City of Redding Podcast
City of Redding Podcast
Inside IRONMAN 70.3 Northern California: Bringing a World-Class Race to Redding.
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The inaugural IRONMAN 70.3 Northern California is coming to Redding, bringing athletes from across the country to compete in one of the most scenic race courses in the nation.
In this episode, Steve and Katie sit down with Tim Bauer from the Redding Sports Commission to discuss why Redding was selected to host this world-class event, what makes the course unique, how the community is preparing, and what residents can expect on race weekend. Whether you're racing, volunteering, cheering on athletes, or just wondering what all the excitement is about, this episode covers everything you need to know before the starting horn sounds.
Learn more about IronMan70.3 Northern California.
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I'm Katie.
SPEAKER_01And I'm Steve, and this is the City of Reading Podcast.
SPEAKER_00Whether you're a seasoned triathlete or someone who thinks a 5K sounds ambitious, there's a big event coming to Reading that's putting our community on the international map.
SPEAKER_01August 16th, 2026, Reading will host the inaugural Iron Man 70.3 Northern California. Athletes from across the country and around the world will be swimming in Whiskey Town Lake, biking through Shasta County, and running across some of Reading's most iconic scenery.
SPEAKER_00Hosting an event of this scale takes a tremendous amount of planning, coordination, and community support. It also brings thousands of visitors to our area and showcases everything that makes Reading such an incredible place to live and recreate.
SPEAKER_01Today we're talking with Tim Bauer, Sports Commissioner with the Reading Sports Commission, to learn why Reading was chosen, what athletes and spectators can expect on race weekend, how residents can get involved, and what it takes to bring an Iron Man to our community.
SPEAKER_00Whether you're planning to race, volunteer, cheer from the sidelines, or you're just curious about all the excitement you've been hearing about, this episode is for you.
SPEAKER_01Let's dive in.
SPEAKER_02Hi, my name is Tim Bauer. I'm the Sports Commissioner for Reading Sports Commission.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Thank you, Tim, for joining us today. We have you on to talk about a really exciting topic, the Iron Man 70.3 coming to Reading this August, which is really a big deal, and we're excited to learn more about that and what that means for the community, why Reading was selected as a location for this event. So maybe we can start with just that. For those folks who aren't familiar, what exactly is an Iron Man 70.3?
SPEAKER_02All right. So we've been working on this for quite some time. So it's great for everyone to hear how it came to be. So our official race name is Iron Man 70.3 Northern California, and that involves three disciplines: swim, bike, run. It's a 1.2 mile swim, 56-mile bike ride, and a 13.1 mile run. A full Iron Man, it's double that. And there's only one in North America, and that's in Sacramento. So we're a 70.3, which is a lot more accessible to people getting training for the full. And so that's where we're at with this race.
SPEAKER_00So super exciting for Reading. How was Reading selected to host an event like this? And how long has Reading been trying to win over an event like this?
SPEAKER_02There's always been people who have been interested in it. We had an opportunity to meet with them back in 2024. So we had a meeting, and long story short, they're the global leader in outdoor events. So you're talking billion-dollar companies. So they're looking for primary destinations. And we did our best we could. But in the beginning, we were definitely a thank you for your time, but probably not going to happen. So the best thing that ever came out of it though was that lead. I kept just following up. I said, Hey, if we had a if we can get someone out here for a site visit, we think we check all the boxes for what you guys are looking for. And again, it was that thank you. About a year of a lot of follow-up emails. And so, well, I got the luck of the draw. I got transferred to a different race director. And so when we got talking, he was familiar with this area a little bit. He's never been here, but we got a site visit scheduled, and then that's when things started clicking. So they're like, okay, they saw the backdrop, they saw what we were offering, and we got some C-suite level executives to come out. And so that was the turning point. I knew they were pretty serious. Next, they did have to propose it to the Iron Man board that this was a potential location. Because every location has a three-year contract. So you get the Iron Man triathlon for three years. So it's a big deal. You're in their global portfolio, so they don't take it lightly. We pass probably three levels of just vetting. And one of the big things, I work with Danny at Visit Reading, his marketing material is spot on. So that really helped with the polished image of what we wanted to present to Reading. And they use that in their presentation on the board. So, long story short, after they presented, I was waiting for that email. I just thanks. We appreciate the time, but it's not going to happen. But they're like, no, congratulations. You're going to be in the 26, 27, 28 brace portfolio. So oh, we were excited about that.
