As soon as most people sign up to an event, they will want to know what a competitive time is. They want a target to work towards, and often want to avoid feeling embarrassed.
Before we kick off I want to reassure you something. Any finish is a good IRONMAN time. You will have successfully swam 3.8KM in open water, cycled for 180KM and ran a marathon at the end. That’s incredible, and you should be proud of any finish.
However, this doesn’t answer your question. If you want a competitive IRONMAN time, what does that look like? Let’s break it down by discipline.
What is a competitive IRONMAN swim time?
The swim is the discipline which strikes fear into the heart of most triathletes. Some will blitz round the 3.8KM in under an hour while others will come very close to, or miss the 2:20 cutoff.
The average IRONMAN swim time is somewhere between 1:20 and 1:30. With good coaching and enough training, most people are capable of going under 90 minutes. Those who are older or who have disabilities might take longer, but the 2:20 cutoff is pretty generous, you just need to commit to your training.
Swimming over 90 minutes is not a failure by any means, an IRONMAN is a very long day, and an extra 10-15 minutes on the swim is nothing to be ashamed of. Remember, every IRONMAN finish is impressive.
What is a competitive time for the IRONMAN bike?
Over the 70.3 distance, the three hour mark is a solid target to aim for over the bike, which will require you to average 30KPH. For a fit cyclist this won’t be overly challenging to hold on the flat, but to average this over the entirety of the 90KM including corners and hills is fairly impressive.
If we’re looking to put in a competitive IRONMAN time, then we need to be looking at close to six hours, which will require an average of 30KPH. Going under six hours is a competitive IRONMAN time, but don’t push too hard on the bike to hit this arbitrary target and end up walking the marathon.
What is a competitive time for the IRONMAN marathon?
The soundtrack of an IRONMAN marathon is the beeping of Garmin watches telling athletes they are running below their pace target. They set themselves a target which they planned to hold over the marathon, but everything is falling apart on them now.
It could be that they pushed too hard on the bike, it could be they just don’t have the aerobic fitness, or they are suffering from digestive distress. There is a multitude of reasons things can, and probably will go wrong for you on the run.
The IRONMAN marathon is a war of attrition, and even if you are an experienced marathon runner, it will push you to your limit, mentally and physically.
It’s a fairly modest finish time by marathon standards, but going under 4 hours is a competitive time for an IRONMAN marathon.
Adding it all up
This is an incredibly rough calculation, but if we take a 90 minute swim, six hour bike and four hour marathon, and add on 15 minutes for transitions, that gives us a competitive IRONMAN time of 11:45, brining us nicely under 12 hours which is a benchmark for many athletes.
Personally, I would say that anything between 12-14 hours is a good finish time for an IRONMAN. Under 12 is good, and under 10 is elite.
This isn’t to say that anything over 14 hours is embarrassing by any means. You still finished an IRONMAN, but people love a target to aim for, so ducking under 14 hours can be a goal worth pursuing.
This doesn’t take into account the course, your age, potential disability, weather conditions or any other number of variables. If you want to find what a good time for a specific course is, I recommend you look at the results from previous editions of your event (or a similar event) to see what the average finish time was for athletes in your age group, and set yourself a target based off of that.
There is one thing I can guarantee though, you won’t be able to put in a time you’re proud of without a structured approach. Check out my IRONMAN training plans, which start at £26 here to help you achieve your IROMAN dreams on a budget. If you really want to invest in your performance, check out my coaching options here.
