Ironman Louisville Volunteer Report...LONG!

IM Louisville Volunteer Report

Aug 31^st 2008

Pre Race: Woke up EARLY on Saturday because I was racing a local Olympic race. I raced like heck and then met up with the family and handed our daughter off to her Grandmother for the weekend. After that my wife and I packed up quickly with MTBs and clothes and headed off on our 4 hour jaunt to Louisville from St. Louis.

Earlier in the week we had received a call from the volunteer coordinator basically assigning my wife and I to work with Ironman Live as race spotters. We were very excited with that as it would give us tremendous access to “inside the ropes” and to any part of the course! We also decided that we wanted to keep out commitment to the local race folks and still do our shift as catchers in the finish chute during the last 5 hours……with that as our plan, we met with the IM Live folks after arriving in Louisville and got our radio and access passes and our basic marching orders: Chase the men pros around the whole course and call in places and time gaps. We were to be working in tandem with another spotter so we could “leapfrog” around the course in attempts to keep ahead of them!

We met our other spotters at the parking lot under the highway at 6am and got our last minute instructions…..after that my wife and I decided to head over to transition and check out the bikes the men pros would be riding in case we missed a number as they rode past…….ended up talking to one of the men pros as he scrambled to get his bike ready for the day (BTW this is 6:20 am and they were starting in ½ hour!)….I offered to help but he was really just doing his thing….super nice guy though.

We then went back to the car…..drove up along the race course to the swim start and parked in the restricted parking area and wandered over to find a place to watch the start (I wanted to have actual race time on one of my watches so we could gauge how the day was going and could call in race time as well as gaps).

The crowds around Tumbleweed were like last year, people milling about with their athletes, etc. so we didn’t find any great spot………but then I remembered that the Tumbleweed was open to VIPs last year so I suggested we try out our “all access” wristbands…….And in we strolled!!!! Right into the restaurant and over to the rail overlooking the swim start!

It was then, as we stood waiting for things to get going and the sun was rising over the mass of athletes waiting for the day, that I REALLY got the itch to race……all the energy was so palpable that I literally was getting goosebumps watching! The “Call to the Post” was played on the Derby-style bugle and within minutes the pros were off into the bright orange sunrise!!

Race Start: It was interesting watching the pros start up…..the first 250 yards or so it really seemed like they were working it hard…..at least their kicks seemed pretty aggressive. After a 10 minute headstart for the pros, it was time for the AG athletes to hit it…..we watched for about 15 minutes as they poured in three at a time off the end of the dock. I saw some friends start their day and could only wish them luck from afar! We hit the head while we had access to a nice clean john and went out towards the car. En route, we ran into Steve Meckfessel., the Race Director, whom I have met a number of times over the last couple of years. Quick howdy to him as we were headed out to mile 5 to wait for the men to come flying by.

Swim: One of the benefits of this job was that we had access to “race radio” where we would hear all day the goings on of the race. We listened as the chasers on the boats in the Ohio River talked of two different packs taking different lines in the river after the turn buoy…….wish I could have figured out which one proved fastest! Listened to the swim exit while we were waiting at mile 5 and talking to a local Sheriff who said that for the most part the community was very supportive of bringing such an exciting event to town.

Bike: The first men came whizzing by and were closely followed by the first couple of women. My wife and I lagged a bit to help one of my friends who was also spotting (for the women) figure out the logistics of capturing the time gaps and calling them in……that four minute lag would cost us in our next assignment as we could not catch the leaders (traffic, crowds, and the fact that these guys were flying!!) by mile 15! And so the day began….watch the first five go past, get the gaps, call them in as you were hustling to the next logical mileage point in concert with our co-spotter……wild, almost surreal feeling driving around on the course while the race was going on and observing these guys “at work”……I can tell you that I learned a bunch of different tricks about the Louisville bike course that I will use in 2009! The excitement built as Chris McDonald caught and passed Andrew Johns going through Lagrange the second time….called it in and headed off to chase the pack back to Louisville. On the way back to Louisville we were able to pull alongside on the of Top 5 men that we had been chasing all day but did not know who since he was a late entry and was not on the lists that we had access to prior to the race. Turns out is was Zach Ruble…a fixture on some of the internet forums I frequent….he ended up having a pretty good day in the end….Once back in Louisville we made our transition to our MTBs for the run. I was really surprised how hard it was to stay ahead of these guys in a car and was hoping that our bikes would be fast enough as the gaps potentially built on the run! The two German athletes were making a serious challenge over the last couple of miles and in fact, we saw more bikes in transition than we expected on the pros rack as we rode past to take our first run post……didn’t know it at the time but the eventual winner of the race had moved to within 8 minutes of the leaders in T2……

