Joseph Winters crosses the volunteer/runner barrier

Joseph Winters, left, competes in the Rose City Mile this June.

Fifteen Rose City athletes competed in the track meets across the Pacific Northwest last week. We’re sharing their stories. Today, Joseph Winters shares the satisfaction he gets out of volunteering at the Bill Roe All-Comers track meets. 

When I raced my first mile on the track just a few weeks ago at Rose City Mile, I missed my sub-5:00 goal by just a smidge. This Wednesday, I redeemed myself at a community track meet in Seattle, where a team of excellent pacers helped speed me into a new PR of 4:59.66. It may not be my most impressive time, but it feels great to have gotten out of my comfort zone and seen improvement at this shorter distance.

The real highlight of the meet, actually, was volunteering as a clerk. I’ve been helping distribute hip numbers to runners for the past few track meets and have gotten to meet a lot of dedicated runners, from middle school students on summer break to aspiring Olympians to athletes in their 70s and 80s. Last week was particularly hectic because we were organizing the PR mile, which I also wanted to run in, despite not normally racing during these meets. After a co-clerk and I manually seeded six heats of the mile and checked in some 60 runners, I ran to the bathroom, changed, and ran back to the starting line just a few minutes before the gun went off for heat 4—a very makeshift warmup. A middle schooler recognized me near the starting line and asked, “Wait, you’re racing too?” He said he was disappointed we weren’t in the same heat. Then the race happened and I returned to clerking, content because of my mile time but also because it was gratifying to cross the volunteer/runner barrier and appreciate the event, along with all the people and planning it takes to put together.

Results

Bill Roe All-Comers 1 mile