Without the efforts of some 5,000 volunteers, there would be no Ironman World Championship as we know it.
Without the efforts of some 5,000 volunteers, there would be no Ironman World Championship as we know it.
They’re the ones setting up and breaking down the course, and catching and racking bicycles as the speeding athletes cast them off to begin the long footrace. The volunteers run the registration and information booths, answer the same questions over and over again, and make sure the athletes have food, water and sunscreen. They hang out on the water to make sure the champions are safe and on course.
They help the athletes find medical care when the racers are too tired to think straight.
The functions they serve, from public safety to massage to cleanup, are too numerous to list.
“If you go out on Saturday night, behind the last cyclist, you see the forklifts and trucks breaking down the course,” said Franz Weber, Ironman’s volunteer and information director — himself a volunteer for 22 years. “If you go out at 3 a.m., all the trash is gone. It’s like there was never a race.”
Some of the volunteers are related to the athletes. Many are Big Island residents, while others converge from far-flung regions of the globe. Some folks are so passionate about the event they’ve returned to help out for more than two decades.
Waikoloa resident Ricky Woodson was bitten by the Ironman bug back when he lived on Oahu. This is his seventh year at the event. Woodson, who hands out the medals to victorious athletes, is buoyed by the sheer energy that pumps through Kailua Village on race day.
“I like being part of something that’s big like this,” Woodson said. “I wish I had the energy to do what they do. I’m in good shape, but my body can’t take that. Every year there’s something different. What impresses me most are the older people, in their 70s and 80s. That’s just awesome.”
Woodson’s son, Avante, 11, is also hooked on Ironman. Being able to hang the medals around the necks of the athletes may have something to do with the charge he gets.
“He started three years ago and now every year he looks forward to it,” Woodson said.
Sitting on the turf at Kamakahonu Beach on Saturday evening, waiting for the agony of race day to subside, Francois Dauvergne of France said there is no way to thank the volunteers enough.
“They are all smiles,” said Dauvergne, who finished the triathlon in 9 hours, 50 minutes. “Unfortunately we do not have the smiles for them. We cannot say how much we love them, but they are amazing.”
Volunteer Steve Loftis of Nebraska was up at 3:30 a.m. marking race numbers on the arms of athletes.
“They were so jacked up you could barely get them to stand still,” he said.
Loftis’ day was set to end after midnight, after he’d massaged some of the pain out of the athletes’ bodies with his hands.
“It doesn’t take much to loosen up the shoulders and abdomen, and get them feeling much better than they were,” the massage therapist said.
Loftis prefers the late shift when things slow down a bit and there is time for talk story.
“It’s unbelievably exciting to be able to hang with these people, hear their stories while they’re under your hands and get excited right along with them,” he said. “I’m going to have a blast all day long.”
Melissa Malloy, a physician’s assistant from Milwaukee who is working in Waimea, joined the medical team to help exhausted athletes deal with electrolyte abnormalities, muscle breakdown and other problems. Athletes stumble across the finish line barely able to remember their own names, many immediately needing IV drips and other treatment.
“They’re putting their bodies through way more than they should ever have to,” Malloy said.
“I saw the 84-year-old woman (Sister Madonna Buder, a Catholic nun from Spokane, Wash.). It just brought tears to my eyes,” Malloy said. “It’s so inspiring.”
As a steady stream of drained, barely mobile and sometimes incapacitated athletes made their way off the course, Kokua Crew volunteers Cheryl Hanna-Truscott and Marilinda Passon helped finishers to the medical tent.
“I have the utmost respect for these guys,” Passon said. “I can’t imagine doing what they do.”
The Ironman Foundation Community Fund will contribute $130,000 in grant funding to Hawaii Island nonprofits and other community organizations for the 2014 race. The engine of the race volunteers’ altruism is hardly financial, however.
“The whole thing is pretty amazing,” Weber said. “You get those volunteers every year, just like that. They’re enthusiastic, dedicated, and being part of it is such a thrill for them. Ironman consistently ranks at the top in athlete surveys, and a lot of it is because of the volunteers, the way they make everyone feel welcome, the aloha spirit they show.”