(Been in the sport for 36 years)

I explain to anyone contemplating doing an IRONMAN to budget $10,000 in actual expenses as well as opportunity costs...

- Food (& not just groceries). There are gong to be times after a big, or week, where you can't be bothered making a meal.
- Medical: physical therapy, massage therapy, chiropractic & god forbid doctors.
- Equipment wear & tear. Replacing tires & tubes, running shoes, training gear & clothing, etc. Not to mention those shiny new must haves you'll discover.
- Entry fees: Not just the several hundred $$$ one for your M dot but also the hundreds for tune up races (think 70.3 as one example).
- Training camp (or at least a weekend get away to just swim, bike & run).
- Time off from work...whiter planned or unplanned (see Medical).
- Coaching/lessons.
- Self-imporovement: books, videos, subscription services.
- Oportunty costs are to be determined. Loss of traditional interactions with family & friends. Missing activities because it's your century day.

I'm sure I've missed more items.

---

#swimmingmatters
Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
The Doctor (#12)

Almost everything you listed is optional outside of wear and tear items and the obvious entry/travel for race day.

Unless you're injured, you don't need PT, massages, or chiro. A simple foam roller and a LaCrosse ball will work fine.

Food is general laziness -- either prep on the weekends (like a huge crock pot worth of food) or just count on going out 1-2x/week. Many adults go out 1-2x/week anyways.

Training camps and coaches are luxuries. You don't need either one of them to be successful. There's enough information online and if you have any kind of athletic background, a lot of it will just be following an outline. You might not compete at your best, but you can be plenty competitive on your own with your own training plan. If anything, finding a training group will be significantly more beneficial than a coach to have others push you during workouts.

Coming from a running background, I find it quite funny how much triathletes *think* they need to spend to be successful. There are so many sub-elite (and all other level) runners out there that don't have a coach or any of the things you listed above. They somehow are perfectly competitive without all of it.

Assuming you already have a bike, I'd say realistic costs are closer to $2000 than $10k, most of that being travel and race entry fees. And if you don't have a bike, an entry level $1500-2k Tri bike (less if used) will suit most just fine. The sport doesn't have to be expensive if you don't make it expensive.

As for the OP, sunscreen isn't that expensive. I grab the $1 bottle from Dollar Tree for SPF30 and just apply once before my ride and once halfway through. Race day I'll use SPF50 spray-on stuff.

Gas costs driving to and from all of my cycling long rides (I don't live in a great area to just take off from my front door).
Nutrition/fuel for training and races. I tripled my usual order volume for a year.
There was some "domestic currency" compensation, which not mandatory but I slept better at night knowing I was doing nice things for my husband/race sherpa when he basically ran the house for most of the year while I was training and working a job with a 13 hour work day + commute.

---

Level II USAT Coach | Level 3 USAC Coach | NASM-CPT
Team Zoot | Tailwind Trailblazer
I can tell you why you're sick, I just can't write you an Rx

eating out bill. Sometimes, well lots of times, I get so tired that I'd rather just stop by fast food and get something to eat then go home and warm up stuff.

Prep time for training. Getting to the pool, change, shower, and go home. That takes more time than I realized. A 1 hour swim just cost me 2 hours of my life. Same for bike. Drive to a place where I can bike, preping the bike (i.e., putting nutrition on there, putting on gear, etc), takes time also. I'm from the running world where we just put on a pair of shoes, shorts, and go out the front door to run.

---

__________________________________________________________________________
My marathon PR is "under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."

I also had to hire a cleaning person - couldn't keep up with my long weekend workouts and my usual weekend house cleaning routine.

Fixed. ;)

If married:
-marriage counseling costs
-divorce lawyer costs
-child support
-cost of renting a new place (when your SO kicks you out)

-lost wages (unless you are a dentist and set your own hours)

You get the idea ... pink ... kind of.

Good point made by another about having to hire some basic maintenance out. During a busy training year, I refer to my overgrown yard as a triath-lawn. If the grass is less than 6" that's because it's rest week!

I agree with you thag some of these costs are crazy! I thought I spent a lot on training/racing but $10k for an IM is insane (to me)! There are plenty who have more money and $10k to them might be $1k to me.

I’m all for a physio but rarely see one more than a few times a year unless I have an issue. Never been on a training camp, although I’d love to go on one, would never hire someone to clean my house or cut my lawn.

But I also rarely, if ever, drive to a ride/run even though my area has one decent bike route. My pool isn’t that far and I swim before work so it’s a normal part to my day.

But again, everyone is individual and someone making a few hundred grand a year is more able to spend than what I am able/willing to spend. So to each their own but I probably spend $3-5k total a season for all Triathlon expenses.

---

Twitter - Instagram

 
Actually, there will be some savings due to all the training, you either run out of time or become too tired to eat out, shop, drink, activity thrill seeking/non-training/sport related stuff, etc.... to do all those things that filled your time gap before the training drowned them out. The additions above capture most of the big ticket items.

However, be ready for unexpected additional fees once at the race and after:

• All the IM branded gear and knick-knacks you didn't know you needed but wanted to never forget the race experience & finish line achievement so you buy it all......
• Pictures from the race that captured your first IM.
• "The" Tattoo.
• Gift buying for the sigo, family, coach, friends, pet/kid sitter, co-workers
• Non-race related activity fees after the race.
• Increased local fees at some races because of the demand curve caused by all the other racers and their tag-along support group.
• Exchange fees if traveling internationally for a race.
• The sign-up fees for the next IM race as the cycle continues...……..
  

https://www.palmtreesahead.com/feed

You must be great at parties.

It has nothing to do with being fun at parties. If the poster I quoted seriously tells people they need $10k to run an Ironman, he's part of the issue. This sport combines some of the most elemental sports out there. Saying you need to have all that he posted is plain stupidity and just turns people off to our sport.

