I was up at 5 Saturday morning prepping for Miles for Moffitt.

But I wasn’t running the 5K or the 1-mile fun run.

I participated in my first race behind the scenes, and I loved it!

The race director had me at mile marker 1, which had a well-oiled machine of a water station.

There were about 10 of us stationed there, filling cups of water to hand out to the runners.

We were a little confused because by 7:45, not one runner had come by. With a race start of 7:30, that couldn’t be.

Then we got word that the race was delayed almost half an hour because of the huge crowds at registration and packet pickup that morning.

Soon we saw the front of the pack round the bend toward mile 1. I got to stand in the road and dole out water. It was great because I got to watch for people I know.

Although there were several young girls with me handing out water, I was the only one yelling and cheering on the racers passing by.

I screamed for WEDU, AAA, Miles for Merritt, the Tomcats. I gave a shout out to the many doctors who participated. And I made a point to recognize the stream of survivors in the crowd.

You knew who they were because they had “SURVIVOR” on the front of their T-shirts.

Props to all who raced on a very hot and humid morning. Find your race results here.