Thousands of athletes flooding to the Roanoke Valley this weekend for the Carilion Clinic IRONMAN race

ROANOKE, Va. – Thousands of athletes from all over the world are coming to the Roanoke Valley for the Carilion Clinic IRONMAN 70.3 Virginia’s Blue Ridge Triathlon.

During the race, athletes will swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, and run 13.1 miles. Sunday, June 4 will be the start of the race at 6:30 a.m. at Carvins Cove for the swimming portion. Then athletes will bike across the Blue Ridge Parkway and then end up at River’s Edge Park in Downtown Roanoke, where they will run a half marathon.

When athletes finish the race, they can celebrate this huge accomplishment at the IRONMAN Village.

Drew Wolff, the Regional Director with the IRONMAN Group said, “This is just a beautiful community number one and this is a hotbed for outdoor activity, so it really fits the community and lifestyle that our athletes enjoy. But it is also the community here that brought us to Roanoke.”

With this race, comes some major traffic impacts. The race will affect the Blue Ridge Parkway, Lee Highway, Pollard Street, Wiley Drive, and most of Downtown Roanoke. There is a full breakdown of road closures and a map available to navigate the weekend.

Even though the big race isn’t until Sunday morning, you can take part in IRONMAN activities all weekend long. At the village, you can interact with official IRONMAN partners and vendors. Some of those vendors include the National Park Service, Fond Memory Graphics, and Play Tri, the official triathlon store.

If you want to relax with a cold drink, Athletic Brewing Company and Starr Hill Brewery will be on site.

Some of the exhibitors you can visit include IRONKids and Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge.

Organizers from the race have been planning this event for a year, but set up started on Monday.

“We started building tents here, creating our Ironman village. Getting everything ready for the athletes both here at Rivers Edge North and out at Carvins Cove where we will have the swim and transition one,” Wolff said.

If you have a little one who wants to take part in the weekend’s festivities, they can sign up for the IRONKids fun run. That takes place at 6 p.m. at the IRONMAN Village on Friday, June 2.

Organizers of the Carilion Clinic IRONMAN 70.3 have announced that after this year’s race, the event will be paused.

Officials said the pause is due to road improvements that are set to be made to the Blue Ridge Parkway. According to a statement, the goal is to bring the race back to Roanoke in the future.