YMCA Wrightsville Beach Sprint Triathlon
About this race
Founded in 1979, as the Pepsi Triathlon, the YMCA Wrightsville Beach Sprint Triathlon is a favorite event among locals and triathletes near and far. This event creates a lot of excitement and enthusiasm within the race community because of its scenic location in beautiful Wrightsville Beach. The course is flat and the distances are short, making it a great first event for new triathletes, and a great time trial for more experienced racers.
In recent years, the YMCA has added a Youth Triathlon event in addition to the traditional Sprint Triathlon, increasing the participation in younger athletes. The Y has also added a Corporate Relay Division to encourage local businesses to come out and compete for a very large trophy to display in their business, not to mention bragging rights for the year!
Today the event is comprised of the traditional sprint triathlon and a youth triathlon, increasing the participation in younger athletes. We've also introduced a corporate relay division to encourage businesses to come out and compete for a very large trophy to display in their office, not to mention bragging rights for the year!
Race History
The YMCA of Southeastern North Carolina's Wrightsville Beach Sprint Triathlon first held in 1979, was the brainchild of Karl Sutter, a then resident of Wrightsville Beach. Karl was competitive by nature and had been college swimmer. A few years after college, Karl had taken up running to get back in shape, and one day sprained his ankle and then turned to cycling as an outlet for fitness while his injury healed. When reading Sports Illustrated in the spring of ‘79 he noticed a small article about the first Ironman triathlon with it’s 12 participants that was held in Hawaii the prior fall. Karl approached the local YMCA which was under the direction of Jack Morris at the time, and a new event for the area was born. This triathlon originally named the Pepsi YMCA Triathlon would become the first and longest running triathlon on the east coast of the US with its start of 99 participants that September, 1979.
Pick your distance
Triathlon
Individual
Relay
Want to be part of the corporate challenge? Talk to your company about getting involved. To be part of the challenge, it requires a relay team to consist of two or more athletes with prizes for fastest corporate team and company with highest number of athlete participants. Corporate trophy give to fastest team to display in their offices until next year’s race. When you register, you must put your company name as a relay team or if you are an individual, you must put your affiliation during registration.
Youth Triathlon
Aquabike
Aquabike
Typical race-day weather
Based on 7 years of Open-Meteo archive data for this event's race dates in Wrightsville Beach, plus the 3 days either side.
The sun rises at 7:02 AM and sets at 7:02 PM local time (EDT) in Wrightsville Beach on September 26, 2026 — 12h 00m of daylight.
Course
No course map published yet.
The organizer hasn't released a route for this event, and we don't publish guesses. If you're the organizer, send us a GPX file and we'll draw the profile.
Reviews
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2026 results — YMCA Wrightsville Beach Sprint Triathlon
1,136 finishers across 4 distances · leading places in the Individual, Advanced
| Place | Name | Time | Pace |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan Clancy | 1:05:27 | 65:27 /mi |
| 2 | Hank Shoemaker | 1:07:25 | 67:25 /mi |
| 3 | Will Belote | 1:09:39 | 69:39 /mi |
| 4 | Abram Baker | 1:15:27 | 75:27 /mi |
| 5 | Cameron Matthews | 1:19:31 | 79:31 /mi |
Every finisher is on the results page, filterable by distance, gender and age group.
All results by year
Other races near Wrightsville Beach
Different organizers, within 40 miles, in the next three months
Seaside Shuffle
Wrightsville Beach Outrigger Canoe Club East Coast Championship
Swim the Loop
Dashing Thru The Glow
Where this page comes from. Race details were last updated on . We re-check listings regularly and again in the week before race day.
- Entries, prices, waves and inclusions — the event's official registration page
- Temperature and humidity — Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0)
- Elevation and terrain relief — Copernicus DEM GLO-90, ESA (CC BY 4.0)
- Comparisons and counts — Race Discovery calendar, 9 Wrightsville Beach events
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