Lawrence ladies

One of the top female team finishers from Sunday’s Ironman 70.3 Kansas featured two local competitors.

West Junior High’s Morgan Miller, 14, and new friend Erika Nilles-Plumlee, 35, combined forces with Miller’s aunt, Deb Hankens, of Cherokee, Iowa, to navigate their way through the race.

Miller, who also swims for the Lawrence Aquahawks, handled the 1.2-mile swim portion of the race. She began at 7:18 a.m. and was the second girl in the team race to hop out of the water. From there she passed the baton to Hankens, who handled the 56 miles of ups and downs that highlighted the bike portion of the race. Hankens then gave way to Nilles-Plumlee for the final leg, a 13.1-mile, criss-crossed, weaving run through the Clinton Lake campgrounds.

Although it was Nilles-Plumlee who crossed the official finish line, and therefore had her named announced over the loudspeaker, her teammates were right there waiting for her at the end.

“It was inspiring,” Nilles-Plumlee said. “But I had to keep it in perspective, since we were a team. The whole thing was awesome.”

As for an encore, Miller said she was interested in competing in all three legs of the event in the future, saying: “Oh yeah, when I get older.”

Calling all volunteers

There’s next to no chance that the second Ironman 70.3 Kansas could have been pulled off without the help of hundreds of volunteers, who did a variety of jobs throughout the race and in the weeks leading up to it.

While several lined the course handing out cups of water, Gatorade and Coca-Cola along with cold, wet sponges — some groups even got into the spirit of the day by dressing in hula skirts — others walked the grounds and picked up empty cups or dried out sponges to make the clean-up at the end a more manageable task.

Other volunteers manned the course and helped direct competitors to the right spots and still others dumped ice into buckets and carted coolers from this spot to that.

“They have been doing a wonderful job, really good volunteers. It takes about four days to set up the event and about four hours to take it all down,” said Tom Ziebart, Ironman employee and athlete.

From sea to shining sea

Ironman 70.3 Kansas drew competitors from all 50 states and several other countries.

Although each state had at least one representative — New Hampshire was responsible for the smallest turnout with one — the top five states made up nearly 1,300 of the 2,000 total competitors.

The Sunflower State was the most represented, as 370 Kansans competed at the event. Missouri (305), Colorado (273), Texas (169) and Iowa (128) rounded out the top five.

Hear ye, hear ye

From the competitors themselves to the hundreds of spectators who lined the course throughout the day, words of encouragement weren’t hard to come by Sunday afternoon.

While most cheers were limited to things like, “You’re doing great,” or “Keep going, keep going, you’re almost there,” the funniest thing overheard on the course came from one competitor who clearly had visions of the finish line — and what was ahead — in mind.

“Where’s the beer,” he shouted, as one spectator offered a water bottle for refreshment.

It takes all kinds

Although most of Sunday’s competitors had full use of all of their limbs and senses, many did not.

From injured military personnel who competed with no legs or one arm and one leg to a blind triathlete who was tethered to a partner with a rope for guidance, this year’s event saw a wide range of competitors.

Most tried to finish the entire 70.3 miles without stopping, but many walked when they had to, broke when they needed to and some even stopped altogether.

Sis, Boom, Bah

Cheerleaders from Free State High as well as Kansas University lined the finish line and helped the competitors push themselves to the end, while music blared and dozens of other spectators hooted and hollered.

For most, including female champion Chrissie Wellington, the fanfare at the finish was reason enough to celebrate and get excited.

For others, those whose tunnel vision toward the finish kept them from noticing much around them, the cheering provided little more than a nice backdrop to a painstaking conclusion.

Follow the yellow brick road

Because few can resist Kansas’ connection to the cinema classic, “The Wizard of Oz,” Sunday’s race had a substantial Oz influence that was visible throughout the day.

For starters, the final 20 yards of the finish line were painted yellow and referred to affectionately by the public address announcer as the “yellow brick road.”

In addition, a Cowardly Lion, a Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, and a handful of “Dorothys” could be spotted around the grounds. That included one “Dorothy,” — Betsy Tieman, of Austin, Texas — who actually competed in the race, complete with ruby slippers, made, of course, by Nike.

Bobble heads

Though most competitors arrived before the sun came up, they all were not allowed to jump in the water at the 6:30 a.m. start time.

The elite triathletes started the race by hitting the water first — average swim time was around 25 minutes — and they were followed into the water by separate flocks of 150 swimmers per group until the entire field was off and running.

Race officials determined who went and who waited by the color of their swim caps.