Creating an Ironman Budget
It’s no secret that you’ll need to budget for an Ironman. From the high entry fees, bike costs, nutrition and travel, the costs can quickly get out of hand. In this article, I’m going to break down most of the costs associated with not only the race itself, but also training. We’ll also add up all the costs as we go, to get a very rough idea of the costs involved. I’ll be looking at the average costs of each area, rather than going for the maximum or minimum you could spend. You race Ironman for less than the costs listed here if you already own most of the equipment or don’t mind roughing it, but I’m going to look at the costs of doing an Ironman “properly”. Entry Fees If you want to enter an official Ironman event, then you’re going to be looking at between £500 and £600 just for your race entry. As eye watering as this is, it doesn’t represent poor value in my opinion. You get closed roads to race on, high levels of medical cover, a “free” bag, nutrition on course and the whole carnival that comes with an official Ironman event. If you’re looking at doing an independent event you’ll still be looking around the £300 mark, so for many it’s worth spending a bit more for the full experience. TOTAL: £500 Accommodation You’ll need somewhere to stay for your event, unless you live within an hour’s drive of your race. You’ll need to get there for around 5AM, so don’t want a long journey to get there. If the race is on Sunday, I recommend you get there for the Thursday so you’re not in a rush and have time to acclimatise to the environment as well as go through all the pre-race admin. You’ll want to stay over on the Sunday night as well if at all possible. How much you spend depends on where you’re staying, the availability of accommodation, how close to the event you book, how many people are coming with you, and whether you have expensive tastes. However, I think that budgeting around a grand is about right for four nights in a nice hotel on Ironman race weekend. TOTAL: £1000 Travel This can vary enormously, from a trip down the motorway to flights across the other side of the world. It also depends on if you’re bringing any family with you, and whether you want to fly first class on British Airways or hop over the channel with Ryanair. I’m going to go for the average amount here and say £500, which should cover a single person, checked luggage and a bike bag for the majority of us who will be racing without leaving the US or continental Europe. Obviously, it may well end up being more than this or drastically less. TOTAL: £500 Bike Your bike will likely be the single biggest expense. If you already have a bike you plan to use you can ignore this cost, but if you’re reading this there’s a good chance you’ve never done a triathlon before, so won’t have a high quality road bike. Ironman do not permit mountain bikes, and you wouldn’t want to use one anyway, so you can’t use the rusting hardtail knocking about at the back of the shed. I highly recommend a road bike, not a triathlon bike. A tri bike requires you to lean forward over the front wheel on a pair of bars with no access to the brakes, so definitely not suitable for novice cyclists. Around £1500 is the sweet spot for road bikes, spend any less and the quality may not be there, any more than that and you quickly hit the point of diminishing returns. If you’re looking at the second hand market this number could of course be lower, just do your research before parting with your cash. TOTAL: £1500 Tired of trawling the internet for answers to all your triathlon questions? If you’re enjoying this article, you can find hundreds just like it covering every aspect of swimming, cycling, running and strength training in our one of a kind education platform. Enjoy 50% off until the 1st October Learn More Swim Equipment For your swim training and racing you will need a few pieces of kit. You can get away with just a pair of swim shorts and some goggles for your very first pool triathlon, but by the time we reach Ironman we need to invest in some training aides and a wetsuit. Here are some rough costs: Wetsuit: £300 You can get entry level wetsuits for less, but £300 will get you a very flexible, comfortable suit that is probably just as fast as the top end models in reality. Not necessary if you’re entering an event which is routinely non-wetsuit. Pool aides: £50 This should hopefully cover a pair of fins, hand paddles and a pull buoy Goggles: £75 Not £75 for a single pair, but you’ll be buying several pairs over the duration of your training as they fog up, snap, you lose them or just want a brand new pair for race day. Pool fees £300 This is a miscellaneous cost, but it seems to fit her best. You’ll most likely need to pay for pool access, and £300 for the period you’re training for is probably about right. Like anything, you can pay an awful lot more or a lot less depending on where you go. TOTAL: £725 Run Equipment While running is arguably the cheapest of the sports, you still need to put some cash aside to cover the costs of your running shoes. You will of course need a few others bits such as shorts and a running top, but most of us will have something suitable knocking around at the back of our wardrobe. Your average pair of running shoes is around £150, even more if you’re looking at getting a carbon plated shoe for