A crew rows past the Hunter Museum during the Head of the Hooch rowing regatta.
Racers speed through an “s-turn” on McCallie Avenue during the 2013 Volkswagen USA Cycling Professional Men’s Road Race National Championships.Last summer’s announcement of the Ironman triathlon coming to the Scenic City for a five-year commitment is just the latest in a growing number of world class-level endurance and outdoor competitions.
The debut Chattanooga Ironman will be held Sept. 28, and competitors will battle over a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle section followed by a full-marathon 26.2-mile run. The top finishers will be competing for 50 spots in the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, and the race features a $25,000 prize purse, according to the event’s website.
Officials with the Chattanooga Sports Committee estimate that the Chattanooga Ironman will bring an estimated $40 million in revenue to the city over the next five years.
When registration opened online last September, the race’s 2,500 spots sold out in minutes despite some technical problems with the event’s web registration, and the competitors as well as friends and families are expected to spend several days in Chattanooga prior to race day.
Ironman is just the latest in big-ticket outdoor competitions that now call Chattanooga home. Last Memorial Day weekend, the USA Cycling Professional Road and Time Trial Championships made their first of a three-year run in the Scenic City. The US Pro Championships brought some of the best American men and women pro cyclists to Chattanooga to compete for the honor of wearing the Stars and Stripes jersey as the national champion in the time trial and road race cycling disciplines.