The Tinman Turns 44. Tupper Lake Has Been Ready Since 1983.
On June 27, more than 400 athletes from Colorado, Ohio, Texas, Canada, and Colombia will show up in Tupper Lake before 8 in the morning, strip down to wetsuits, and swim 1.2 miles across Raquette Pond. Then 56 miles on a bike. Then a half-marathon. Most of them have never been to Tupper Lake before. Some of them will come back every year for the rest of their lives.
That is the Tinman. It started in 1983, which makes it one of the longest-running triathlons in the United States — older than the Ironman World Championship, older than most of the athletes who will race it this year. Triathlon Magazine named it one of the best half-iron distance races in North America for 2026. Race Director Wendy Peroza has been involved since 2002, first as a kayaker on the swim leg, now running the whole thing — a job she learned from her father-in-law, Maynard Peroza, who built it into what it is.
The race matters to Tupper Lake the way any 44-year-old institution matters — it is woven in. Hotels fill. Restaurants see their best weekend of early summer. The Wild Center, which just opened its TROLLS exhibition, gets a wave of families who came for the race and stayed for the park. This year they are racing the first full summer of the Adirondack Rail Trail connecting Tupper Lake to Lake Placid. Athletes who finish Saturday morning can be on the trail Sunday.
The Tinman is June 27. Registration closes June 24, with ten spots held for day-before sign-ups.