While it was still dark, he couldn't hear the sound of rain falling outside which was an improvement on the previous three days where it had rained almost non-stop.

"To wake up on Sunday morning and start walking down to the swim start and be looking at stars was pretty special," he said.

"We were blessed with a beautiful day so I'm sure the athletes felt that as well and to go through the day with minor showers was pleasing."

The minor showers didn't deter spectators as the Port Macquarie community again turned out in numbers on race day.

"The one thing that's consistent with both this, and the 70.3, in Port is the community support," he said.

"To see the level of support, the lengths people go to and the costumes they wear all day - we had polar bears running down the finish line.

"The atmosphere it creates at Ironman Australia, and even for Port Macquarie, makes it known as the people's race.

"It's about the communities that support it."

He admitted to being surprised by the number of people who lined the course from the early hours, from Horton Street up to Observatory Hill and out along Pacific Drive.

"The surprising thing for me was how far wide they were spread, we had people everywhere. Matthew Flinders hill drew a crowd, the hotspots in Camden Haven drew people out and there was a really good buzz for the athletes going through that point," he said.

"To see everybody not afraid to get involved creates an atmosphere and locals bring their own flavour to it. It's special."

The focus now switches to the half Ironman in October and Mr Renn was looking forward to some down time.

"I'm happy we had a successful event and I'm happy that in coming mornings my alarm will be reading some normal numbers," he said.

THE heart and soul of the Port Macquarie Ironman event otherwise known as the volunteers were at it again on the weekend.

More than 2000 of them in fact.

Throughout the course of the event they distributed a staggering 9520 bananas, 860 kilograms of watermelon, 2160 litres of Coca Cola and 4800 serves of electrolyte.

To wrap it all up they handed out more than 3000 ponchos which volunteer coordinator Debbie Ward said was some sort of a record and they came in rather handy when the heavens opened on Saturday.