Triathlon - Well-known Events

Well-known Events

Thousands of individual triathlons are held around the world each year. A few of these races are well known because they have a long history or because they have particularly grueling courses and race conditions. A few are listed here.

• Hawaii Ironman World Championship, Kona, Hawaii. First held in 1978 on Oahu, only five years after the sport of triathlon was founded; it was later moved to Kailua-Kona on the island of Hawaii. The cycling stage of the race covers more than a hundred miles over lava flats on the big island of Hawaii, where mid-day temperatures often reach over 110 °F (43 °C) and cross-winds sometimes blow at 55 MPH (90 km/h). The race is often challenging even to competitors with experience in other iron-distance events.
• Nice Triathlon, Nice, France. A race that existed until 2002 when the course was adopted by the WTC as Ironman France. During the 1980s the Nice Long Distance triathlon (Swim 4 km, Bike 120 km, Run 30 km) was, alongside the World Championships in Kona, one of the two important races each year with prize money and media attention. Mark Allen won here 10 consecutive times. The ITU's Long Distance is a Nice-Distance race except during a short period from late 2006 to early 2008, in which it was 3 km + 80 km + 20 km.
• Enduroman Arch to Arc. A 289-mile (465 km) triathlon from Marble Arch, London to the Arc de Triomphe, Paris. Run from Marble Arch in London to Dover (87 miles), swim the English Channel (22 miles) to Calais, and then cycle 181 Miles from Calais to Paris. For this challenge, the clock starts at Marble Arch and stops at Arc de Triomphe. Only 7 people in history have completed this event and the current record is held by Eddie Ette with a time of 81 hours and 5 minutes.
• St. Anthony's, St. Petersburg, Florida. Held in the last week of April every year, this race attracts professional and amateur triathletes from around the world. One of the largest Olympic Distance triathlon in the U.S. with over 4000 participants each year.
• Escape from Alcatraz, San Francisco, California. This non-standard-length race begins with a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) swim in frigid San Francisco Bay waters from Alcatraz Island to shore, followed by an 18-mile (29 km) bicycle and 8-mile (13 km) run in the extremely hilly terrain of the San Francisco Bay Area. The run includes the notorious "Sand Ladder", a 400-step staircase climb up a beachside cliff.
• Wildflower is a Half-Ironman distance race held on or near May 1 at Lake San Antonio in Northern California since 1983. Known for a particularly hilly course, it has expanded now to include three races of different lengths and is one of the largest triathlon events in the world, with over 8,000 athletes attending each year.
• Life Time Fitness Triathlon Series, a series of 5 Olympic distance races: The Lifetime Fitness in Minneapolis, the NYC Triathlon in New York City, the Chicago Triathlon, the LA Triathlon in Los Angeles, and the U.S. Open in Dallas. There is a combined $1.5 Million prize purse at stake for the professionals who come from around the world to take part in the series.
• Hy-Vee Triathlon, started in 2007 by the mid-west grocery store chain Hy-Vee. The race has the richest prize purse awarded for a single triathlon ($1,000,000). Formally part of the ITU Triathlon World Cup series from 2008 to 2010 it now serves as the World Triathlon Corporation's 5150 Series U.S. Championships.
• Norseman Extreme Triathlon, Hardangerfjord, Norway. Norseman is an Ironman-distance triathlon that starts with a swim in the Hardangerfjord and finishes on top of a Gaustatoppen mountain at 1,850 meters above sea level. Famous for its lower temperatures and 5,000 meters total ascent, this race accepts only 200 competitors each year.
• Ironman 70.3 World Championship, Henderson, Nevada, USA. Since 2006 this has been the final of the Ironman 70.3 series on the half Ironman distance. In 2011, the race moved from Clearwater, Florida to its current location.
• Grand Prix de Triathlon, the French club championship series sponsored by Lyonnaise des Eaux. The circuit comprises five triathlons and by the French Triathlon Federation. It is of international importance because most of the participants are international, i.e. non French elite top stars hired pro forma by the best French clubs.
• Triathlon EDF Alpe d'Huez, established in 2006 by the 2002 Long Distance World Champion Cyrille Neveu, is one of the best known single triathlons in France.