IRONMAN 70.3 North Carolina bringing economic boost to Wilmington area

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Thousands of local and visiting athletes will be swimming, biking, and running in the IRONMAN 70.3 North Carolina competition this weekend.

This is the 16th year the event has been held in the area, and the number of participants has grown each year.

Race director Sami Winter says more than 2,700 people have signed up to take part this year, which means local hotels, restaurants, and bars will likely see an influx of visitors for the race.

“It gives me a chance to show off my home, that I love so much,” Winters said.

Winter said other local businesses will also benefit financially from all the activity associated with the event.

“I mean hotels downtown are filled, Wrightsville Beach, midtown, you know, restaurants. And then as a race director, I try to source everything local, from athlete food to porta-potties to trash to everything like that.”

A large expo for the event, featuring dozens of local and national vendors, has been set up next to the Aloft Hotel on Nutt Street.

Wilmington resident Talia Brainard is the owner of Oti by the Sea, a small jewelry business that had a booth at the expo.

Brainard said the race is helping many businesses during a particularly slow part of the year.

“I feel like there is a lot of people in Wilmington, but like not a lot of people visiting at this time of year,” Brainard said. “So this is nice just to see, like a lot of individuals and they’re just here to spend money and have fun.”

UNCW economics professor Mouhcine Guettabi said events like this can also get more area residents to come out and enjoy what Wilmington has to offer.

“People like to get involved in all sorts of social events,” Guettabi said. “This is a social event, it gets people out of their homes as you said. It gets people to potentially discover neighborhoods they wouldn’t otherwise go to and it gets the city national and international recognition.”

And for participants like Neil Strom, once the race is over, everyone kicks back, relaxes, and enjoys the city.

“You’ll see everybody from the race at the restaurants, at the bars,” Strom said. “And you see the whole, every other race I’ve done and I’m hoping it’s the same here, that the whole town comes alive with the participants from the race and you get to kind of rehash everything you just went through.”