Aside from serving as triathlon's marquee professional event, The Gatorade Ironman Triathlon World Championship always attracts special individuals who see the 140.6-mile challenge as much more than a race. Here's a sampling of competitors who will be among 1,500 athletes on the starting line October 7.

Chuckie "V" Veylupek, 25
Bend, Oregon--or wherever he can find a place to sleep

Highlights: Always among most-talked-about triathletes, he appears in national television commercials for Gatorade with his trademark--hair styled into five statuesque spikes.

While he gets a lot of attention for his outrageous style, Veylupek has real athletic substance. He's a former member of the U.S. national cycling team and finished 11th at the Gatorade Ironman Triathlon World Championship last year.

Darryl Haley, 34
Mitchellville, Maryland

Highlights: Haley proves you don't need to be rail-thin to compete in triathlon. An offensive tackle for eight years with the New England Patriots and Cleveland Browns, Haley stands 6'5" and weighs in at nearly 300 pounds of muscle. Haley took up multi-sport competition only two years ago, and couldn't even swim a pool length when he started. Now he's preparing to compete in the 1995 Gatorade Ironman.

The IronGents: Bill Bell, 72; Norton Davey, 76; Keith Albright, 70; Bob Mason, 74

Highlights: For the second time in 10 years, these four super athletes--Bell of Palm Desert, California; Davey of Oceanside, California; Albright of Los Angeles; and Mason of Summit, New Jersey--prepared for the Gatorade Ironman by undertaking a nonstop cross-country bike relay.

They left Palm Desert on May 12 and finished seven days, five hours, and 23 minutes later in Jacksonville, Florida. They made the trip to generate awareness of the benefits of fitness for seniors. All, except Albright, will compete in the 1995 Gatorade Ironman Triathlon World Championship, and Bell is the defending champion in the 70-74 division.

Jim Ward, 78
Seminole, Florida

Highlights: Ward actually pioneered the 75-79 age group in longer triathlons. He is the oldest athlete ever to finish the Gatorade Ironman Triathlon World Championship, a feat he's managed each year since 1991.

At least two other competitors will be in his age group this year at the Gatorade Ironman, so there should be some spirited competition. During World War II, Ward served as a guerrilla fighter behind enemy lines in Burma.

Ward then had a long and distinguished career as a U.S. diplomat. Ward recently was featured in Armor All's "Fountain of Youth" advertising campaign.

Sister Madonna Buder, 64
Spokane, Washington

Highlights: "It's always fun to be accepted as a champion, but it's a different concept for a religious person," says the indefatigable nun known universally in triathlon as Sister Madonna. "I'm really not going out there to beat anyone else. I just like to do the best with the body the Lord has given me. I feel like I'm complimenting Him by using the gift He has given me." Buder is so good that she routinely beats the men in her age group. "I don't know how many men out there just seem to focus on me," she says. "I'm like their carrot on the stick. It's like they got to get her, got to get her. They just don't want to lose to the nun."

Lynn Edwards, 72
Brevard, North Carolina

Highlights: Edwards became the first 70-plus woman to finish the Gatorade Ironman, in 1993. Last year she narrowly missed the swim cut-off time and was disqualified. She's worked extremely hard on her swimming this year and feels ready to give the Gatorade Ironman another try on October 7. Edwards runs 60 miles, bikes 300 miles, and swims four miles a week in preparation for the event. Fortunately, the reward outweighs the sacrifice, she says. "It's hard to describe the feeling, but it's almost spiritual. If you can do Ironman, there's nothing in life you can't do."

Michael Leahy, 46
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Highlights: Leahy was diagnosed with terminal melanoma just one month before last year's Gatorade Ironman. His doctors said he had from six weeks to six months to live. He competed anyway, finishing the race in just over 13 hours. Immediately after crossing the finish line, he set competition in the 1995 Gatorade Ironman as an affirmation of his will to live. He also entered a non-traditional cancer treatment facility outside of San Diego.