SPEAKER_01Got it. Hey, Tibcures, you talked about the site visit and how that was the turning point once they came to Reading and saw our area and saw the potential for that. With that in mind, we talk a lot about the natural beauty of our area and with the river and the mountains and the trails, et cetera. How unique is the running course in the greater Iron Man 70.3 system? I know these races, like you're saying, are all over the country and really the world. How unique is the reading course in that regard?
SPEAKER_02Just to pair us up with the California courses, there's an oceanside, which is gorgeous right on the beach. There's Santa Cruz, which is unique in what it offers. Obviously, there's Sacramento for the full. You got the capital backdrop and everything. So I've always been a firm believer in my position that Reading is iconic Northern California. We're not the Bay Area. We're not Sacramento. We are our own unique footprint of what you expect to see here. And so that was one of the things we really sold. For we're surrounded by mountains, you're surrounded by forests, but we don't get snow like heavy snow in winter. So it's unique. We're not like in the mountains of Colorado versus we have valley vibes, but we get to see all this mountainous beauty. Because one of the things they can't do is they can't have a huge elevation change on the bike course. So we got really lucky that Whiskey Town Lake is where it is, such a close proximity to the city. And things started checking off boxes in their mind. They're like, okay, because they come in with a huge footprint. They have to rack anywhere from 2,000 bikes in a certain area. We got so lucky with Oak Bottom actually being large enough to handle that. They looked at Shasta Lake as well. They said that was a little harder because the parking lot's smaller. So there's certain stuff like I never consider that they need because they're such a big operation. And to even back up a little bit, lodging was supremely important because obviously erasers come to a certain area plus their support team. So the fact that Reading has 3,200 hotel rooms and growing is amazing. We checked that box pretty early, and that's where we got the site visit to say, hey, we can actually handle the influx of visitors, whereas a Chico or somebody else just can't handle that as of today.
SPEAKER_00And that's a great question because I was actually wondering how many people that an event like this expects to bring.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if you guys want to go into the fun numbers, we got to update we're over 1,500 athletes registered for our race. We have 48 states, 11 countries represented. And so they said everyone usually brings two to 2.5 sport team with them, friends and family. So anywhere from 6 to 7,000 is a pretty good guess for how many people will descend upon writing kind of that August 10th, August 16th, what we call race week. You have people coming up to acclimate, you have people writing the course. They have the Iron Man app where you can already write it, and it's available on the Strava app as well. So I've already seen groups of people come up. We have over 200 tri clubs signed up. So they're coming and they're coming in droves. A few months ago, we're a 70.3. That's great. We're in the portfolio. It's amazing. They had internal discussions and they decided to upgrade us to a pro race. And so what that changes is now there's prize money on the line. So if people compete our race, they have a chance to win prize money of about $40,000 and four slots to enter the Iron Man 70.3 World Championships. So that's two men's, two women's. The Boulder Colorado is a 70.3, but there's no prize money. And so they don't necessarily attract those world-class athletes. We now are attracting world-class athletes. And I believe there's anywhere from 20 to 40 that will be showing up to our race. These are people with huge followings. They travel and in that community, they're definitely superstars. So we're excited to see who's coming. They obviously want to set course records and it could be a wrench in our planning because we're going to have two finishes because they're fast. I've seen them, I've been to three Ironmans, and those people were looking at a finish line for all those guys at about 10 a.m. Like they're done with the course and they're doing medals at 10:30. And so that's going to be great. And then more so everyone else, probably 11, 12, they'll start crossing the finish line at the Civics. We're excited because that's a huge upgrade. And that kind of lays the groundwork for what we think will ultimately happen in writing. And we've been talking a lot. And it's called a Pro Series, which means now our race is televised globally. They have announcers, they have about a 10-person motorcycle media crew that follows the top people. And that gets played on television channels over and over. So there's so much potential. That writing becomes top of mind in this community for a long time to come. So we're excited about that.
