HOME
One of the world's most gruelling and challenging athletic events is the triathlon. To participate, you must adept at three activities and be extremely fit.The three activities are swimming, running and cycling. This makes the event extremely demanding. Not only does a competitor need to be skilled in the three activities but these activities make demands on all parts of the body. This means to compete in a triathlon, you need to be extremely fit in all parts of your body and have excellent co-ordination.
A further challenge is that the three events are competed back to back as one event. What's more the overall time for the event up on which the competitor will be judged includes the transition time between the three events. During this transition time, the competitor has to not only change his kit but also mentally switch gear to prepare for the next sequence of activity. So the triathlon requires mental strength and pacing as well as endurance.
Triathlons are held over four distances called Sprint, Olympic, Long Distance and Ultra and the event can be an individual or team event. The Sprint triathlon comprises a 0.5 miles swim, 12.4 mile cycle run, and a 3.1 mile run. The Sprint Distance is the fastest growing triathlon race distance in the United States. The Long Distance is also known as the Full and Ironman triathlon.
There are also a number of non-traditional triathlons such as the Ultraman Triathlon which is an ultra-long distance triathlon covering 320 miles, the Aquathlon which comprises just the swimming and running stages and the Aquabike with only swimming and cycling stages.
The Olympic triathlon comprises a 1.5km swim, a 40km bike ride, and a 10km run. Male athletes are expected to finish in 1 hour 50 minutes and women in just over two hours.
Triathlon is currently one of the fastest growing sports in the UK and an increasing number of women are participating in the event.