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As Runners Warm Up, an Army of Volunteers Prepares for Marathon

By DNAinfo Staff on November 6, 2010 2:35pm  | Updated on November 7, 2010 10:04am

By Yepoka Yeebo

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

HELL'S KITCHEN — After months of helping to organize this year's New York City Marathon, electrician Randy Savitt will lace up his running shoes on Sunday morning and get ready to run it — for the 26th time.

"In 1985, I saw my friend's finishing medal, and I thought 'I have to get one of those,'" Savitt said.

"and I did. I ran it and I thought 'I'm never doing it again.' That was 25 years ago."

He's run it every year since.

Running the race was "like a drug," he said. "You hurt, you really do,"  adding that he loved passing through the city's diverse neighborhoods, and the first glimpses of the Manhattan skyline as the race wound through Queens.

The 10,000 volunteers helping to run the marathon. Volunteers do everything from handing out race numbers, setting up the marathon course and serving runners at Saturday's massive pasta party.
The 10,000 volunteers helping to run the marathon. Volunteers do everything from handing out race numbers, setting up the marathon course and serving runners at Saturday's massive pasta party.
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DNAinfo/Yepoka Yeebo

"It feels like I'm running through the world," he said.

Savitt, 54, is just one of 10,000 volunteers helping to make sure the event goes smoothly. They do everything from handing out race numbers to setting up the marathon course and serving runners at Saturday's massive pasta party.

"On race day, they do it all," said Edwin Ortiz, who coordinates volunteers for the New York Road Runners, the group that organizes the race.

"Basically, without the volunteers the NYC Marathon can’t be as successful as it is every single year."

Eddie Vasquez has been volunteering for 25 years, and said doing it all was worth it. "I like dealing with all these people from different countries, and I know a lot of the people running, and when I see them I get running," said Vasquez, 55.

Vazquez, from the Bronx, said the marathon is a key part of the city's economy. "It's big money for the city, and it helps create jobs."

Volunteer Sharon Reddick, 63, will be up at 3:30 a.m. on race day bussing runners to the starting point, controlling traffic on the Harlem leg of the race, then heading back to Central Park to help people on the last leg. "Running it is much easier, trust me," she said.

Although frail, Marion Scott, 78, plans to keep volunteering as long as she can. The Upper West Sider has been working at the race since the early 1980s, spurred on by the feeling she got when she ran it in 1993.

"On the last mile, a volunteer started running down the street with me, shouting, 'You can do it!' I was crying, I was laughing, and all my volunteer friends were right there to cheer me on," she said.

Scott said she still loved the outpouring of emotion at every race. "When I started, the men would finish the race all macho, just walk off," said Scott.

"Now they cry, and they don't feel like it's a sin to cry."