If you are considering doing your first triathlon, you may be curious how long it takes to complete a sprint triathlon. There are a few easy ways to figure this out.
How Long is a Sprint Triathlon?
First of all, most sprint triathlons are of a similar length, but the distances can vary. A typical sprint triathlon consists of 3 legs such as the following:
- 400m Swim (.25 miles)
- 20k Bike (12 miles)
- 5k Run (3.1 miles)
Novice (First Time) Triathletes Finishing Times
For a novice triathlete, who has some experience swimming, cycling and running it will take about 2:00 minutes per 100 meters for the swim, or 8 minutes total, about an hour for the bike (avg 12mph) and 30 minutes or so for the run. Add in 5 minutes (generous) for each transition and the total time for a beginner or first time triathlon to complete a sprint triathlon is about 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Everyone has a different starting point, however. If you have no experience swimming, it’s likely that your swim could take longer than 2:00 per 100 yards or meters. There is no “correct” speed, because we are all unique.
Whether your doing a triathlon to see how fast you can go, or just to cross the finish line, you won’t know exactly how long it takes until you’ve completed your first race!
More Experienced Triathletes Finishing Times
An advanced sprint triathlete could complete the swim in 1:20 minutes/100meters, ride the bike leg at 20+ mph (frequently using a time trial or triathlon bike), and run the 5k distance in 20 minutes. The transitions will take less than 2 minutes each so the total time would be about 1 hr 15 minutes.
This assumes the triathlon has prior experience in each discipline and has been training for a triathlon for year or more. The fastest triathletes complete a sprint in just under 1 hour!
Are Sprint Triathlons only for Beginners?
Many people mistakenly assume that a sprint triathlon is a “beginners” triathlon, but nothing could be further from the truth. While a sprint triathlon is a great distance for a beginner to take part in, there is plenty of room for advanced competition in triathlons even in the sprint distance.
In fact, the sprint distance triathlon is used on the Paralympics and in Professional Triathlon competition!
How Can I Compare my Race Times to Other Athletes?
If you want to see how your potential competition will fare at a race you are thinking of doing, just go to the race website and look for the results from last year. Look up your age group and find the range of times for all the entrants and you’ll get a good idea of what you can expect to see at this years race.
A great website to look for races and find last year’s sites is trifind.com.
Thank you for sharing a training
I’m a 51 year old male. I have run a 25 min 5k (which is slightly under a 8 min mile), but there is no way I can swim anywhere close to the swim times mentioned in the article.
2 min per 100m? You got to be kidding. I am a first timer and am averaging 2:37 per 100m. I must be super slow!!!
Right on. This is super annoying to me. I’m doing my BEST and I’m averaging closer to 2:50 per 100 m. And, lots of people can’t run a 30 min 5K. They don’t mean BEGINNER they mean ATHLETE who decides to do a first time tri.
Calley, if you are averaging 2:50/100 there are probably several quick & easy things you can do to improve your time AND use less energy. I’d be happy to help with a video review!
Cathy can you help me as well. I would like to send a video and work with you.
This is correct. These times are for a somewhat established / upcoming athlete who’s recently decided to do a triathlon. In 6 weeks I’ll participate in my first triathlon, and I consider myself a great example of what this article means by “novice/beginner”.
I’m a 6’3″, 170-175lb, 29 year old male that’s been running every 2-3 days [on average] for the past eight weeks; first starting at .77mi and now up to 4-6mi runs. I recently did a 10k @ 11:15/mile, a 1mi in 7:13, and a 5k in 27min.
For swimming, I watched a couple YouTube videos and have been practicing freestyle at a local gym that has an 18m pool for the past 4-5 weeks. I started off barely being able to do 3-4 laps at a time, to now being able to swim 25 laps, twice, with a 10 minute rest between each set (1.12 miles total). My swim time is right at 8min/400m, though, I’m also going at a pace that anticipates a second set of 25 laps. In a couple weeks I plan on changing pools to an Olympic sized one to work on increasing my endurance.
And though I’ve yet to begin my cycling training (still need to get a road bike actually, lol), I do have a bit of prior experience cycling, and I’m sure that in just a few weeks I’ll be able to maintain a 12mph avg. pace for one hour (if not already, tbh).
Nearly ever day I swim, and on my off days from running I’ll do light to medium weightlifting before swimming. I rarely run and weight-lift on the same day.
My weightlifting days alternate between {chest, shoulder triceps} and {back, biceps, traps}. Every so often I also throw in forearms.
Since I’ve begun this different lifestyle, only one day out of the week I don’t exercise; usually Sunday.
Peter, fwiw, you’re not alone!! I read that and thought “I wish!” I’m in shape, run often, and have just started preparing for a competitive swim; if I swam 100 meters in 2 minutes, I’d need to rest for another 2 just to catch my breath!
The best advice I ever got for Tri swimming was to slow your stroke rate down to suit your breathing. Not what you instinctively want to do which is spin your arms as fast as possible to a point where your breath can’t keep up and you need to stop. I went from hating the swim and having to stop several times to enjoying the swim, not taking any breaks and not being exhausted either. Hope this helps.
You are. But, at 2:40/100m, so am I.
