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     In other discussions, the question of triathlons came up, regarding distances and the public's perceptions.  In the examples that were given, I started to question myself about why there wasn't a set standards of distances in a triath.  I mean, when people think of marathons, they think of 26.2 miles.  When the public thinks of triathlon, they think of the Ironman in Hawaii.  Doing some simple calculations, I found the ratio of swimming:biking:running of an Ironman triathlon were 1:46.67:10.92. Example.  swim 1/2 mile, bike 23.3 mile, run 5.46 miles.      I really don't the full history of the triathlon except was told from watching ABC sports.  If the Ironman was the first, then shouldn't standard model should be _base_d off this.  If it wasn't, the _base_ it off of that.  Wouldn't that make some sense or am I just blowing smoke?  Of course this would still allow any organization to design thier triathlon any way they see fit.

As defined in the dictionary, a triathlon is a long distance event consisting of swimming, biking and running...  The word triathlon describes the sport, not the distance itself. The Hawaii Ironman, more specifically, the February 1982 version showed on ABC, with Julie Moss's famous near-the-finish collapse, is indeed the event that catapulted the sport into a widespread consciousness.  Before that, the origins of the sport sprang from an area called Fiesta Island in San Diego, where a group of folks did some swim-run-swim-run events on a lark (this was around 1974). Most people associate triathlon with Ironman because that is the most famous of the events, and the only one most are ever exposed to on TV.  The Olympic triathlon, for those that watched, is a first step in realizing that there are other distances at which triathlons are competed besides the day-long version. Hence my curiosity in finding out what your interpretation of what a true triathlon was; I suspected all along that Ironman came to mind, because you're certainly not alone in that regard.  It always makes for interesting conversations when you tell someone you're a triathlete. Mike C

    I really don't the full history of the triathlon except was told from watching ABC sports.  If the Ironman was the first, then shouldn't standard model should be _base_d off this.  If it wasn't, the _base_ it off of that.  Wouldn't that make some sense or am I just blowing smoke?  Of course this would still allow any organization to design thier triathlon any way they see fit. One thing about tri's is that the organizers are constrained by the local geography. The Tinman Tri in Topeka, Kansas, is something like 1100 yards/19.5 miles/7 miles. The bike portion is on local roads, and what with getting to the roads from the lake and so on they probably just got as close to 20 miles as possible. The run portion circles the lake and thus can't be any other distance without a less desirable out-and-back. That particular race is 20 years old, meaning it pre-dates the Olympic standard of 1.5K/40K/10K. But to get those distances they'd probably have had to find another venue anyway, and the one where they have it now is quite good. So you want to organize a tri, you look at what's available, and you go from there. If a standard distance isn't available, you make do. Best regards,