IMKY volunteer report

Hi all! You IMKY athletes are all just getting out of your athlete banquet as I sit to write this. I hope all of you who raced did you best and achieved your goals.
In this post I intend to give you my take on the IMKY race from a volunteers perspective. Or, more specifically, my perspective. I intend to give it all to you, the good, the bad and the ugly. This post is very long, but I didn’t want to short you on details. About half way through this post things get really interesting. You can skip to there if you like.

My buddy Jeremy and I arrived in Louisville on Saturday night. My aunt and uncle, who we stayed with, live about 30 minutes from the race venue. On Saturday we went and checked out the transition area then walked the mile or so to 4^th street live, the finish line. Security at the transition area was tight. I would have felt very comfortable leaving my gear there overnight as you all had to do. After looking over the finish we headed back to my aunt’s house and got about 5 hours shut eye.
The next morning we awoke at 4:50am, showered and headed back to transition which we checked out for a few minutes, then we followed the herd to the swim start. The start was about a 10 minute walk away. We ran into a few BTers at the swim start, including Kenny (109T6) and Mike (mkyle15).
The line for the swim start was long. It seemed to stretch for 500 yards. The Pro’s entered the water at 6:50 and the age groupers 10 minutes later. The volunteers and directors got everyone in the water in about 45 minutes. After watching the entry for awhile we headed back to the transition area to watch T1. We saw Kenny come out of the water and well as CubeFarmGopher. Loud cheers for the BTers.
It was fun to see the masses come out on their bikes. We looked for as many BTers as we could and saw KSH, Gaarry, and amymengel mount up, so, those three, if you heard your name being screamed by a strange voice, it was me.
We went and got breakfast soon after that and waited around for T2 to begin. A volunteer called us over to the fence by the bike entrance and introduced himself as Emerson, known here as etknowles. They had put him in charge of the other bike catchers. BTW, great job Emerson!  We watched a few of the pros come in and many age groupers. Then we had to head up to the finish line to begin our shift.
We arrived a little early (1:30pm) and were told to come back in 20 minutes. When we arrived back at the volunteer tent the finish line volunteer coordinator, Linda, put us to work right away getting ice and water bottles ready for the volunteers. Next we were taken to the finish chute and explained what our job was to be. We were told to pair off and give each finisher a medal, towel and space blanket and walk them “all the way” through the chute past the timing chip removers, fluid replenishes and medical staff. It was not made clear to us that we were supposed to walk all the athletes down the street and into the medical building. As the night went on many of the finish line volunteers realized they were supposed to do this, but some did not. More on that later.
Next we were asked to get the finishers medals, towels, space blankets, and fluids set up. I was in a group that was working on the medals. The procedure was this: we’d remove the medals from the boxes. They were tied together 10 to a bundle and each medal was encased in plastic. Also the ribbons were all stuck together so we’d have to untie the bundles, rip apart the ribbons and remove the plastic. It took 6-8 of us 2 hours to get the 2200 or so medals ready. Meanwhile, some of the volunteers were standing around with medals and towels waiting for finishers. OK, really I mean they were doing nothing.
While we were getting the medals ready the winner, Max Longree, came across the finish line. After his lengthy victory celebration he came down the chute and high fived many of the volunteers. I threw out my hand but was to far away to give him a slap. He stopped, looked me in the eye, smiled and said “thank you, good job guys.”
A few minutes later Linda asked for three volunteers to go to the food center to help get that area ready. Jeremy and I headed over. On the way she related that she had asked some of the volunteers that were standing around at the finish to help out at the food center and they told her No. WTF?
We helped get the water and Gatorade iced down. Then it was our turn to cool our heels as the bulk of finishers wouldn’t be there for several more hours yet. 30 minutes later Linda came back with more volunteers and relieved Jeremy and I. I asked her if we could be helpful anywhere else. She sent us to the volunteer tent to help get other volunteers checked in. We did that and ran errands for Linda for 2 hours. Then she sent us into the chute.

