Multisport Basics
Placid Athlete’s sports of choice are triathlon and duathlon. These two disciplines consist of swimming, biking, and running, or simply biking and running, respectively. Other closely-related disciplines include aquabike (swim/bike) and aquathlon (swim/run). All of these disciplines are collectively referred to as “multisport.”
There are many different race distances in triathlon and duathlon. Triathlon has the most standardization, with distances being classified as Sprint, Olympic (or Intermediate), Long Course (or half-ironman or 70.3), or Ultra Distance (a.k.a. iron distance or Ironman). There is also at least one event that is in a class of its own, Ultraman.
The standard sprint distance is 750 meter swim, 20km bike, and 5km run (in English units, these distances equate to roughly a 0.5 mile swim, 12.4 mile bike and 3.1 mile run). However, you will see a lot of “sprint” races with slightly different distances. My observation is the swim is the most variable part. Some swims are as short as 300 or 500 yards. (Some races are also called “super sprint” and these are actually shorter than a sprint. For example, a super sprint might be a 0.25 mile swim, 10 mile bike, and 2 mile run. Typically the super sprint races are geared to the first-timers.)
The Olympic (also knows as intermediate or international) distance is a 1500m swim, 40 km bike, and 10km run. This is a standardized distance. The difference between racing in the Olympics and “standard” triathlon is that in the Olympics (and International Triathlon Union (ITU) races more generally), drafting is allowed on the bike portion of the race, whereas in non-ITU races, drafting is not allowed. The ITU is the international governing body of triathlon as an Olympic sport, and there is an ITU world championship race as well as numerous other ITU races all over the world.
Long Course consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run. I’ve always thought it a little confusing to call this “long course” because most people think of the “long” one being “Ironman” (but no one asked me). Long Course is also often referred to as the half-iron distance, and races put on by the World Triathlon Corporation are branded as “Ironman 70.3.”
Ultra Distance races are what many people think about when they think of triathlon. The swim is 2.4 miles, bike is 112 miles, and Run is 26.2 miles (marathon). These races are also commonly referred to as “iron distance” or Ironman. Ironman, however, is actually a trademarked name of the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) and so races cannot use the Ironman name or logo unless they are affiliated with the race. So sometimes you might see a non-WTC race described as “iron distance” instead.
Ultraman makes an iron distance race sound easy! Currently, there are only two of these, Ultraman Hawaii and Ultraman Canada. Ultraman is a 3-day race, with the following format:
Day 1: 6.2 mile swim, followed by 90 mile bike ride
Day 2: 170 mile bike ride
Day 3: Double marathon (52.4 mile) run
As noted previously, duathlons are typically a run/bike/run format. Although less standardized than triathlon, the following are typical distances:
· 2-mile run/10-mile bike/2-mile run
· 5k run/30k bike/5k run
· 10k run/40k bike/5k run (International or short course)
· 10k run/60k bike/10k run (Powerman or long course)
Powerman is an international race series, and in the U.S. there are only two Powerman events: Powerman Alabama and Powerman Florida. Athletes must qualify to race in the prestigious Powerman Zofingen (Switzerland), which consists of a very challenging 8.5k run, 150k bike, and 30k run. Some say this race is as difficult as an iron distance triathlon.
