What do you need for a sprint triathlon?
Posted by Ray Gill
Filed under Triathlon Answers
do you have to have a wetsuit and biking shoes? and about how long is an average time?
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Unfortunately it’s a little difficult to fully answer your questions without a bit more detail.
Wetsuits are not required for any distance triathlon. Do you know the predicted water temperature? A wetsuit will normally make you swim a little faster due to it’s bouyancy, but the transition will be a little slower since you have to strip the wetsuit. Often in a sprint triathlon the time saving is washed out because the swim distance is pretty short.
Biking shoes are definitely not required. If you’re not used to wearing cycling specific shoes, I would not try them out on your first triathlon. Wear your running shoes and just make sure you tuck the laces in so they don’t get caught in your gears while you ride (or use elastic laces which will also speed up your transition time).
As far as the average time goes – this one really depends on the distance of the race. There is no standard distance for a sprint triathlon and I don’t know if it’s going to be hilly or flat, so it’s hard to give a guess. Check to see if the race you’re interested in was run last year. Usually you can find the previous year results posted on the event website and you can get a sense of how fast or slow people were in your age-group.
Hope that helps.