SPEAKER_01That's super cool, Tim. And we'll talk about finances here in just a little bit. But I'm curious with Iron Man making that decision to make this part of that pro series and have that prize money. That sounds huge. Is that something the host community, the host city has to fund, or Iron Man puts in that 40K?
SPEAKER_02That is 100% on their end. They've told us before, we've been really great partners. Like you said, what we did with the Iron Man banners around town, that's what we want to bring. Hey, we're in it to win it. We want to support this event. We want our community to come out as volunteers to support this event. That money, we have an agreement with Iron Man. And so we pay into the overall race logistics. We have a lot of partners we're working with to help with that too. But the impact alone is going to be so good for the community. And yeah, no, that prize money doesn't come out from city funds in any way.
SPEAKER_01Got it. And you mentioned that with that prize money, it might attract more of the elite athletes in general for an event like this. How far and wide do folks you mentioned the registrations and you're expecting over 1,500 athletes. And is that from across the country or even across the world, or is it mainly Northern California athletes coming up to Reading for it?
SPEAKER_02So we're at 1,500 as of today. They project by closing, which is not too far from now, about 40 days. Anywhere from 1700, 1800 would be solid for a first year race. Spread out, these people are coming from all over, 11 countries represented. One of our biggest target metropolitan areas is the Bay Area coming up. And so that is great. In the mines of the Bay Area, we're currently far, out of sight, out of mine. So we're trying to close that gap that Reading's closer than you think to your Sacramento crowd, to your Bay Area. And this is the perfect event for people to be like, oh, I went to somewhere I never planned on going and I had a great time, had a great experience. We've hosted other events, sporting events, and I do like to talk to the audience. Talk to someone in Sacramento. They live there 20 years, never came to Reading outside of that sporting event. So we know this kind of is a catalyst, a draw for people who live in California to actually come and experience iconic Northern California. And we think it's only going to snowball from there.
SPEAKER_00And then and as we're speaking of athletes or drawing some world-class elite athletes who've never been to Reading before, I'm wondering if we can talk about the race route a little bit because locals will know Whiskey Town and locals will know the Sacramento River Trail and where these are going. So where are you taking the athletes in our community? What's the route look like so that locals can really get their mind around what these elite athletes are going to be experiencing?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you can go to Ironman.com and see the actual course, which is good. Our official race is Ironman 70.3 Northern California. Swim portion starts at Oak Bottom parking lot. So they'll do a 1.2 mile swim in Whiskey Town out and back. They'll come up on that dock, they'll grab their bikes, hit 299, and then it goes a little northeast through Ashasta Lake City, and then east, Oak Run, Bella Vista down, Palacedro, and then back into Reading, the Civic Auditorium is transitioned to where they drop out their bikes, start running the river trail. And so that's pretty much the course. And they do some loops on the Sacramento River Trail. And then they the finish line will be right there on Civic Grounds.
SPEAKER_01Got it. And Tim, with regard to that, are those the Iron Man team and organizers coming up as part of those site visits, and you work with them to really identify what makes the most sense, traffic-wise, challenge-wise, et cetera. Or how are those locations selected and what does that process look like? Because I imagine that's one of the most important processes during the whole planning process. Yep.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. A lot of car rides with them. So got to know really well. Thus we had a whole different course laid out. That 56 miles, it has to be on point. I can't be short. Otherwise, people will feel like they didn't actually complete a 70.3. So it was just fun to see how they mapped it out. So after we signed the contract, they have their race director and their race team on Google Maps. They live on Google Maps, just figuring out what routes work. And then they've done several site visits where they come and actually drive the routes and be like, okay, this won't work because of this, that, or whatever. And so the final course pretty much just got finalized maybe about a month ago. And so they were out here, they drove, they were really happy with it. And the feedback has been good. What we've heard from other people that they really like this course. And we're laying really good bones down for we're a 70.3 now, but if they really like the area, there's talk of doing other races or even expanding it to a full. But just talk now. But we're excited. They see the potential. I'm a cyclist, so I love East Reading. I live in that area, so it's just beautiful. And on a Sunday morning, we should have very light traffic. So yeah, but we will have someone that goes along the course and does contact the businesses, but that'll be the week of. And so we're going to try to be with our team just as available as possible to tell at least local businesses they're going to impact a real city of Reading. We're talking about doing some mailers to at least people in the zip code and then mailers to other people in Shassett County that this event has been taking place. There's going to be some road closures and some delays, but nothing too permanent. They're usually on three-hour delays max. And so they try to utilize pilot cars to also make traffic moves. That's where I started losing sleep just to see all those traffic pattern plans. You're like, ooh, that's a lot of work.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was going to say I'm biased, obviously, because I love it here, but we just have such a beautiful community. And when you hear that the route will go through Whiskey Town and then through Old Shastan, down all the way through Palosidro, and then up along the river trail. I'm just thinking, wow, there's probably few other places that have such gorgeous terrain that we have that seems so tailor-made for an event like this. Was there one spot or one place along the course that particularly impressed the scouts?
