Ironman adds a full-distance race in Montana and new 70.3s in Utah and Lake George for 2027
The three new races were announced in three days and completed a 2027 US and Canadian calendar of 10 full-distance and 36 half-distance races. In each case, local tourism money is helping to pay for the event.
Ironman will add a new full-distance race in Great Falls, Montana, and two new 70.3 races, in Orem, Utah, and Lake George, New York, to its 2027 calendar. They were announced between 19 and 21 October. On 22 October the company published its full 2027 schedule for the United States and Canada: 10 full-distance races and 36 Ironman 70.3 events, according to Slowtwitch.
That count does not include the 70.3 World Championship, which will be held in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on 28 and 29 August 2027. Registration for all three new races opens on 29 October.
Ironman Montana, Great Falls
The full-distance race will be held on 15 August 2027, with further editions planned for 13 August 2028 and 12 August 2029, The Electric, a Great Falls news site, reported. It will offer qualifying slots for the 2027 Ironman World Championship, according to the same report.
Athletes will swim a single 2.4-mile loop in the Missouri River, then ride one 112-mile loop heading west with about 3,000 feet of climbing. The run is two loops along the river, finishing near Elks Riverside Park. Slowtwitch put the town at roughly 3,300 feet above sea level and said the bike course has views of the Rocky Mountain Front.
The local tourism body is paying for it. The Electric reported that Great Falls Montana Tourism has committed $530,000 for the first year, $539,330 for the second and $552,339 for the third, provided the first year meets expectations on marketing, visitor numbers and workload, and will pay Ironman’s annual licence fee. Under a three-year agreement approved unanimously by the city commission, the tourism district must also repay the city for costs such as staff time, equipment and permits.
Great Falls Montana Tourism expects about 2,000 athletes, plus their families and supporters. A local business owner cited a projected $18 million in local economic impact at a commission meeting on 6 October, The Electric reported.
Ironman 70.3 Utah, Orem
The Orem race is on Saturday 21 August 2027. It starts with a 1.2-mile swim in Deer Creek Reservoir, and the bike and run use Provo Canyon and Utah Valley, with the run along the Provo River Parkway Trail, FOX 13 reported. KUTV said it will offer qualifying slots for the 2028 Ironman 70.3 World Championship.
The race brings Ironman back to Utah. Its last event in the state was in St. George in May 2025, when the city hosted the 70.3 North American Championship for the final time, according to FOX 13.
“We believe Orem has all the ingredients to become one of the premier IRONMAN 70.3 destinations in North America,” said Todd Fitzgerald, Ironman’s regional director, in comments reported by FOX 13.
Ironman 70.3 Lake George
The Lake George race in New York’s southern Adirondacks will be held on Sunday 13 June 2027, the same day as 70.3 Eagleman in Maryland. The course has a swim in the lake, a single 56-mile bike loop and a two-loop run that finishes at Charles R. Wood Park, Slowtwitch reported.
Public money is involved here too. Citing the Post-Star newspaper, Slowtwitch reported that Warren County will put occupancy-tax funds of $200,000 in 2027, $210,000 in 2028 and $220,500 in 2029 towards the race, and that the Town of Lake George is spending $250,000 a year. The town’s deputy supervisor, Ed Pagnotta, said the investment would bring about $23 of economic activity for every dollar spent, the Post-Star reported.
Big fields in Sacramento and Wilmington
The new races follow two big autumn fields in the United States. Ironman California in Sacramento had 3,500 starters on 18 October, CBS Sacramento reported. Visit Sacramento, the city’s tourism agency, said the race sold out six months earlier than in 2025 and that more than 80 per cent of the athletes were doing it for the first time. In Wilmington, Ironman 70.3 North Carolina sold out with a record 3,500 entries for its race on 17 October, the Wilmington StarNews reported.
Ironman has not published prices or field sizes for the new races in the reports we have read.
