I was looking for an olympic-distance race in the Northeast in late September/October. I came across one in Danbury, CT (“international distance”). On their web site, they have the bike listed as 35k (21.7 miles). No problem if its not exactly the same as an olympic distance race. But their “bike profile” map shows it at about 25 miles. So I wrote to see which was correct (35k or 25 miles).
They wrote back that it was 35k, the international distance. They said 40k was the “olympic” distance.
Anyone ever heard of 35k being a standard bike distance for an “international distance” race? Just curious. I realize that the each leg can be any distance, but in my search on INTERNATIONAL DISTANCE TRIATHLON, the first 10 or so I find have 24-25 mile bike legs.
They didn’t know what they were talking about. International and Olympic distances are interchangeable. What’s more surprising is that they didn’t just call it O distance and then have you ride 35K. I am always irritated when a race is advertised at a certain distance and it is not accurate (which is almost every race I do). I don’t care if every course is exactly 40K or 56 miles or whatever; I just want to know beforehand how far I am going to be riding and running.
That is my take on it. I just wanted to see if their stated 35k was correct, or their 25.6 mile “GPS-accurate” bike profile map was (or the 24.9 miles listed on trifind.com).
I got a written lesson on what an “international distance” race is…and that didn’t sound correct. Anyway, they say its 35k.
Before “Olympic Distance” became standardized, “international distance” was quite often around 40K’s and NOT always exactly 40K. Even when swim or run distanes were sometimes slightly different, EXAMPLEs: San Jose International, and Vineman International are/were slightly off distance … i recall when living and racing on the east coast 12 years ago seeing this as well. All slight variations of what is now “Olympic Distance”. I do agree that 35k is not a standard distance!
But now you have race like “Auburn International Triathlon” and it is a half ironman!
There are a number of standard triathlon race distances, including
* Sprint Distance Triathlon: 750 meters swim (500m is also very common) / 20 km bike / 5 km run (as people tend to shift away from the ironman=triathlons thinking this is increasingly called a "short course" triathlon)
* Olympic Distance Triathlon: 1.5 km swim / 40 km bike / 10 km run (Also called "international distance", "standard course" or "short course")
* Half-Ironman Triathlon: 1.9 km (1.2 mile) swim / 90 km (56 mile) bike / 21 km (13.1 mile) run (Also called a "Tinman")
* Long Distance Triathlon: 4 km (2.5 mile) swim / 120 km (75 mile) bike / 30 km (18.6 mile) run
* Ironman Triathlon: 3.8 km (2.4 mile) swim / 180 km (112 mile) bike / 42 km (26.2 mile) run
Though there can be some variation in race distances, particularly among short triathlons, most triathlons conform to one of these five standards.
* Equilateral Triathlon: A triathlon, proposed by Wainer and De Veaux (1994), in which each leg would take an approximately equal time. For example, their "Olympic" triathlon, run as a relay, should take three world-record holders each about 28 minutes per leg: 2.7 km swim / 22.4 km bike / 10 km run.
* Ultraman Triathlon: An event so far held only in Hawai'i once per year over a three day period and covering a total distance of 320 miles. 10 km (6.2 mile) ocean swim / 421 km (261.4 mile) cross-country bike / 84 km (52.4 mile) ultramarathon run
Actually, I think it’s you who doesn’t know what you are talking about. Olympic Distance is the fixed distance of 1.5K/40K/10K. According to USAT International Distance encompasses a range of distances, including Olympic Distance. The definitions someone posted above are not quite right…I doubt Tinman is an accepted synonym for a 1/2 IM distance race.
Technically you are correct. International distance can be anything that covers a fairly wide range. However, they were saying 35k was the specific International distance, which was not correct, there is no such thing. Thus, they didn’t know what they were talking about. While an international distance race can encompass a range of distances, very few of them actually do.
We like to have our PRs and eat them too, so we don’t want to race a 45K ride or an 11K run. Organizers just give us what we want. Which is why International and Olympic Distance is almost an interchangeable term when referring to the same distance race.
Well, back in the early days before “olympic” was used to describe a triathlon distance, “international distance triathlon” meant longer than sprint and shorter than “long course”. It was not a specific distance but a general range. In fact, if you go to the USAT Rankings webpage, it looks like that’s what it still means.
That makes sense to me. I don’t need the race to be exactly X miles, but it is nice to know the distance ahead of times, and if it makes a good course, to have it equal other race lengths for comparison purposes (although obviously terrain differences, weather, etc. play a factor).
Just was looking to see if anyone had heard of 35K as “the” international distance.