You are not slow. You are progressing. Don’t compare yourself to others. Compare yourself to you from last week, month or year. Others are not judging you any more than you are judging them
SWIMMING ! Hi I’m trying out this TRi business for the first time. 5k park runs are around 25 mins for me and a 20k bike ride is 40 mins. Tried my first ever ‘brick run’ and got 41 mins bike and 27 mins run. It felt like I was running with somebody else’s legs! but I did it, to my surprise. A 400 m swim kills me and takes 11.30 mins (at best). I read that 8 mins is very slow for a 400m swim. When I read forums it is full of people posting they did it in 5 mins and so on. How helpful is that ? or is it an ego vehicle ? I’m trying and failing at the swimming. I’m watching youtube videos and listening to advice. I should enlist some swimming lessons but can’t fit in the time with work and other stuff. I will keep trying but truth be told I’m no swimmer and if I pull off an 11 minute swim for 400 m and get on the bike in reasonable shape I reckon I will finish around halfway and at 57 that is good enough for me. Good trying guys, find a way or find an excuse, go find a way, best of luck 😉 Bromley, Kent.
5 min for 400m, it must be coming from a person that used to swim in the past. I was a swimmer in my junior years and this kind of result was an outcome of being in the pool twice a day / 6 days a week!
Last year at this time, I could only swim one pool-length and had to stop…out of breath. Coach Suzanne is spot on. Your first tri swim might be super slow (mine was 14 minutes after three months of swimming practice). The second gets better (12 min), and then you’ll settle into your pace (10 min). The open water swim in a tri is freaky, but you’ll get used to it. Relax. New season and I started at 10 minutes, but can do a training open water 1/4 in 8:30. That will soon be my race time. You will get faster. Start with total immersion, and then go to high elbow catch with rotation when you are up for the distance (don’t stick with the reach and glide). Time your strokes and get it down to about a complete rotation in under 1.5 seconds (I’m tall and I’m about 1,5 seconds) for the whole 1/4 mile. And keep pushing it. Keep learning.
I’m now trying to get “a feel” for the water. Someday I WILL swim a 1/4 mile in under 7:00.
Suzanne, apologies if I am wrong, however I feel your math might be slightly incorrect for the advanced section.
If the swim is indeed 400m, at those paces you’d be looking closer to 1h 5min
Alittle late to this forum but I can’t help but agree with a lot that’s been said. There are too many ‘advanced’ swimmers showing off with their times on other forums. Not very helpful at all. I did my first Sprint Tri over the weekend and the 400m swim took me 17:34. Yes, very slow indeed. One thing that didn’t prepare me was the frenzy of other swimmers, the wash and worrying that you’ll be the last one in the pool holding every one up. I misjudged my time and speed and I was that swimmer. Never again.
So when a newbie Tri asks me for advice, especially on the swim, I would say train loads and be prepared for one busy lane swim. Enter the correct expected time to finish the swim and dint give up. I wanted to give up after 2 lengths of swallowing so much water, I wasn’t going anywhere. Focus, take a deep breath and count down those lengths. Good luck and enjoy.
Have to say Darren, your commentary of the first swim terrifies me! I am due to do my very first sprint tri in July and I am really concerned about what to expect – especially in the pool.
Plus I am injured at the moment and cant train so I am getting more and more stressed about not being ready – even if it is 5 months away :o)
Darren,
thank you for a ‘normal human’ response. That’s more encouraging than most tri forum comments I’ve read. I got a great piece of advice from a swimming instructor years ago. Worry if the swim you’re about to do is your last ever one, because you’ve got no chance to improve after that. Otherwise: every swim is a practice swim for the next swim.
First triathlon, I averaged over 3:00 / 100m on the swim, then took classes and after three years I still end up just close to 2:00 / 100m. This is usually 15pct of my age group. The median athlete in my age group swims at 1:35-1:40/100m. I am median on bike and run and end up around half of the ranking on my age group.
Last 15pct I meant
I did my first (and last) spring Tri a decade ago. My swim time was 18:33 for the 400m swim. (I did the Tri on a whim while on R&R from Afghanistan). My 13.6mile bike ride took 51:03 and I did the 5k in 26:25.
I’ve started training 2 weeks ago to do an other Tri and my swim looks much better this time around. I’ve been averaging 45-48mins for 1600yards, with my 400splits around the 2:45 mark. Some days I go all the way and do 1600 meters without pause. Other days I do two 400meter repeats, then an 800meter finish. I have no clue how to get my 11minute 400m times down to the 5 or 6 minute mark.
Also, just looking at athlinks of my Tri a decade ago, my finish time was 1:38:32 and I finished 306 out of 349 participants.
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I did my first triathlon 8 weeks post partum and then started a new job. Between the hours and being a new mom I lost energy and routine for training. That was 8 months ago. My New Years Resolution is to get back into it by April…
My question is, I still don’t feel like an experienced triathlete. Can I sign up as a novice for races in April, or is that cheating?
You’d have to check with teh race director for the “novice” criteria, but let me ask you…what is it that’s causing you to want to sign up as a novice? Often they are intended for first timers to help ease the first race day nerves. You may still have nerves, but you’ll do fine!!