Quite a few young triathletes struggle to pick their races. While many of my friends end up not doing any triathlons at all instead of possibly picking something that may be a little too hard for them, many youth are willing to jump into their triathlon seasons headfirst but just can’t decide where to start. In the spirit of youthful courage/ignorance/stupidity, read on to find out which type of race is best for you! This may not make any sense as a race guide at first, but it’ll come together at the end. I promise.


Now comes the fun part, actually picking the race. Don’t look at something as being too long or too hard. If you motivate yourself enough, you can do anything that you set your mind to. Go ahead, sign up for that Half Iron! Sign up for that daunting first youth-distance triathlon! And if you like the race, keep on doing that distance! If you don’t like it, you have plenty of other triathlons around the world to chose from. What’s the worst that could happen in a race that’s too difficult for you? I am not a doctor and don’t actually know the answer to that question, but I do know that if you don’t try the race, you’re never even going to find out if you like it or if you could be successful with that distance. (It is important to know that you can actually finish the race and that your body can handle it though…) You only live life once. That’s what I told myself when I signed up for the Half Iron, and what I told myself again when I signed up for the sprint triathlon the day after. And yet again when I signed up for the youth distance triathlon the weekend after. And while my young, inexperienced self may be in for the most painful two weekends of my life, at least I’m giving it a shot.
*DISCLAIMER: I don’t take any responsibility for any harm that may come to you or anybody else as a result of this article. If you’re going to pass out from sheer exhaustion during a race because this post motivated you to sign up for something really challenging, PLEASE DO IT ON THE RUN PORTION OF THE RACE. (preferably not at all…) Passing out while swimming is not very good for you. Same thing applies to when you’re moving 20+ mph on a bike.
Sign up for the Half I did for this year: http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_detail&eventID=2230
Advertisements