Two huge tents overflowed with volunteers, aching atheletes
and more than 100 massage tables.

Aching Bikers 
The swim over, the bike people start to return, and other athletes begin the run. Many vie for top prizes, the highest being $12,000 each for the man and woman winner, but many come just for the thrill of finishing or even just participating. Massage tents stand easily accessible to the athletes in a high security zone in the central hub near the start and finish areas. As athletes come into the tents, hot and sweaty, full of emotion, feeling pain in various places, foremost still is their drive to finish. Their determination to succeed overrides the pain, permeates the air and transfers to the therapists. Toward evening, two lines start forming in front of the massage tents. The large medical tent is filling, as well. 
It is common for a massage therapist to work on five different athletes from five different countries around the world in the same hour. Some do not speak English well, or at all, but even those who do not speak or understand English are able to convey their need. Individual countries and their countrymen value the power of healing that comes from effective massage. There is an appreciation of these therapists who contribute their skills and time.
Many returning athletes have expressed their appreciation of the tremendous speed of their recovery, which they attribute to these massages. The highs that the massage therapists experience in this setting are hard to explain. It is quite a contrast from working alone in a clinic to being one of more than a hundred therapists in an open tent working together with a common goal. With so many athletes coming and going, the noise level is high, but each still feels the connection of therapy with his or her individual therapist.

Volunteer therapist Debbie Brag (left) looks on as Vern Quiring (right)
massages a participant's shoulders.  Midday outside massage stations
helped keep Ironman competitors in the race.

Helping Athletes Achieve 
The female first prize in 1999 went to Lori Bowden, of Victoria, Canada, with a 9:14:03 time. In 1998, Bowden had astounded Ironman enthusiasts with one of the most incredible women's athletic achievements in Canadian history. Bowden raced so well on a day that was literally destroying the rest of the field despite 90¡ F-plus temperatures and strong winds that at some points it looked like she might be the first person over the line. Her time of 9:21:15 actually placed her seventh overall, including the 14th-fastest bike ride of the day, and the third-fastest run. She won the first place women's finish that year, too, just weeks before she would finish second for the second year in a row at the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. She has become a woman to watch. 
People like Bowden and other determined athletes give inspiration to others to work the human body to its full potential, and experience the joy of accomplishment. 
Massage therapists find joy in being a part of helping encourage and spur athletes like Bowden on, to help make victory possible. Thomas Ingam feels good about opportunity to lift athletes up when they are down. Human sunshine, he says. That is what they need (as well).
Rick Therum, a registered massage therapist, tells about another massage opportunity for licensed Canadian therapists, in addition to volunteering. Three days before the event they set up Ironman Village, a massage area where the public may walk in and pay for a massage. Last year, 12 registered massage therapists offered massages for $30 a half-hour, or $55 for an hour. It was a tremendous success, he says. Therum qualifies the therapists by hours and by experience. 
The Ironman Village tent centralizes all therapists who qualify for work, eliminating problems they once experienced with individual therapists trying to set up isolated areas around downtown Penticton for this type of work. We know that everybody is getting quality care and a quality service so it is a very professional sports atmosphere,  he says. Therum looks at his 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. workload as an exhilarating experience.  We just go and go and there are no breaks. I am always getting somebody on my table and eating my sandwich at the same time, because I have to feed myself, but there are so many people who want the services and need the services.  Therum attributes their success to educating people about the importance of pre-event massage. Following this pre-event paid service, most of his crew join the race-day volunteer crews, as well. There's a certain sense of satisfaction that comes from giving freely of your time and skills to high achievers who need you as they strive to reach their potential. 
It is a small part,  says one massage therapist, but a big victory to each one of us. By midnight on race day, all the volunteers have crossed their own finish line as they revel in the satisfaction of a job well done. 
                                                                  ...
Roger Blood practices massage therapy in Walla Walla, Washington.


Overwhelming 1999 Statistics
Massages given to athletes: 1,025 
Massage volunteers: 250 
Ironman T-shirts given to massage volunteers: 250 
Tables and bubble pads: 130 of each 
Pillows: 325 
Pillow Cases: 2,200 
Blankets: 700 
Sheets: 2,500 
Aluminum Space Blankets: 1000+ 
Non-analgesic oil: 50 5-ounce bottles 
Massage oil: 24 liters 
Massage oil: 300 8-ounce bottles 
Soap pumps: 25 
Cups: 2,000 
Soup: 50+ gallons 
Water: 20+ liters 
Soda Pop: 500 cans 
Pizzas: 100 
Cookies: Hundreds of dozens 
Carrots, watermelon, oranges, grapefruit, apples, celery: Hundreds of pounds (Free meals to all massage volunteers)


Any Therapist Can Volunteer
Potential massage therapist volunteers should contact:

Linda Howard 
Ironman Canada Office
Phone: 250-490-8787
Web site: [www.ironman.ca]


Getting There
In the United States, take Highway 97 north through the central part of Washington state, through Omak, Washington, past the Canadian border to Penticton, British Columbia. As you enter the beautiful Okanagan valley at that time of year, your eyes will take in a feast of fresh fruit stands with peaches, apricots, apples, as your nose senses produce aromas wafting in the air.