SPEAKER_02Yes. So they love Whiskey Town Lake. We looked at Brandy Creek and Oak Bottom. I bring it back to Brandy Creek, has too much of a steep elevation to get out for their legs. So the fact that we got Oak Bottom, which is much lower and it more gradual on that 299 to get out, was perfect because they can't be all climbing the whole race. So that was really good. Think they love how quickly the terrain changes to pine trees, and you go up over this hill and there's a stunning lake we weren't expecting. And in reverse, when they leave on the bike course, they're gonna get that nice 270 view of the area. Hopefully, you might have clear skies and you can see Lassen. But just stuff like that. Those are the kind of the wow shots. They took a lot of pictures when they were here. I think it's cool that the new course goes over Keswick Dam. So you just get water on both sides. I was just there. It's so many nice features just to have an enjoyable bike ride. So, you know, you're sweating and you're in pain, but at least there's like, oh, this is pretty. Okay.
SPEAKER_01We talked about the elite athletes, the challenge of this course in general for those folks who might either be on the fence of whether or not they might want to try this. Obviously, it's not like a 5K where some folks can just jump in and hit the ground. It takes weeks and months, years of training potentially to complete an Iron Man 70.3. What is your recommendation or Iron Man's recommendation on folks who might be on the fence of whether or not this might be the event for them, especially if it's a local event and they want to give it a try? And I'm assuming during the event itself, there's sweepers on the course where if you're not finishing certain sections in a certain time, they sweep you off. I don't know how that process worked. Let me just talk us through a little bit of what folks can expect.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, I've got to shadow three races and you learn a lot. Two things I learned is a DNS and a DNF. DNS means did not start, and that means you had a change of plans, you're in line, and you said, Nope, I'm not gonna swim today, I'm out of here. And so I've seen that a few times. Very sad. And then a DNF. These are the people that actually got in the water, they're trying or they got gassed. And if you have to be pulled out in a water rescue, that's your day. Thanks for playing. You cannot proceed to the next discipline. So I've seen the DNF did not finish. Each transition has a cutoff time, so you can't take eight hours on the bike course. So there are cutoffs, and one of the things you'll probably see with the bike, just people coming up five, 10 minutes past the cutoff, and that's it. That was your day. You can take your bike and go home, kind of thing, or you can stay and watch the other people. So I think good with this 70.3 six months minimum, nine months of training is what they recommend. Yeah, that's pretty much if anyone wanted to do it in the next two less than two months, it's up to them. If they've already have a regiment, if they can do these disciplines on their own, that's great. But it's probably it's a good six to nine months of training for the one of these.
SPEAKER_00And Tim, I've seen some of these. I haven't been to one of these, but I've looked up enough online to scout them out to know that these they happen everywhere. They happen in all different kinds of terrains and weather and climate. And these are elite athletes. They're used to the worst of the worst, right? That's kind of part of the challenge, is pushing themselves. But I'm wondering what made the organizers choose August in Reading as the date that they wanted to do that. I would imagine that heat might be one of the most challenging pieces about this race.
