Favourite triathlon

What is your favourite triathlon? Mine was the Yorkshire Dales Triathlon - sadly no longer run. It started with a 1000m swim in Semerwater, 42m cycle across 5 dales (including four or five 1:4 climbs) finishing with an 8 mile run up Pen-y-Ghent.

Now that sounds like my kind of event. I am a big fan of the Xterra style off-road triathlons too...

Of the ones I've done, probably Lochore Meadows Sprint (in Fife) - easy lake swim (good first open-water experience), nicely challenging 1-lap bike, flat run. Always a good atmosphere.

I think I will add Ironman Austria for the once-in-a-lifetime experience... but I'm unlikely to ever do anything like that again. I will do Lochore again, all being well.

What was Ironman Austria like? Sounds awesome. Way back in 1987, I did the Finnish Ironman - the swim was freezing as you'd expect but the rest was brilliant.

Interesting May look into that (Lochore NOT Austria) for my first open water Tri

I think you might have to be quick if you are thinking about this year - apparently it is nearly full already!

Rockymountain, I wrote a race report on Austria for the triathlon forums here - you can probably start at the third paragraph if you don't want the context/preamble... it was indeed a very special experience with all the support you get. By "Finnish Ironman" I assume you mean a different race to Norseman?

Thanks for the link.

Yes, it was the European Ironman competition in Joroinen and not the Norseman. I seem to remember that Sarah Coope won the womens race with Sara Springman coming second. I can't remember any details about the men's race other than there were about 10-15 Brits. Nice swim in a freezing lake followed by bike ride through the countryside (not too hilly) and then a run from the local sports centre on the forest trails. I finished in 12hrs 22. The support too was fantastic - although I do remember taking a cup of food during the run and swallowing it before realising that it was pickled herring. You can probably imagine the immediate impact.

I've entered the lochore sprint in June. will be my first OW swim .. eek!

Good luck hope you enjoy it! Let us know how you get on with it!