Runners will begin pounding the pavement Sunday morning for the 15th Quad Cities Marathon.
The start and finish lines still need to be painted.
But the packet pick up is ready to go.
Volunteers trucked them from another building to the I-Wireless Center for the packet pick-up.
5-thousand have been made and they're ready to go.
And none of this would be possible without the hundreds of volunteers that give their time.
It takes 14-hundred of them to accommodate five thousand runners.
And many volunteers keep coming back for more.
"This is Cody's bib number 226, and inside this little packet is his chip that he will put on his shoes," says Joyce Keegan. A 14 year race volunteer veteran.
She's put a lot of hours into the effort.
"Probably took about two and a half, to three 8 hour days."
And her's is one of the critical jobs for runners.
"I'm in charge of packet pickup, and that means people come tomorrow morning to the Expo, and they're going to pick up their chips, their bibs, their shirts and everything they need to be out read to go and run on Sunday morning."
And her finish line is coming up.
"We're going to move them all in one and they're all going to be gone tomorrow night."
Keegan's volunteered for 14 of the 15 races. And her efforts are part of the huge task the 14-hundred volunteers complete. Because Race Director Joe Moreno says the runners take notice.
"You've got to have all those amenities out on the course, all that support, the race participants expect to see that out there, so when it's not there, it's not a good situation," says Moreno.
Volunteers will staff water, aid, and even entertainment stations along the route. It's a lot of work.
"We have five thousand of these little buggers packed," says Keegan.
But she says it's the spirit of the volunteers that keep her coming back.
"It's lots of fun to just give back and meet new people all the time."
The packet pick up takes place here at the I-Wireless Center Saturday.