SPEAKER_02You're not a fan of the racing in August? That's all good.
SPEAKER_00I love it. I love this number, but I'm just stocks people.
SPEAKER_02So in our region, we are the Northwest region. There's one race team that's your semi-trucks, everything, the Iron Man crew loose, race to race. So we got slotted in an available month between other races. And so we were we did talk about the date, and they said this is what it looks like for at least 2026. And so have an August race. They're going to mitigate as much issues as possible. We have more water stations, we have ice stations, we have misting stations. One of the things we're doing with the Reading Sports Commission is we are paying for and giving out over 5,000 cooling towels to all the athletes and volunteers. So those are great. You dunk them in ice water, and they're amazing. So that's one of the things we're doing to just be heat aware. And we have medical on site. And the best thing about it, we do start early, about 6 a.m. start. And so most people, one o'clock, two o'clock finish. So and we're also hoping that we've had some nice weeks. Look at what we had just a week ago here. And we had some beautiful weather. So we're hoping just maybe there's a little relief, but most people should be done around one to two o'clock.
SPEAKER_01So beat the most extreme part, heat of the day. But like you said, Tim, it sounds like maybe the race organizers will take a look and see how this year's event goes and maybe potentially look to make some adjustments in future years of the race, depending on how much of an issue the heat becomes.
SPEAKER_02I can actually answer that. They love the backdrop. It's just this your first one is usually you we all learn a lot on both sides. They love our turnout. They said that's super impressive for our first year. We're already in talks in 2027, 28 dates. And I can promise you it won't be an August race again. So this is a fun one. Let's show them what Reading looks like in August. We may have a different month next year.
SPEAKER_00I can imagine, like, I don't know. I'm just speaking for myself personally, but I almost view humidity as almost worse than the dry heat that Reading experiences. And I know that these Iron Man 70.3s happen all over in all different kinds of conditions. So it just makes ours a particular challenge for Reading. And I think that could be an interesting challenge for some of these elite athletes and like a badge of honor, honestly. Let's say it is a really hot day in Reading. Like, what an honor to win this Iron Man 70.3 if it happens to be a hundred-degree day. You know what I mean? What an extra special medal that would be to athlete.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. One of the things I don't think the champs will even notice they'll be done by 10:30. So they'll be like, they're fine. They got in the water, they got in their bikes, and they ran probably a decent course. We are excited because Sacramento River, that run portion is much cooler. There's probably going to be people jumping in and out of the water, just obviously in the banks that allow it. So we're embracing it. One of the things we're probably going to do is during the bike transition zone to the run, set up a rain tone that you can run right through. And so we'll have things like that just to be like we're mindful of the heat, we're very aware, safety first with these races. So we're trying to do as much as we can to make sure athletes and volunteers stay relatively cool. And so we're buying lots of ice and lots of water.
SPEAKER_01Tim, I'm curious. One of the things we haven't yet touched on is the economic impact of our community for an event like this. Maybe let's talk about that beyond race day itself. What does an event like this mean economically for a city like Reading?
SPEAKER_02Great question. And that's what I'm most excited about. So, what our investment is as far as what we're putting in, and City of Reading is partnering with, is very small to the return on investment. A 70.3 And they've comped us with other races and other cities that have them. We can expect anywhere from 10 to 11 million dollars in economic impact. That's your fuel, lodging, restaurants, shopping. You got people are buying last-minute things like helmets, goggles, fixing their bikes at your bike stations, renting cars flying in. So everyone's going to be impacted in some way in a positive. So and that's a first-year race. We're excited about. And so just the economic impact alone is worth having this. And I'm excited because they're doing global marketing for Redding, California. You're getting a two-for-one deal. Having the race is an honor. And then having the market your destination and all the highlights is another honor. So we're excited about that.
SPEAKER_00Wow, that number is super impressive, 10 to 11 million. And that's just an economic impact that you can capture right there in that race week. I would imagine that if this marketing is a global marketing and we're bringing all of these athletes and teams in from all over the place, that it could put Reading on the map for people to come back and return visit or maybe try fly fishing the next time they're here or whatever. And so it really does seem like this could even continue to have economic impacts as the race goes, especially for the next three years, but then even beyond that.
