Triathlon

The sport of triathlon began only about 30 years ago, born, according to the stories, in the city of San Diego.  A swimmer, a cyclist, and a runner were arguing about who was the best athlete...and they decided that the best way to determine that was to have everyone do a race that included all 3 sports. 

How quickly the sport has grown!!  In the year 2000, triathlon made it's debut in the summer Olympics.  And in the year 2005, USA Triathlon (the sanctioning organization for the sport in the USA) announced that annual memberships have grown to more than 60,000 athletes.

There are a wide range of distances included these multisport races.  Following are the usual definitions for each category.  Please note that these distances are not standardized...each race director may choose to include whatever distances he/she would like.  These definitions are guidelines to help athletes know what's coming....

Ironman     2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, marathon (26.2 mile) run

Half-Ironman, or 70.3    1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13 mile run

Olympic (also referred to as International distance)

       1.5k (.9 mile) swim, 40k (approx 24.8 mile) bike, 10k (6.2 mile) run

Sprint      1/4 mile to 1K swim, 10-18 mile bike, 5k(3.1 mile) run

and then there are our super sprint triathlons for participants ages 10 through adult. These are the distances, and we hope you'll find them fun and challenging, but not overwhelming:    

Our Tune Up Tri (annually in March) and the Manassas Mini Tri (held each June):  250 yard (approximately 1/8 mile) swim, 4 mile bike, and 1.35 mile run.......just a taste of "the real thing".

The Summer Super Sprint Tri (held in August):  400 yard swim, 7 mile bike, and just under a 2 mile run....a bit more than 1/2 of a usual sprint tri.

 The 14.06 is one tenth of an ironman distance tri:  425 yard swim, 11.2 mile bike ride, and a 2.6 mile run.  Where the distances in an ironman tri add up to 140.6 miles, this race distance is just 14.06.  We do The 14.06 in July.