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This is were the story gets interesting.  As the age groupers started coming through the chute hot and heavy some needed more assistance than others. Some would grab their medal and towel and walk down the chute and be fine. Many though needed real help. Many of us  volunteers were not told to make sure the finishers were ok before we let them go and not to release them unless it was to the medical staff a block down or to a family member or friend just outside the chute. I ended up standing near the end of the chute directing dazed finishers to the medical building or, more often letting them lean on me and walking them there myself. Jeremy positioned himself right at the finish line and helped catch any finisher who was falling or staggering at the line. There were MANY.
Throughout the evening and night I probably escorted 40 finishers to the med building. A few of the more interesting ones were these: Pro South African triathlete Jacqui Gordon, who needed to lean on me walking up the steps. She said she’d run 5 Ironmans in the last 12 months and didn’t want to do this course again.
The French finisher who didn’t speak a word of English.
The man I saw leaning over the trashcan, vomiting, who needed a wheelchair to get to medical.
On the way back from taking him I was flagged down by a worried husband whose wife was on the ground and needed wheeled to medical. Once we got her into the chair she said she was going to vomit. I told the husband to empty her schwag bag and give it to her. He looked for a place it empty it. I grabbed it, dumped the contents on the ground and got the bag to her mouth before she blew. Then she passed out and vomited again, this time all over herself and the chair. I was really worried at this point and ran with her to medical. When we got to the med building she came to and asked if she passed out and threw up all over herself. I assured her that’s what happened and she said she was really embarrassed about it. I told her not to worry about it.
The guy I pulled out of the porti-john after his parents flagged me down. He had just finished vomiting and didn’t want to go to medical. I told him I’d walk him and he eventually agreed with his mom’s prodding.
The finisher I escorted who was being filmed for some kind of triathlon TV pilot. He didn’t need help but thought it was cool I asked if I could walk him to medical. He interviewed me about why I volunteered and my past triathlon experience.

There were also 2 negative things that happened. One turned out positively and one did not. First I was flagged down by a finishers brother. He was concerned because the finisher was laying on the ground dehydrated and delirious. I told him to stay with his brother, I’d get a chair and be right back. He insisted that I call a dr. out. I told him I was taking him to medical. His brother said “F--- that, that’s not good enough. We need someone out here. NOW.” I stopped, looked him right in the eye and asked him if he wanted my help. He said yes and helped me get him in the chair. I wheeled him to medical and after I got to the family area the brother flagged me down, said he was sorry and thanked me over and over. I like ending on a positive.

The negative thing that happened was this. I was on my way back from medical with a chair and a lady asked me if I could take a finisher a couple blocks. I told her I could taker her to medical. The lady curtly said “no, that’s retarded” or at least that what I heard. I was completely taken aback and said “that’s retarded huh, unbelievable” The finisher shot me an incredulous look. A guy with them said “dude, you need to calm down, what the hell?” I replied, “me? I offered to do something nice and she mouthed off, calm her down.”  Then I walked away. I thought about it for a minute and decided I must have misheard what she had said. I took the chair back to the chute and set out to find them. I didn’t want this finisher to have a stink on her Ironman finish because of me. I ran up and down several blocks and looked in medical, the food area and bag retrieval and never did find them. I don’t know who you are, but if you reading this I think I must have misheard your friend. Sorry for my part in the mixup.

Linda had asked Jeremy and I to stay on for a few more hours which we gladly did. We were supposed to get off at 7pm but ended up working until 1100. Right at 1100 I was getting ready to leave when a finisher came up to me. I asked her if she was ok. She said yes but then got really discouraged that she had to walk the mile back to transition by herself to get her bike and then back to the finish line where her hotel was. I ended up walking to my car with her, driving her to transition, getting her bike and bags from there, walking with her to get her dry bag and escorting her to the elevator in her hotel. She was very appreciative. At midnight Jeremy and I got a beer at TGI Friday’s, said goodbye to Linda and headed out, tired and happy.
 
We got up this morning at 5:30am hit the road, got home at 11:30 turned on our computers and registered for IMKY 2009! We’ll see you at the finish line next year!

Edited by David tri's 2008-09-01 2:29 PM

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