Triathlon is fast growing sport right now. I know in the Nashville area the tri community is growing like crazy. People are catching the tri bug and it’s really fun getting to see so many people take the plunge.
But with triathlon being such a new sport still for most people, there’s a lot of confusion as to the lingo surrounding triathlons.
The question I get asked is what the distance of a FULL triathlon is. Kind of a funny question and yet a logical question in it’s inaccuracy.
Because Ironman Championship in Kona, Hawaii is on TV, most people think this particular race is the only triathlon race there is or that it is what all triathlon races are made of. This isn’t the case. In order to go to Ironman in Kona, you have to qualify in the top three spots of your age group. There are just over 30 Ironman races in the world each year and all are qualifying races for Kona.
On with the race…
A triathlon is three sports. Swimming, Biking and Running. In that order. So when a person asks… “is it a full triathlon?” Yes… all triathlons are full because they have three sports. What people are really asking… “are you doing the ironman?”
The answer is not every triathlon is an ironman.
Ironman is just the longest of the triathlon races.
There are four different triathlon distances. The longest and toughest being the Ironman (2.4 mile Swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run) then there is a Half Ironman (half of the Ironman distance) then there is the Olympic distance (1 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6 mile run). The shortest triathlon is called a Sprint which is roughly half the distance of an olympic distance triathlon. Truth be told. If you are a strong triathlete, sprints can be really tough. Because they are really short, you have no time to make up ground on who is ahead of you and not room to slack off to beat those who are behind you. Long distance race give you a little breathing room to make up time and to pace your self well.
Also, Olympics and Sprints will vary in distance by a mile or two on the bike and run and vary a little on the swim.
So… I’m hoping you are getting a mental picture. For those of you who know marathons and half marathons. There is only a marathon (26.2 miles) then the half marathon(13.1 miles). Then 10k’s (6 miles) and 5k’s(3 miles) typically. But if your friend says…”I’m running a 10k this weekend.” You probably aren’t going to say… “is that a full 10k?”
And there you have it… a simple little explanation from dear ole me…
Make sense?
Wanna tri with me?
09/18/2009
Triathlon