Williamsburg, Virginia – The Region

Williamsburg is situated near the east shore of the James River on one side and, to the west, the York River.  It boasts a population of 12,000 and is an annual destination location for over 4,000,000 travelers.  For Ironman North America, a combination of small town persona and being one of America’s favorite vacation destinations should be very appealing. 

Williamsburg is the most central location on the east coast.  Within a 250 mile radius are the major metropolitan areas of Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, Richmond, VA, Raleigh, NC and Virginia Beach, VA.  A 500 mile radius includes much of the east coast of the United States. 

Williamsburg area weather is moderate.  The short winter season makes Williamsburg a major attraction for many northeastern U.S. cities.  Williamsburg is also exceptionally well known for its activities and attractions making us one of America’s favorite vacation destinations.  We are confident that a fall Ironman event will attract many participants, volunteers and spectators.

Among Williamsburg’s many distinctions is that the America we know today began here!

Williamsburg History is Our History!

For 300 hundred years... Williamsburg has been at the `center' of monumental clashes... of minds, ideas, wills... and finally armed warfare.   These Ironman-like struggles shaped our country and influenced the world.  People from all over the globe come to visit where history was (and still is) made.

The Historic Triangle has been called the `largest living museum in the world'.

Today's visitors experience first hand... through costumed interpreters... the times and lives of the initial waves of European settlers coming to the `New World' (Jamestown).

A scant few miles away in Yorktown, visitors are time-transported a century ahead. They walk the bulwarks... where the final siege of the Revolutionary War permitted the beginning of the American concept of democracy... the ideal that ordinary citizens... could govern themselves.

But it was from the Historic Area of Williamsburg... centered on the Duke of Gloucester Street... that the ideals about democracy formulated. Modern history changed by the democratic ideals and ideas that subsequently influenced the `four corners of the earth'.

At one end stood the Capitol Building... the British King's symbol of authority in its then Colony. It was here that the colonists (and their `legislators' who were permitted to make recommendations to the King)... began to understand that they did not have to be ruled by a foreign power... but could manage their own country under rules which they themselves developed by community consensus (discussions and voting).

Ironman participants will pass through and may dine in the same Taverns... where the arguments took place between the `Crown Loyalists'... and the `Revolutionaries'... and where the concepts that became the America Constitution were discussed by the likes of George Washington and Patrick Henry ("Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death").  The only difference between their struggle and the challenge facing Ironman participants are spandex and powdered wigs.

At the other end of the street... stood the College of William & Mary... which was providing radical ideas to young law students like Thomas Jefferson.

The second oldest institution of higher learning in the United States... William & Mary began the Honor Society that was based on individual Responsibility... as well as the Phi Beta Kappa Society... which recognized and acknowledged individual Excellence… a solid link to Ironman’s goal of individual excellence and achievement.

The proposed Williamsburg Ironman route may take participants past the College's Wren Building, originally constructed in 1695, and across the campus into William & Mary Hall to the finish line.

Along the rest of Duke of Gloucester Street... Visitors Learn and Experience... (with authentic interpreters)... the lives of just 'normal' townspeople and their homes (rich and poor)... their Stores and Offices... Merchants... Professionals... and the Trades.

In certain historic areas, visitors can attend live reenactments of various facets of colonial life.

You may also witness the scenes of the swift judicial system of the periods... capital execution of Pirates... the "pillory" for hands and legs that used community ridicule as a means of `rehabilitating’ certain offenders.   

(We promise not to use these methods when dealing with bicycle drafting violators.)

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