SPEAKER_02So what's beautiful about being in the portfolio means anyone who goes to Iron Man's website, it doesn't matter if you're in Dubai, Beijing, they can see, okay, here's the California races. Our course will be up year-round. So you can come in September, ride the course. You can pull it up on your Strava app, ride the course. I think they have a deal with Ruby where you can bring up the bike course on a bike app. Nothing disappears after the race is done, as far as they're concerned. So we're really excited to see that year-round the occupancy increase because you have your triclubs who said, I just raced this. I'm coming back in October. And we want to do this again. This is a beautiful course. Oh, it's only two and a half hours away from Sacramento, or it's three hours from the bay. So that's what we were really excited about. Just that continuing. I had no clue this place existed. Now I love it. How most residents have come to Reading in some way, you either came on a family vacation, or if you didn't already live here, or you just said, this is a really nice area for where it is. So I was born here and I lived in Sunday California my whole life. And as I got older, I started to appreciate your last and just ruralness. And we still had great amenities and stuff. And Sundial Bridge, we're so lucky to have that was speaking about the wild moments. They're very impressed that a city like us has something like that right over the river. It's just so iconic and so obviously. And that's been incorporated into the finisher medal, that icon has been incorporated into all the Iron Man 70.3, Northern California marketing. Just wins like that make us feel like we're on the right path. And it's going to be a really good long-term relationship.
SPEAKER_01We talked a little bit about the type of athlete either coming to Reading or who's in the area already participated in this. Within the grand scope of Iron Man, is there a badge of honor? Kind of some folks might look at baseball stadiums, right? Try to check them all off their list to hit everyone. Is Iron Man something similar? Where now that Reading's on that list of locations, it's another one that they want to check off to really have that badge of honor of competing or completing the circuit type of thing?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. The Pro Race aspect is huge. That means there's four tickets to enter a 70.3 world. So that now people who enjoy doing that, who enjoy actually having record times and getting to the next level, now we're in their kind of there are some chronic triathlon people who just go from race to race. And we've already seen it. They have back-to-back 70.3s. One of them is coming. He's a famous social media guy. He runs in a suit and he's doing back-to-back 70.3s. He's a young guy, and he's going to do our race. So we're like, hey, that's exciting. So just that media ripple effect. I all know about what happened to Bernie Falls during the lockdown, and everyone went to Bernie Falls and it exploded. We're thinking it's going to be very similar to that. And especially you have the people with the large followings, and we're going to have some really good names who win. And ready can celebrate with them. And so being in that portfolio, being something they can do year-round is a huge win for us. And then they just started this to because we're a feeder race into the October Iron Man Full in California, Sacramento, Iron Man, California. So one of the things they're doing, if you compete in an oceanside or a Santa Cruz or Reading 70.3, and you do a full Iron Man and complete, they'll give you a special Cali Co-op badge. Only exclusive people who've done a California 70.3 and the full Iron Man. So it just keeps getting better and better. Every time we get an email, we're like, oh, this is great.
SPEAKER_00So and Tim, this is obviously through the course of our conversation, it's clear that this is a huge event. It's a big deal. It brings a lot of people to the area. You mentioned it briefly, but volunteers are something that are really needed in order to pull off an event of this scale in Reading. I know there's an open call out for volunteers right now, but in terms of volunteers, how many more do you need? Who can volunteer? What kind of volunteering work is needed? Just walk us through that whole piece.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. So they usually ask for about a thousand local volunteers. And we do have that direct listing on our Reading Sportsco.com website. It's just fast and easy if you wanted to have any interest in volunteering. There's just so many opportunities. You can put medals on fish line athletes, you can pass pass out water, you can pass out snacks, you can clean up trash. There's so many things. Also, there's more specialty kind of positions like CPR certified to be a lifeguard on the swim course. So we need a thousand people. I believe we're right close to that halfway mark. We'd love people to sign up sooner than later so they can select where they want to be. So yeah, we're super happy with that. We do have a volunteer director local, Nate Konutson of Reading Trail Alliance. So he is our volunteer director. And but the best way to sign up for that where he'll get in contact to you, Reading SportsCo.com. There's a volunteer link. So it just goes right to the official Iron Man page and you can see all the positions.