Run: Started our tracking at mile 4 for the men……it was again surreal as we rode down the course on our bikes warning the crowd, the aid stations, traffic control, etc that the race was just about there! We were telling people that the leaders were 5 minutes behind us and we were just about spot on! As we got to mile 4, set up, got out our notepad and stopwatch, we glanced down 3^rd Street to see the headlights of the escort cars in the distance……Chris McDonald was running up and past us…….he held a 7+ minute lead at that 4 mile mark followed by the first German at that point Michael Goehner (?) and then Maximillian Longree…..where the heck is Andrew Johns?? (turns out he pulled out in T2 with back spasms)….one observation that we made into race control was that the look and stride on Max Longree was that of someone out on a Sunday run…..smooth, effortless, almost gliding! We did the same on the run as we did on the bike as our co-spotter would head to a maker and then we would head to the next logical one, etc…..By the 10 mile mark, Max Longree had closed the gap to 2-ish minutes……the race, barring a major malfunction, was his to take as he was clearly the best runner of the leaders this day! Last observation was Mile 24 and we heard over race radio that Max had won…..I wish I could have been there to see him chomp that cheeseburger! But I got diverted by seeing some of my friends that were racing so I U-turned a couple of times to give them encouragement! Then my wife and I headed to the car to drop of the MTB and get ready for our finish line duties. Got a snack from the volly tent and some water……then we went to 4^th Street Live and had some real food and a beverage at “The Pub”. While there we tracked a few folks on my wife’s Blackberry while we cooled our heels from what turned out to be a harder job than I expected chasing the pros!

Finish Line: At our appointed time we went to check in for our finish line duties…..the folks manning the volley check-in were less than perfectly organized and at the end of some, “who are you?”, “where are you scheduled?”, “are you sure you don’t want to help serve food instead?”, (NO I signed up to work in the chute for many reasons and I did so online in plenty of time to ensure my assignment!), my wife and I just looked at our “all access” wristbands and our volley shirts and thought….the heck with it, and strolled into the chute to help catch finishers! After having done this in Wisconsin in 2006, I was very aware of how to proceed and we jumped in line and got to work…….right away, it became apparent that there was a lack of direction as far as keeping the catchers organized and working smoothly……one strike against them was that a bunch of folks needed to go to Medical a block and a ½ away…..so at any one time almost half of the catchers were not in the chute…….And, it got worse! Some folks that volunteered obviously did so ONLY so they could catch/greet their racer and constantly stood off to the side of the line only to do some work when prompted by those around them……not cool! Seeing your racer is a “SIDE BENEFIT” to volunteering, not the sole reason for doing so! I caught so many people that needed to be triaged by someone with more medical training than I have but the ONLY option for that was to take them all the way to the Med tent…..much too distant for us as vollys to get them there and get back to keep the line moving AND when it involved going that far, a lot of racers simply said, no thanks! And went off with their families……a bunch of them DID develop problems after “being released” and then required medical assistance……SOLUTION: There was a “medical area” (big blue banner and everything) within the chute…..this NEEDS to be staffed by medical personnel (I would suggest three nurses or docs) that could make the call as to who goes to the Med Tent and who just needs to site and drink some water before we feel comfortable with them heading out into the crowd…….this puts a trained person in charge of the athletes and gives those on the border of being o.k. or not a chance to get a solid opinion as to their condition instead of relying on finishline volunteers…..

Also, apparently there was an announcement in the meeting that WTC was going to enforce the no family (at all) in the chute but they would be allowed in to get in the Finishers photo at the ASI booth in the chute…….comes time for this to happen and folks wanting to do that are told in NO uncertain terms that no people AT ALL are being let in for these photo opps! Now, either ASI sets up one booth outside the “chute” or you have a small area at the end of the chute for family collecting/photo-ing or something but this became a real sore spot!! That and I think that the cross street at the end of 4^th Street Live needs to be closed……between the crowd right outside the chute waiting for folks spilling into the intersection and volunteers trying to rush folks over to Medical, to racers simply trying to get across traffic while their legs “kinda worked”….this intersection being open is a potential problem……

In the end I got to see many of my friends finish…..I met a bunch of cool folks from ALL OVER that were now part of the IM fraternity….and I got to catch/congratulate Dr. Ed Wolfgram (76 yo) on his finish less than a year after open heart surgery…..lots of inspirational moments in the chute, as usual!!!

Summary: In general, volunteering was a blast, tiring, inspiring, and enlightening! The access that we were afforded by working for WTC was unbelievable…..truly a behind the scenes look at how an IM is done by the best!

In contrast, I got to see some of the negative things I normally don’t see when racing….like folks that have no business starting an IM…..I may sound elitist here but those who know me understand I am a pretty open-minded guy and when I see some folks that are not just out of shape but clearly obese on the dock waiting their turn I wonder what they are thinking! There were a bunch of people pulled or drop off the bike course and I got to see them wandering with their T bags towards the cars…..hard to imagine the emotions!

Finally, I’ve come to realize there is a clear line between racing an IM (at whatever your “race speed” is) and “doing” and IM…..I submit that there is a VERY large contingent of “doers” in IM any more and frankly, I’m not sure I approve of it…….guys/gals in their mid thirties, clearly out of shape, strolling/jogging through the finish in that 15-17 hour timeline…..what’s the point? Now, I know that stuff happens on race day but these were folks that clearly were not in a position to even pretend to run a marathon much less after a 112 mile bike…..

All my observations and suggestions for improvements will be forward to the race organization for use in their race post mortem…with the hope that the few problems I observed are solved for next year when I head back to Louisville….this time to race and try to break 11:30!