IRONMAN RETURNS

By BROOKE WOLFORD

Staff Writer

It’s the superhero sequel that never gets old — Ironman time in the Lake City.

Familiar signs along downtown streets alert drivers to revised traffic routes for Sunday’s 70.3-mile Ironman Coeur d’Alene triathlon. This race is half the size of the full Ironman Coeur d’Alene event scheduled Aug. 27 but has something in common with its bigger brother: The need for a little help.

Ironman will use about 1,600 volunteers for this weekend’s event. As of Tuesday at 5 p.m., 933 had signed up, said volunteer director Dani Zibell-Wolfe.

“We have over 100 different opportunities and shifts available for this race,” she said.

Anyone can volunteer for any position on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. The time and position are up to the volunteer. Some examples include helping with registration, bike check-in and checkout, pointers to ensure athletes stay on course, massage therapists, and kayakers to monitor the swim.

“Our biggest need would be crowd control and our security area, where we’re making sure the flow of pedestrians is safe for both pedestrians and athletes,” Zibell-Wolfe said.

Volunteers can sign up at www.ironman.com/coeurdalene70.3 under the “Volunteer” tab, where the list of positions and their descriptions can be found. A “captain” will be in contact within 24 hours of signing up. The captain will provide information about parking, meeting areas and any other concerns at hand.

“The sooner they sign up the more questions they can get answered if they have any, and it gives the captain an opportunity to get in touch with them prior to showing up,” Zibell-Wolfe said.

Food and water will be provided for the volunteers, and athletes will be given a red wristband at registration to be given to volunteers as a thank-you.

“The idea is that they give that to a volunteer who has done something special for them through the course of their experience,” Zibell-Wolfe said.

Ironman 70.3 will use the same course as the full Ironman Coeur d’Alene but athletes will only complete one loop of each discipline’s route instead of two. The 2,100 athletes registered to compete will complete a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride, and a 13.1-mile run.

The swim begins at the beach in downtown Coeur d’Alene at 6 a.m. Athletes will swim one lap in Lake Coeur d’Alene, followed by the bike ride, which extends along the lake for 16 miles on Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive with a turnaround at the Higgens Point cul-de-sac. The athletes will then ride back through downtown to U.S. Highway 95 going south, make a U-turn south of Setters Road and finish at the City Park transition area.

After the bike ride, athletes will run a double down and back through McEuen Park with a turnaround just past Silver Beach Marina.

The finish line will still be Sherman Avenue. The first finisher is expected around 11 a.m. and the race officially ends at 3:45 p.m., or eight hours and 30 minutes after the final competitor enters the water. The first 75 athletes to finish will receive a spot in the 2017 Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Chattanooga, Tenn.