Behind every successful Eppie's triathlete is Rodger Dallas.

When Saturday's Ironman winner, Vic Vicari, paddled his kayak up to River Bend Park and hopped out, he couldn't carry the boat to the finish line on dry land, but he couldn't leave it to float down the American River, either.

That's where Dallas came in.

For the past 25 years, Dallas has been wading in the river to make sure the finishers' kayaks don't drift away to the San Francisco Bay amid the elation of finishing.

He organizes about 100 volunteers – mostly teenagers – to stand in the river and take the kayaks and canoes from arriving racers.

Like a bucket brigade, they stood in the shallow and crisply cool water and hand-passed the boats down to where they could be taken out and lined up on the rocky beach.

A lot of boats.

More than 2,000 people participated in this year's Eppie's Great Race, billed as the world's oldest triathlon.

Many ran, biked or paddled as part of a team, but that still left about 1,200 boats to float from the Sunrise Bridge to Rancho Cordova, opposite the William Pond Recreation Area.

Organizers believe it is the largest kayak flotilla anywhere.

Vicari came in at 1:45:14 and Ironwoman winner Donene Vukovich came in at 1:57:38, but the bulk of entrants show up in droves half an hour to 45 minutes later.

After getting organized around 9 a.m., the volunteers wait patiently for the first finishers. Or, being teenagers, they splash each other with river water.

Then the boats arrive.

"It starts building up and then there's about 45 minutes of pandemonium," Dallas said.

When finishers show up all at once, even Dallas' 100 volunteers can't get them all out of the water fast enough to keep them from backing up.

By 11 a.m., three hours after the race start, there were about 100 colorful plastic, Kevlar and fiberglass boats floating near the water's edge, hemmed in by watchful wading volunteers.

A dry land crew was kept busy, plucking them out for racers to retrieve.

Dallas' crew is just a small fraction of the total race volunteers.

An estimated 800 – more than one for every three racers – show up to make the race run smoothly, said Anita Fitzhugh, a race spokeswoman.

Now in its 38th year, the race has raised an estimated $1 million, currently to benefit Sacramento County Therapeutic Recreation Services, an agency where Dallas' wife works.

"She volunteered me," he said.

This year's race honored a 25-time finisher, Nancy Fish, who died from bile duct cancer during the past year.

Her sister, Nora Hansen of Fair Oaks, did the race as an Ironwoman for the first time.

Hansen carried a small doll that mimicked Fish's racing style – red hair, a tutu, a Livestrong wristband and zebra-pattern tights.

"She's riding with me today," Hansen said.

KCRA: 2,000 racers take on Eppie's Great Race - July 23, 2011

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