I’m purely a runner these days, but there was a time, about four years ago, when I was interested in triathlon.  Ultimately I decided it wasn’t something I wanted to pursue but I did have fun with it for a while.  I know it can be a daunting sport to get into, so I’m going to show you how easy it is to get started.

I’m assuming you’re a runner, so you probably have running clothes and shoes.  If you’re thinking about triathlon, you probably swim at least a little, so you probably have goggles (if not, you can purchase them cheaply at any sporting goods store or Target). And, you probably have a bike… any kind of bike- it doesn’t have to be a triathlon bike or even a road bike.  Any kind of bike will do.  You could even borrow one if you don’t have one.  And that’s the equipment you’ll need!  Read on to find out how to make your first triathlon a fun experience.

1. Pick the right race!

This one is very, very important.  Triathletes are a highly competitive group of people.  Highly.  You want to find a race that will have plenty of other beginners and casual triathletes (if such a thing exists).  Pick a sprint distance- the actual distances in  sprint triathlons vary, but it’s usually around a 1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike ride, and a 5k run.  If you can find a race connected to a holiday, like July 4th or Thanksgiving, those are more likely to attract all sorts of racers (kind of like how a Turkey Trot attracts a lot of people who don’t otherwise run). And finally, DO NOT PICK A RACE WITH AN OCEAN SWIM.  Trust me on this one- lakes are your friend here.  More on that one coming up…

2. But what do I wear???

This one baffled me at first.  I couldn’t figure out how I was going to wear the same thing to swim, bike, and then run.  For my first triathlon, I wore cycling-style shorts (they look like cycling shorts but don’t have any padding) and a running bra for the swim.  I had a tank top with my race number pinned to it in the transition area, which I put on before starting the bike portion.  This all worked perfectly fine!  Any running shorts would really work, but you’ll be happiest with close-fitting ones.

3. So what about that swim?

Triathletes who have a swimming background are SO lucky.  Swimming is the only one of the three sports that really requires some training to do correctly, and it’s hard to get really good at it if you’re an adult beginner.  While my swim form leaves a lot to be desired, I can get from point A to point B.  And you can too!  Especially if you’ve taken my advice and chosen the sprint distance.  A quarter mile really isn’t that far.  If you can get yourself to the pool a couple times a week for several weeks before your race and swim some laps. you’ll be fine.   You can practice open water swimming if you want to, but I didn’t.  Again, do not choose a race with an ocean swim!  You don’t know what the weather will be like that day, and the water could be rough.  A nice calm lake is perfect, and don’t be afraid of it- they wouldn’t let people swim if there were a high load of bacteria, or alligators.  You will be perfectly fine.

4. But I don’t have the right kind of bike!

Never fear!  Neither did I.  I did my first triathlon on a hybrid on-road/off-road bike.  You will be in a special category called “Fat Tire.”  This made my first triathlon extra fun, because I won the Fat Tire category!  I have to go to admit that there was only one other woman in my category, ha ha.  But I got a medal that said “First Place.”  I regret now that I didn’t purchase the photo of me standing on the top of the podium- at the time I thought it looked a little silly that there was only two of us (my son suggested I could photoshop Usain Bolt into the third spot- I was thinking more along the lines of Gwen Jorgensen, but Usain would work too!)  Anyway, the point is, if they have a whole category for it, you won’t be the only one not riding a road bike.

(But wait!  You might be thinking… if there were only two of you in the category, won’t I still look like a total weirdo with my mountain bike?  Most of these races have a duathlon option, which is just bike and run.  A lot of those people won’t have a road bike either- you won’t look weird.)

If you do have a road bike, great!  If you have cycling shoes to clip in, also great!  You’ll have to change shoes between the bike and run, whereas if you ride a hybrid with no clips, you’ll just wear your running shoes the whole time.  Also, if you do ride a road bike, you might want to invest in triathlon shorts.  You want some padding, and if you swim in regular cycling shorts you’ll feel like you’re wearing a soggy diaper.  Triathlon shorts have lighter padding and are made to swim in, and then dry quickly.

5. Anything I need to know about the run?

Yay, you made it to the easy part!  One thing you might want to do in advance is a couple “brick” workouts, where you practice running right off the bike just to see what your legs will feel like.  Spoiler alert- they won’t feel good.  They’ll actually feel pretty horrible, but you get used to it.  If you practice it a couple times then you won’t panic in the race when you start to run and your legs feel like jello.  Even if, for some reason, you don’t do any bricks in advance, you’ll still be fine.  Just run through it and your legs will feel better after a couple minutes.

There you have it! I had lots of fun in my first triathlon, where I won the Fat Tire category (although for weeks afterward I referred to it simply as “the triathlon that I won.”)  After that I purchased a road bike, learned how to clip in, got actual triathlon clothing, did a couple more races (including an Olympic distance, which had an ocean swim) and then… decided it really wasn’t for me.  On the days where I was cycling or swimming I wished I were running, and I didn’t find the races (after that first one) to be as much fun as running races.  But I’m glad I did it, and I know I have the option of doing another sprint triathlon sometime, just for the fun of it.

Let me know if you have any other questions and I’ll do my best to help!