season, and fielded questions from the audience. Before and after the program, all three bookstore owners had display tables with merchandise for sale. I did a bit of shopping from one of those stores after the meeting.
After a bit of holiday shopping, I came home and relaxed. Last night, I watched the MLS Conference Finals that were streamed on Apple TV+ to my computer. It will be Columbus Crew hosting Los Angeles Football Club for the MLS Cup this Saturday.
After rising early this morning, I drove to Forest Park to serve as a volunteer at this year's Hot Chocolate Run, a trio of road races through and around the park. These races were: 5 km (3.1 miles), 10 km (6.2 miles), and 15 km (9.3 miles). This was one of several Hot Chocolate Runs held throughout the country during late 2023 and early 2024. Proceeds from these runs benefit Special Olympics.
I arrived at the volunteer check in just before 6:00 am, received a Hot Chocolate Run hoodie to wear over my outfit, and reported to the Course Marshals group. We had about 12 volunteers for this role. We were each loaned a Course Marshal vest and a signal flag to use during our shift.
We were taken by van to our stations on the course. I chose one at the corner of Government Drive and Washington Drive near the entrance to the Saint Louis Zoo. This was approximately 0.5 miles (0.8 km) from the start. I was on station about 6:45 am--45 minutes before the run began.
Once the runners approached my position, I waived my flag upward and then directed them towards the turn past the Zoo. Doing so, I also offered encouragement to the runners. A few of them thanked me for volunteering, and I replied that it was my pleasure.
Some runners participated as groups running together and wore outfits for their respective groups. This included several members of STL Santos, the Hispanic soccer supporter group. I especially offered them my encouragement, which they appreciated.
About 55 minutes after the run began, the race official vehicles came up behind the last of the runners. The driver informed me that there were no more runners coming here and that my shift was over. They asked if I wanted a ride back to the race center, but I told them I would walk. It wasn't that far for me and I could use the exercise.
After about an 11-minute walk, I reached the race center. This area of Forest Park, just north of the Muny, had the volunteer check in, gear check, merchandise store, and the reward tent for the participants. After completing the run and receiving a medal for doing so, each participant went to a tent to receive a cup of hot chocolate and a chocolate fondue. The latter included a banana, mini pretzels, a Rice Crispies Bar, and Pirouline rolled wafers to dip into the chocolate. After all the runners got their fondue and drink, the volunteers received theirs. It was quite a nice reward for my efforts.
Later.
Websites of Entities Mentioned in This Post:
St. Louis Artists' Guild: St. Louis Artists' Guild (stlouisartistsguild.org)
Missouri Professional Communicators: Missouri NFPW affiliate | Missouri Professional Communicators | Clayton (moprocommunicators.org)
EyeSeeMe African American Children's Bookstore: EyeSeeMe
Betty's Books: Betty's Books | Graphic Books for All | Webster Groves, MO (bettysbooksstl.com)
The Novel Neighbor: The Novel Neighbor
Forest Park: Forest Park (stlouis-mo.gov)
Hot Chocolate Run: Homepage - Hot Chocolate Run (hotchocolate15k.com)
Special Olympics: Special Olympics
STL Santos: Inicio | Home | STL Santos
