In all the years I’
ve been racing triathlons, I have never had the opportunity to volunteer. This past weekend a few friends and I drove up to Chattanooga to volunteer at the Ironman race.
The swim portion of the race had already been cancelled due to a very high river flow (95,000 cfs on Thursday) and eColi levels at 20 times higher than acceptable. When we arrived, the time trial bike start was complete, and we made our way over to transition to meet our volunteer captain and get instructions.
There wasn’t much to do in the beginning – eventually we heard that the first pro man was almost complete. Those guys move fast with the flying dismount and continued run into the changing tent!!
Once the age-groupers began arriving, we were tagged with directing the athletes in to the di
smount line. That was really exciting and as the day wore on, more and more chaotic! We were having to yell loudly where to dismount. “Dismount at the black arch!” was the phrase of the day for sure.
I was able to see many of my Base teammates arrive back safely as well as some other friends. When our shift was officially over, the bike catching line was crazy busy, so we stayed to help with that for a while. One guy decided he needed to give me all of his stuff, and I ended up with his bike, helmet, shoes, socks and gloves!! The determination of everyone to get off that bike (some with cramps) and keep their legs moving towards transition/changing tent was quite amazing to witness.
Finally we were able to leave and get something to eat. After that, I headed off to the Base Performance tent to meet up with the team volunteers and help hand out salt to the athletes now on the run. The temperatures had shot up into the high 80s by then and most people were soaked in sweat and slogging through. I saw a few friends and must have handed out close to 100 vials of salt.
All too soon it was about time to head home and I jogged back to the finish line to watch the finishers go up the chute and over the infamous red Ironman carpet. That was very inspirational, seeing these people at the end of their endurance pushing through and running to hear those words “You are an Ironman”.
I highly encourage volunteering at an Ironman race – these races can’t function without volunteers and they provide so much energy for the athletes. Congratulations to everyone who raced at IMCHOO!
Swim Bike Run - Tri Mum 