With one week remaining until the start of the area's largest one-day outdoor athletic event of the year, Randy DuTeau is finalizing all the details.

The Greater Augusta Sports Council event manager has been handling logistics and communicating with officials from two states to ensure the inaugural ESi Ironman 70.3 Augusta is a success.

"It's been pretty amazing," Mr. DuTeau said. "It's really unique. Sometimes you get bogged down in details and you forget about the event. Then, I went online and started seeing pictures of the triathlon and started getting excited again."

Billed as the second-largest Ironman event in the world, ESi Ironman 70.3 Augusta will begin at 6:57 next Sunday morning with the national anthem at the Fifth Street Marina. At 7:30, the event will start with the first wave of 3,400 competitors beginning the 1.2-mile swim in the Savannah River.

Then, the athletes will cycle 56 miles from the transition area at the Boathouse, travel down Sand Bar Ferry Road into South Carolina, through Jackson over to New Ellenton and then loop back to the Boathouse. From there, the competitors will run two loops around downtown, the 13.1-mile run finishing at Augusta Common.

"So far, the reviews of the course we've received have been outstanding," Mr. DuTeau said. "It really is a good venue."

The elite athletes are expected to finish about 11 a.m., with the male and female winners receiving $3,500 each. The awards ceremony will be held at 3 p.m. at Augusta Common.

The event is a half-triathlon, which covers 70.3 miles. For some, this will be a high-stakes affair. This is the last opportunity for 50 athletes to qualify for the Foster Grant Ironman World Championship, which will be held Nov. 14 in Clearwater, Fla.

Mr. DuTeau said he has been pleasantly surprised by the interest in the event, which is signed through 2011. The original registration was capped at 2,000 people. But organizers eventually cut off the field at 3,400.

"They signed 2,000 right away, and it just kept going and going," he said. "One of the luxuries Augusta has is it's so close to Atlanta and Charlotte and is roughly a day's drive to many areas in the Southeast."

For such a large event, the sports council has lined up more than 500 volunteers. About 100 kayakers, lifeguards, divers and people on jet skis and boats will help out in the river. More than 300 soldiers will help in the cycling and running portions. Another 100 members of the Aiken County and Richmond County sheriff's departments will also help with the race routes. Eight ambulances will be there for precautionary reasons.

If a person doesn't finish a portion of the 70.3 event, vehicles that circle the route will be there.

"After this year, the template will have been set," Mr. DuTeau said. "We'll have all the important aspects. Moving forward, the event should become easier."