This Sunday St George hosted the Ironman 70.3 World Championship. For the past 12 years Dixie Sunrise Rotary has set up and operated Run Aid Station #4. The normal Ironman in St George usually takes place on the first Saturday in May every year, which we did this past May and now a short 4 months later we host the World Championship. An amazing feat for a small town. Our aid station requires about 100 volunteers, a shuttle to get people from the parking area, about a mile up hill, to the aid station, and enough food to feed all the volunteers twice during the race. Our aid station provides water, Gatoraid, Red Bull, Cola, various types of food (fruit, gel, cookies, etc) minor first aid, and LOTS OF CHEERS for 3,500 athletes.
Besides the normal challenges of operating an Aid Station for 10 hours we had the added problem of Rain, Hail, Wind, Thunder, and Lightning. The runners keep going no matter what the weather so we must keep the aid station operating. With some dressed in proper rain gear and others with modified trash bags they were like the mail people and kept going through it all.
So another Ironman under our belts and over 1300 hours of service completed we will now begin getting prepared for the Full Ironman in May again. We truly live up to the Rotarian Motto: Service Above Self.