Triathlon Overview

Triathlon 101
A triathlon consists of three sports-- swimming, biking, and running. There are several race distances:

- Sprint (.5 mile swim, 13 mile bike, 3.2 mile run)
- Olympic (.93 mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, 6.2 mile run)
- Half-Ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run)
- Ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run)

The race starts at the shot of a gun as athletes begin their swim. Races can start off a dock with the athletes diving in. They can start with the participants already in the water behind the "start line." Races can also start on the beach with triathletes running in to the lake, ocean, etc. The swim is usually very crowded with alot of pushing and kicking to get ahead.

At the end of the swim, the athletes exit the water and start on the first transition, T1. They run to the bike racks, put on sneakers, and hope on their bike. Biking is the best time in the race to refuel on sports drinks and energy bars/gels. After the bike segment is complete, the triathlete comes back into the transition area for T2. They drop their bike off and leave for the last leg of the race, the run. Next comes crossing the finish line!

History of Triathlons
According to triathlon historian and author Scott Tinley, the origin of triathlon is anecdotally attributed to a race in France during the 1920s-1930s that was called variously "Les trois sports", "La Course des Débrouillards", and "La course des Touche à Tout". Nowadays, this race is held every year in France near Joinville-le-Pont, in Meulan and Poissy. In 1920, the French newspaper "L´Auto" reported on a competition called "Les Trois Sports" with a 3 km run, 12 km bike, and a swim across the channel Marne. Those three parts were done without any break. There are also articles in French newspapers about a race in Marseille in 1927. There is a 1934 article about "Les Trois Sports" (the three sports) in the city of La Rochelle, a race with: (1) a channel crossing (c. 200 m), (2) a bike competition (10 km) around the harbor of La Rochelle and the parc Laleu, and (3) a run (1200 m) in the stadium André-Barbeau. Its also known to be one of the worlds most dangerous sports.

Modern Triathlon
Triathlon’s roots can be traced back to 1974, Mission Bay, Southern California where a group of friends began training together. Amongst them were runners, swimmers and cyclists and before long training sessions turned into informal races. Directed and conceived by Jack Johnstone and Don Shanahan the first Mission Bay Triathlon was held on September 25th, 1974 and welcomed 46 athletes. Triathlon’s foundations had been set!

Ironman
The first modern long-distance triathlon event was the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon. It included a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run. It was conceived during the awards ceremony for the 1977 Oahu Perimeter Relay (a running race for 5-person teams).

Among the participants were numerous representatives of both the Mid-Pacific Road Runners and the Waikiki Swim Club, whose members had long been debating which athletes were more fit: runners or swimmers. On this occasion, U.S. Navy Commander John Collins pointed out that a recent article in Sports Illustrated magazine had declared that Eddy Merckx, the great Belgian cyclist, had the highest recorded "maximum oxygen uptake" of any athlete ever measured, so perhaps cyclists were more fit than anyone.

Collins and his wife, Judy, had taken part in the triathlons staged in 1974 and 1975 by the San Diego Track Club in Mission Bay, California. A number of the other military athletes in attendance were also familiar with the San Diego races, so they understood the concept when Collins suggested that the debate should be settled through a race combining the three existing long-distance competitions already on the island: the Waikiki Roughwater Swim (2.4 mi), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (115 mile) ; originally a two-day event) and the Honlulu Marathon (26.2 mile). No one present had ever done the bike race so they did not realize it was a two-day, not one-day, event. Collins calculated that, by shaving 3 miles off the course and riding counter-clockwise around the island, the bike leg could start at the finish of the Waikiki Rough Water and end at the Aloha Tower, the traditional start of the Honolulu Marathon. Prior to racing, each athlete received three sheets of paper listing a few rules and a course description. Handwritten on the last page was this exhortation:

"Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life!”
- Commander Collins (1978)

With a nod to a local runner who was notorious for his demanding workouts, Collins said:
“Whoever finishes first, we'll call him the Ironman.”
- Commander Collins (1978)

Of the fifteen men to start off in the early morning on February 18, 1978, twelve completed the race and the world's first Ironman, Gordon Haller, completed it in 11 hours, 46 minutes, and 58 seconds.

The Hawaii Ironman Triathlon now serves as the Ironman world championship, but the entity that owns the race, the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), hosts other triathlons around the world that are also called Ironmans. Long-distance multi-sport events organized by groups other than the WTC may not officially be called "Ironman" or "Iron" races. Such triathlons may be described as Full distance triathlon or "Half distance", but the "Ironman" and "Iron" labels are the official property of the WTC.

The St. George Ironman is an official WTC Ironman event.

Triathlon and Fitness
Triathletes tend to be spartanly fit, and many amateur athletes choose triathlon specifically for its fitness benefits. Because all three events are endurance sports, nearly all of triathlon training is cardiovascular exercise. In addition, since triathletes must train for three different disciplines, they tend to have more balanced whole-body muscular development than pure cyclists or runners, whose training emphasizes only a subset of their musculature.

Each element of the triathlon is slightly different from those sports if encountered alone. While amateur triathletes who also compete in individual swimming, cycling or running races generally apply the same techniques and philosophy to triathlon, seasoned triathletes and professionals have specialized techniques for each discipline that improve their race as a whole