You don't need to be a business person to realize how much triathletes get ripped off compared to say runners for similar things. This mindset that triathletes need all of this expensive crap just makes the sport more and more expensive for everyone involved.

The goal should be to get as many people to do our sport as we can and have them enjoy it. Not turning them away with false barriers to entry.

I don't have time to respond point by point but, for example, saying that first time Ironman athletes, across the board, shouldn't get a coach or take swim lessons to make the most of their experience is making a pretty broad assumption that the people who do this have a base level of physical ability, knowledge, and understanding of the sport which many do not.

I agree that the sport is expensive, but it's only as expensive as you want it to be. I don't think the number is always $10,000, but I also don't think the OP said it is. He said to budget that much, in case it ends up costing that much (in part because of medical issues), which I don't take issue with. Keep in mind the premise is first timers. During my first year, when I had to buy my bike (which I still use), race entry, all my gear, a coach because I didn't know what I was doing, etc., I probably spent $10,000. I have 9 IMs under my belt and have spent $10,000 in other years that involved destination races, but have also had years where I've spent $2,000 or less when I stayed local and didn't have any bike/gear related expenses. I'm not going to the dollar store to look for sunblock either way though.

it's that premise though why you see so many bikes for sale dirt cheap after a single season. People get priced out because they think they need it all because that's what they are told from the start. If we as a community focused on what is actually needed and support that, I'd bet you have a lot more people willing to try the sport and stick with it. Will these extras make you a better athlete? For sure. Are they needed to cross the finish line? Not at all. And for most, finishing is what they want.

This whole argument that triathlon is expensive is getting old here. My well off friends have a vacation home on the lake. My less than well off friends either have a boat, golf membership, snowmobiles, fishing and hunting gear etc. And they all take trips involving such hobbies.

I agree. I also disagree with any cost comparison to running. There are runners who spend more on their hobby than Ironman athletes. Why not just say there's no need to ever run Boston, London, Berlin, or Tokyo, when you can just run your local marathon in a pair of old Crocs that are sitting in the back of your closet.

Really the only cheap sport is darts, and even then you have to consider potential medical and liquor costs.

+1 with caverunner17, the biggest cost are race entry fee and traveling fee. For most beginners, getting coached won't bring them as value compared to an experienced athletes. Beginners can improve a lot just by just doing more.

The perfect equation for a beginner's success is to train as much as you can consistently without injury or burnout. How much is that? hard to tell without previous training data. People fall in love with triathlon at different stages and different reasons as years and seasons progress. As a beginner, the enthusiasm for the sport should be pretty high. If someone needs a coach to finish their workouts and keep them accountable as a newbie... the athlete would need to re-evaluate why they are doing it and they may not be in the sport for long if it's for the wrong reasons: like bragging rights.

So honestly, to finish an ironman, you just need goggles, trisuit, a reliable road bike, and some shoes. +/- race entry fees and traveling since you can just do it in your backyard too.

Seems actually pretty spot on to me. Sure, there's a few that I haven't indulged (self-improvement books, training camp (though I'd like to), etc.)

I wouldn't be paying for Physical Therapy either, except that I pulled a muscle a month out from my first IM, so I'm spending more money than planned in this regard - PT and Cryotherapy.

Truth is, I might be saving some money because I'm not going out on the weekends nearly as much.

some on that list are needs and not wants. it also depends on your background and goals for the race. one doesn't need to race a 70.3 before an IM. you can even setup your own long workout day for that. free of charge. not perfect but still valuable. training camp/coaches/self improvement books, videos are wants not needs. food can add up a bit but not crazy expensive. training gear doesn't have to be expensive. I think people buy way more crap than they need. I buy most things on sale. running shoes I just buy last year's models on clearance at runningwarehouse. I'll buy 2 pairs at a time and usually get them for $50-$60. my good tri kit from desoto sports was more expensive but not crazy expensive. I use other less expensive kits for day to day training.

triathlon can be expensive but some of the costs can be controlled.

Laundry. I'm single no kids, and I do as much laundry as my friend with a husband and twin toddlers.

Am I the only triathlete that was as data obsessed with triathlon's financial figures? I'm sure denial plays a role...

My first 140.6 was in 2016 (IMMT), I went from zero to hero in seven months and it ran me $11,883.87. Well it wasn't from zero completely, I was an avid Sprinter with a couple Olympics under my belt, but still sporting first first set of everything.

I broke it out to unrecoverable expenses (race registrations, logistical costs, coaching, consumables), which came out to $4,892.90. A huge portion of that was lodging at IMMT, which was expected. And the second portion was investment expenses that could be reused (bike, wheels, gear, etc) at $6,990.97. The top five items in the investment bin ran me almost $4,500 (bike, wheels, Garmin 920xt, cyclops trainer, and saddle).

I'm not moneybags, but the way I looked at it, as a first timer, if I was about to give up everything besides swim bike run for 6-8 months I wanted to do it right and do it well. Mid 20s and single helped me stomach the expenses and I'd say it was well worth it. I'm sure you could do it much cheaper, but I also wasn't planning on a one and done. Could I not have a coach? Yes. Would I have then paid for PT? Probably...

Biggest unexpected cost which I didn't factor in until reading this thread was gas expense for training (only captured long race trips). Hundreds of miles for training destination trips on 19 MPG and 89 octane fuel would probably tack on $200-$300 in unrecoverable expenses.

Time to take a few shots to erase this particular spreadsheet from memory...

Mid 20s and single helped me stomach the expenses
====================================================
i think there's a high probability that this is the key…….
peggy

Mine involved a trip to Tiffany's, which exceeded the cost of my road bike. Buy once, cry once.