SPEAKER_01Okay, awesome. If someone isn't racing, maybe for whatever reason they decide not to volunteer, but they still want to check out the action. Is there an Iron Man Village happening on race day or prior to race day? Or if they want to go watch the race itself, what are some of the best viewing locations for them to set up shop at?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so they come and they set up the Iron Man Village will be open to the public. That's going to be on Reading Civic Grounds, huge tents, everything, merch store. So one of the things that's going to be open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That's where most people be congregating. There's going to be some viewing spots along on race day, but the finish line is at the Iron Man Village on the Civic Grounds. So that's where you kind of want to be on race day. And so you can, they said they love our run trail because you'll have tons of people lining the banks of the Sacramento River and then just cheering on their athlete and a little bit of see them multiple times. And they said that's a huge win because I wouldn't recommend hanging out in the bike course because you might get to see them for three seconds and then they're gone. So the run course is where you're gonna see they're finishing up, they're almost done. That's where I think most of writing community will come out and supporters. So that right there, we're gonna see a lot of people, and it's gonna be fun. They play music during the event. There's so many things going on, it's a really good time. But one of the things I did want to bring up that's open to the public. We are on Friday evening, August 14th. There is a welcome reception downtown. It's called the Start Line Social. So we'll be there setting up. We have a DJ. Reading Rancheria is sponsoring the event. So that's we'll have Iron Man team there to answer questions. It's kind of going to be a mix of athletes and logos. So we'll have food trucks. We're working with Reading Public Market to make sure they're aware. And we're expecting anywhere from 500 to 1,000 people, just that we predict, but it could be more. And so one of the things we'll we have some video screens, we'll be playing some visit writing marketing videos. And then just we hope the mayor will come and just do a little speech. I know he's going to be on a relay team, and so that's we'll have the race director of our race come and talk to the audience. That'll start around 8:30. And so just stuff like that. We have some giveaways, want to give the audience some wet bags and Iron Man backpacks.
SPEAKER_01Tim, for those folks in the community who want to partake in some of the excitement during race week, is there anything for them to do during race week itself?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. So I believe there is going to be a shakeoff run that is open to the public. I think it's going to be Thursday, but we'll have more information on that. So that's where it's a small little 5K. They're going to run some of the Sack River Trail, and they're probably going to end downtown Reading. So it's open to everybody. Just come and gather. The second thing we're excited about is our sunrise yoga session on the bridge for Saturday morning. We're going to have two time slots. And so there'll be more information on that on the Iron Man website. But two time slots starting at five and seven. And then right after that, we're going to have our very first Iron Kids race through McConnell. And so that's super exciting. They're going to put the finish line on the bridge. And so that's another thing you register through Iron Man on. So I've been to those are the cutest things ever. And so we really want the community to come out for that. So you have your start line social, you have your sunrise yoga on the bridge, and then you have your Iron Kids race. So we're excited to see all the fun stuff. And they really want Reading to shine. They love local flavor. And so I think we have a lot to offer.
SPEAKER_00Okay, in closing, Iron Man's finished. Maybe it's finished for the three years or whatever it is. What do you hope the athletes and visitors really remember most about spending a weekend in Reading?
SPEAKER_02I definitely think I want people to discover that A, this area exists. There's something past Sacramento. And I think it's it's a gem. It's pretty easy to get to with where we're at. I think we have so much to offer. I do think people will put it on their list of places to come back to. I hope it becomes a training ground for tri athletes who are considering either doing an Iron Man or 70.3. I think they're going to fall in love with the town. A lot, we've come a long way in the last 20 years. I know City of Reading has a lot to do with that. And so we're thankful for that. I think we're in the right time to kind of debut. What I like to think is Reading 2.0. It's not what it used to be. Here's the new polished image. And just having a world-class event like that is going to kind of cement our position as an outdoor sports capital of California. So I think that's really gonna be the takeaway from all of this. And so we're excited to be part of that journey.