Volunteering for Ironman Texas 2011: My Story


Saturday, May 21 2011, The Woodlands TX, was transformed into a location where amazing stories; feats of physical,mental and emotional strength would play out. Forever changing those in any way associated with IronMan Texas’s maiden journey. I volunteered, in several slots and was lucky enough to step forward when captains were looking for help elsewhere. Its a day of memories I will never forget!

 My boss was racing, along with a few other friends. Last year I finished a few women's sprints. This year I was 3 miles from the finish of my first Olympic, when the course was closed due to lightning. I’d never spectated a tri, or volunteered for one. If I had seen the spectacle of an IronMan first I would have never dared my first sprint... Planning to see it all, and offer my services back into a sport that is motivating me into a healthier person, no longer prone to dying on the couch, I volunteered for a few sections.  Once pages of directions for each station began hitting my email.. I realized my day of volunteering would be a different sort of tri in its own sense.

4:30AM I was out the door to make the drive over.  I found my group & changed into a greenshirt, prepped to be a wetsuit stripper by You Tube videos. Water temps made wetsuits illegal & very few of the 2200 racers were opting to wear them. A captain looking for volunteers grabbed myself & a few others. My new station was aiding swimmers up the swim steps!

Talk about exciting! I was nervous! I didn't want to adversely affect any participant with my lack of ‘how-to’. The first pro came. The ducks finally scattered, their dreams of food lost. The music was thumping, the crowd was yelling, the clock was counting ;my heart was in my mouth  for the next couple of hours pulling for each and every athlete. The first wave could be seen! Arms flying through the air, feet kicking, like one large animal, undulating towards the stairs! My stair partner, Allen and I quickly worked out a great strategy, helping our swimmers up the stairs, telling them to watch the top step & to turn left, he’d rip the zipper cover open & I’d haul the zipper down on their swim skins. We were busy. Muddy. Happy.Thrilled to be helping athletes towards that Ironman finish!

Everything slowed down but the clock. Most athletes were out of the water. Three were coming, then only one, left that might make the cut-off. The noise was deafening. The swimmers should have been pulled forward by the combined pleas and encouragement of the volunteers and crowd alone! Allen and I aided the last qualifying swimmer from the water. What a moment. My eyes filled with tears for his cramping, and  the swirl of emotions I could imagine those past the cut-off feeling while still in the water. Officials aided his cramped form a few steps, then off he hobbled towards transition. The officials stepped forward to break the painful news to the athletes still approaching...

 I stuck with Allen & my next stint was pretty exciting too. Transition bike handler. This was valet parking Ironman style! Now a pink shirt and gloves. Little did I know how very important those gloves were! We lined up.The first rider was 30 minutes out, then 10, then running thru the chute, having thrown his bike towards the lineup. The trickle turned into a flow, then a rush of athletes. We were running. Asking for helmets, shoes if they could get them off. Parking these incredible tri bikes carefully. We were running our own race against the horde of Ironman racers.  Funnily,the tallest volunteer caught the shortest athletes bike and the shortest volunteer caught a bike she had to reach up to grab.  Thank goodness for the gloves! Peeing on the bikes aside, I handled bikes with chunks of vomit down the frame, melted power bars, melted chocolate bars, misshapen gummy bear globs... The diversity of foods and fuels stuck to bikes was staggering. It was hot. Bike transition ran out of water for volunteers. A few got sick. My head began pounding.. Another call for 3 volunteers for elsewhere. I went.

Now I was at mile 9, 17, 25(ish) of the looping run course! Simply standing there, reminding  the crowd to keep their feet out of the course, to let people cross, and cheer each runner by.  It was around 3pm.  Athletes weren't the only ones feeling the humidity. I learned to look for the name above the number. I tried to say something to each runner, clapping my hands till they hurt, saying silly things like “think light, be light”, Three loops; one could see the determination, the physical pain showing in uneven gaits, the sweat pouring off to evaporate from the concrete quickly. This was the daunting part, the agonizing enduring part. It might have been physically easier being a volunteer.. the pain came from knowing you couldn't do anymore to help them through.

I moved on to my last station of the day. Finish Line Athlete Food.  It only took a few minutes to hear the crowd roaring for each athlete has they crossed the line! Inside athlete food, a few pros were already quietly seated, even with a few hours to go till dark.  Foods available provided a nice diversity. I learned pretty quick the best thing to get into an hot tired ironman was the hot chicken broth.. once they could keep that down they needed to be encouraged to eat solid foods. I learned that many of them cooled down too quickly and that the set up of the stairs was too much for many who crossed the lines later in the day. As it got dark medical issues and watching athletes for shock and chills became a real concern.  We ran out of wheelchairs and it was a long way to medical. Being bossy and CERT trained, I got a few sick athletes to medical by asking crowd members to make a chair by locking arms(like you would in boy scouts) and carry the athlete. Medical was packed. I think many out of state athletes didn't plan well for our Texas humidity. Combining the humid heat  and that it melted much of their foods/fuel into unusable gloop likely contributed to the high number of athletes requiring medical after the race.

My best story of that day is: I aided the very last swimmer to make the time cut-off out of the water. He was an older man, cramped and could barely move after 2 hour 20 min in the water for the 2.3 mile swim. I didn't think I would see him again due to the cramping, so turned back sadly to assist the last non-qualifying swimmers from the water.  A bit after dark, at finish line athlete food, I recognized his form wobbling in. I said his number and he turned and gave me the biggest hug.  We both cried. I was so excited to see him. He had just barely made every time cut-off, until the sun dropped and his run improved.. he still had a few hours to spare!

I’ll be there to volunteer again in 2012 and be paying to cross that finish line in 2013. Enduring as an athlete, volunteering for the spirit, spectating and supporting, or working, regardless of post its an amazing day grace.