On Sunday, a bunch of us went to cheer on the ninjas who ran the Toronto Half Marathon and Marathon. This was my first time being part of a cheer squad and here are some lessons I learned.

1. Have a planned route. Figure out where you need to be based on the estimated pace of the runners

This is a critical first step. Gillian did a great job at coordinating the whole thing including planning out where we should cheer at what times to maximize the number of ninjas we would see. It was a bit tricky because we had runners at different speeds and we had both half marathoners and full marathoners and the route was slightly different. We also got stuck on a streetcar so that was a bit of a challenge. Jim was so fast that we barely caught him at all 3 locations but we always managed to get there just in time, thanks to Gillian’s awesome planning.

In addition to coordinating, Gillian also made a great poster!

📸: @lisajsun

2. Know what your runners are wearing. Runners who wore bright colours were easier to spot

Jim was highly recognizable because he was wearing a business casual plaid shirt….because, why not?!?! A couple of other Ninjas wore bright coloured hats which also made it easy to pick them out of the crowd. It also helped that Gillian asked the runners to post their race kit so we kind of knew what we were looking for.

Jim looking suave in his plaid collared shirt.

📸: @lisajsun

3. Wear a custom shirt with your name on it

Even though most of the bibs had people’s name printed at the bottom, it was difficult to see because of the small font. A couple of runners had a shirt customised with their name on it in big bold font. This made it easy to cheer for them by name.

4. Runners can cheer the spectators too

It can get monotonous to say the same cheer over and over: great job, finish strong, looking good, etc…. One thing that I found helpful was when the runners made eye contact, smile, thumbs up, or encouraged us to cheer them on. When they did that, it encouraged those of us in the cheer squad to give extra loud cheers.

5. Bring really good noisemakers

I brought cowbells which seemed like a good idea. When we actually started cheering, I didn’t think they were loud enough. After a while, they also hurt my hands. The ringer on the bell kept on getting stuck. Other people had cowbells that had a handle. Maybe those are better. I need a better noisemaker.

6. Make posters that make people smile

I got a lot of smiles for my “Run for the free banana” poster. This also made me smile. The trick is to write something short and punchy and to make the poster as easy to read as possible.

📸: @lisajsun

7. Be prepared for any weather

The forecast said it was going to warm up as the race progressed but it actually ended up getting colder and windier as we got closer to the lake. I had a thin windbreaker on but I could have packed something a bit thicker. The runners definitely needed an extra layer after they finished. It would have been worse if it rained.

8. Cheering is so much more fun when you are doing it with friends and you have multiple people to cheer for

Enough said.

The ninja cheering squad with Rhonda.

📸: @jonyu