I always map my runs out in Strava before my runs so I don't have to try and do mental math, I'd be completely terrible at judging where I was!
I usually try and plan them a little long, though, since they never seem to end up quite the same in the watch vs in the route map, plus Strava is the worst sometimes and always rounds you down. I have so many runs that end up like right on the nose distance wise or like 9.96 and Strava rounds them down to 0.9! 
I have volunteered for a race! As part of my dad being a high school baseball coach the team and families volunteered at the Milwaukee Running Festival full marathon this past year. Our jobs were just watching intersections that runners would be going by incase cars in the area some how snuck through. I know Mike and Michelle from the Mickey Milers volunteered for the 5K and Full in January this year. They then did a podcast on their experience volunteering with one of the volunteering directors.
I am running a 10k this Saturday morning and then have the new opportunity to volunteer for the marathon with my cousin (who is doing it through her travelling basketball team) on Sunday morning. I think you may be right that "race monitors" will be the people along the course waving runners the correct way. I have to decide if I want to do it though soon.
Just got my wife and I registered for Dopey!
I just volunteered as a course marshal this past weekend. I was making sure runners stayed on course for both the half marathon and the 10K, but more than anything I was there to cheer the runners on. I shouted encouragement, handed out licorice and held up vehicle traffic...it was a lot of fun!
@Waiting2goback thank you for posting that training plan. I am going to switch over to that one as I think it will get me ready at a better rate. And if I start it next week it works perfectly as I have 18 weeks until my marathon! I was looking at the other plans on his site and am thinking of doing the Novice 2 between my Sept marathon and the WDW Full as there are 18 weeks in between those also. Thanks again!
@PrincessV Thanks for your input! I'm going to switch to the Hal Higdon Novice 1 plan and top out at 20 (although I may also stretch that to 22). It is very helpful to know that only going to 20/22 works for you guys and that makes me confidant that it will work for me too!
) I had also registered my great nephew (just shy of 2 at the time) for the kid's races during the DLH weekend and I wanted to get an idea of what was going, so I could help direct my family. I was lucky enough to get the handing out medals job. Oh my goodness, talk about the cutest things! It was a great experience. Plus, for RD, I think if you do 2 shifts you get a free park ticket or something? I think that's why a lot of people do it.
Mrs. BuckeyeBama is in for the 5k and 10k. So happy that she is going to try running again. She had a car accident a few year ago and has had to stop almost all exercise, but she is going to give it a whirl. We also registered on of her good friends for the same races.