With his body seemingly responding to heavy doses of vaccines and antioxidants administered during treatments, he competed in Ironman Canada the last week of August, hoping to qualify for Kona. It appeared that Leahy had finished one spot out of qualifying, but his dream came true when the contestant who had finished ahead of him in his age group declined the Kona spot. With the full support of his wife and two children, this former Air Force pilot, who also is a member of the Gatorade Ironman's chiropractic team, will be at the starting line on October 7.

Patrick Wallace, 37
Walnut Creek, California

Highlights: Wallace is well-known in the Bay Area of California for his heroics during the earthquake of 1989. Wallace's business was located adjacent to a heavily traveled interstate badly damaged during the quake. Wallace shimmied up a pole and on to the trampled roadway, where he rescued two small children from the same car where their parents lay crushed to death. Wallace still hears from the children occasionally, the last time following the 1994 Gatorade Ironman, in which he finished in 94th place overall.

Rachel Blythe, 34
Kansas City, Missouri

Highlights: Blythe's husband, an aspiring Ironman triathlete, died three years ago of a sudden heart attack. Thrust into the role of widow and single parent of a two-year-old daughter, Rachel turned to triathlon to cope with the grief. She soon set her sights on fulfilling his dream--competing in the Gatorade Ironman. In 1994 she narrowly missed qualifying at three races.

This year her perseverance was rewarded as she was one of 185 athletes selected in a computer drawing to compete. Coincidentally, on the same weekend she received word of her entry, she married again.

Cherie Gruenfield, 51
Lake Arrowhead, California

Highlights: Gruenfield is the wife of best-selling novelist Lee Gruenfield (Irreparable Harm and All Fall Down). He'll be in attendance as his wife attempts to defend her age-group title and possibly break the course record in the women's 50-54 division.

Richard "Parky" Parkinson, 74
Indio, California

Highlights: Parkinson has competed in 10 Gatorade Ironman triathlons. His preparations for the year's race included a climb of the Himalayas with fellow Ironman Norton Davey of Oceanside, California. Davey, 77, also was part of the "IronGents" nonstop cross-country bicycle relay team.

Diane Stuart, 60
Proctorsville, Vermont

Highlights: A formidable age-group competitor, Stuart finished fourth in the 55-59 age group in the 1995 Gatorade Ironman.

Her athletic career has spanned six decades, including competing in the U.S. National Swim Championships in 1949 and 1950 and later competition in the U.S. National Senior Ski Racing Championships. She is the mother of Marc and Skip Stuart, past members of the U.S. Ski Team, and Jeff Stuart, who at one time held the world record in the 100- and 200-meter butterfly.

Matthew Cobb, 26
Greenbrae, California

Highlights: Firefighter who works 24-hour shifts for an engine company. Because of his unusual schedule, he does all training between shifts or while on duty between alarms. He's dedicating his competition in the Gatorade Ironman to his mother, who recently died of cancer. Cobb says his training has helped him cope with the loss.

Tom Shinners, 42
Alexandria, Virginia

Highlights: Shinners retired from the U.S. Navy following a 20-year career and became a bike messenger in Washington, D.C. Much of his bike training, of course, comes on the job. He claims to be "experiencing life in a very broad context through chance meetings (near collisions) with folks from all walks of life."

Lokelani McMichael, 18
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

Highlights: The youngest participant in this year's Gatorade Ironman, McMichael is an aspiring model and long-distance swimmer who completed a six-mile ocean swim in late 1994. Her father, Mike, heads the Gatorade Ironman's lifeguard crew, and McMichael helped in that area for several years prior to competing this year.

Last year, McMichael and her father helped Jim Ward, 77, the oldest contestant in the race, when he experienced cramping during the swim. Ward and McMichael struck up a friendship and have corresponded throughout the year. This year they will be, respectively, the oldest and youngest contestants to compete, separated by 60 years.