{"id":955128,"date":"2026-07-24T00:46:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T00:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/955128\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T00:46:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T00:46:22","slug":"date-for-next-ironman-jacksonville-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/955128\/","title":{"rendered":"Date for next IRONMAN Jacksonville announced"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. <\/strong> \u2013 The Ironman Triathlon drew nearly 2,000 athletes from around the world in May. <\/p>\n

IRONMAN announced the date for the next Jacksonville event will be Sunday, May 16, 2027, with registration opening soon. <\/a><\/p>\n

Many competitors and organizers praised the River City as a host in 2026, but some local officials, businesses, and residents said race-day traffic and safety concerns caused major headaches.<\/p>\n

A big part of the race was in St. Johns County, where athletes biked 112 miles through areas like Nocatee and Ponte Vedra Beach.<\/p>\n

St. Johns County Commissioner Krista Joseph said that she appreciated the athletes and families who participated, but had major concerns after Saturday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

Joseph went to Facebook and posted this feedback:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BCC (Board of County Commissioners) did not vote on this Jacksonville event. I can tell you all right now, after sitting in traffic for 3 hours and watching the close calls of car vs golf cart vs bikers that approval for something National like this needs to come to the BCC. Not only did I just get off the phone with the County Administrator and she was unaware of this event but also conveyed my concerns to the Sheriff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those traffic concerns were echoed by businesses in Five Points, where Riverside served as a major transition zone from swimming to biking, so there were plenty of closures.<\/p>\n

Mayor Donna Deegan addressed the traffic, acknowledging frustrations and saying city leaders will work to improve communication.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know some people have been a little upset about some of the traffic issues,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cEvents like this are always going to be a little disruptive for one day. But the return on investment we get for that is tremendous\u2026 we\u2019ll try our best to make sure we\u2019re communicating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Business owners and employees along Park Street told News4JAX they supported hosting a major event but felt overlooked by the closure plan, saying customers canceled appointments, workers arrived hours late and parking became difficult for staff and visitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody really knew what to do because we thought that it was going to be a lane impact, and it was the entire street,\u201d Five Points employee Taylor Johnson said. \u201cSo like they had the whole thing blocked off, so I know like they were people that were basically just hanging outside and not really knowing what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson added that some customers and employees were forced to park farther away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of people didn\u2019t like it because they had to park really far away\u2026 it\u2019s a little unsafe to have to walk so far,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Bryan Dewberry said his tattoo shop business was dead all weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been here for 40 years in town, we have had five customers,\u201d Dewberry said. \u201cI like that the city is making money but I need to survive more that the city does or at least as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

On social media, residents and business advocates voiced similar frustrations and urged more advance notice and clearer detour routes.<\/p>\n

The Mayor\u2019s Office shared the following statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cJacksonville made history this weekend, as nearly 2,000 athletes from 39 countries and across the United States descended on our city for the first-ever IRONMAN Jacksonville. Hosting one of the most prestigious endurance brands in the world is a major win for our city.<\/p>\n

What these athletes showed us during the competition was nothing short of extraordinary. Every athlete who participated showed us their perseverance, grit and determination to excel on the world stage.<\/p>\n

This successful event reflects exactly what Jacksonville is capable of. We are a world-class city, and IRONMAN chose us because of that. We benefit from the tremendous economic impact, the global exposure, the energy on our riverfront, and the pride on the faces of athletes crossing that finish line. We have a three-year commitment to this exciting event, and we intend to honor it by getting better every year IRONMAN Jacksonville comes to town. That means celebrating what worked and being honest about what could have been done better.<\/p>\n

We are committed to a smoother experience for everyone next year, and are already in conversations with IRONMAN organizers, JSO, and city staff to conduct a full after-action review to make sure traffic and safety concerns are meaningfully addressed.<\/p>\n

We are grateful to the IRONMAN organization, to Visit Jacksonville, to our Office of Sports and Entertainment, to the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office, Jacksonville Fire and Rescue, and the countless city staff and volunteers who worked tirelessly to make this event a success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deegan said there will be meetings to address all of the concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll make tweaks and I\u2019ll tell you some of the incidents I\u2019ve heard about in the biking and some of the cases where bicyclists were struck concerns me deeply,\u201d Deegan said.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Ironman Triathlon drew nearly 2,000 athletes from around the world in May. IRONMAN announced…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":955129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,8314,167545,3188,723,182481,110821,7310,27607,14638,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-955128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-duval-county","tag-five-points","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-ironman","tag-ironman-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-riverside","tag-st-johns-county","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116972197636839002","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/955129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}