Triathlon Isn't Dying — 2025 Races Are Selling Out Fast! | GTN Show Ep. 397

Welcome to the GTN Show. We have pregnancies, injuries, and crazy race schedules coming from the pros. We look ahead to the start lists of some big races as the tri-season launches in the coming weeks. Yes, and on top of that, we are discussing the good news around the growth of our sport. All right, starting, as we always do, with some of the stuff we've noticed on the internet over the last week. Actually, this was posted pretty much immediately after we filmed there. We actually spoke about how Martin Van Riel was doing something absolutely crazy by doing Ironman South Africa and then doing the T100 just a week later. We thought that is ridiculous. Just to not be outdone, Cam Wurf posted his schedule for 2025. Oh, my word. He is doing the 70.3 G-Long, which is the first 70.3 in the pro series. Literally, a week later, that's on the 23rd of March. A week later, on March the 30th, he's doing the full Ironman South Africa. Then, if that wasn't enough, he's going to travel all the way around the world to 70.3 Oceanside, the next one in the pro series, one week later and race another 70.3. He does at least stay in the right continent for a couple of weeks before Ironman Texas on the 26th of April. That's maybe a break for him. I think probably we won't go any further in the calendar because I'm not sure he's many of those he's going to do. It's Cam Wurf. If anyone can do it, it's probably Cam Wurf. This is a crazy schedule. Even if you just take the traveling and you only had to do a sprint distance at each of those places, that would be a crazy schedule. Never mind doing a 70.3 in Ironman and then another 70.3 in three consecutive weekends. Sam Long has pointed out that he doesn't see the Tour de France in there. Where does that fit in the schedule? Well, he just dropped it in at the last minute. He only gets to pull up and then- How many do you think he's actually going to turn up at? I don't know. We're discussing a little bit the penalties and what you get as a pro. You are allowed to enter pretty much any race once you've got your pro license, which costs a substantial $1,500. There's no reason why he isn't allowed to do that. However, if he's not actually planning to show up at any of them, then that's a bit disingenuous. I feel like he must want those options at the moment when he was planning a schedule. If you take out South Africa, it suddenly doesn't seem so bad. It's Australia, then back to America. I guess he just hasn't quite decided which one. Or maybe he is just going to do all of them and we're going to see a absolutely massive year from Cam Wurf. Anyway, moving on, Joe Skipper had a bit to say about the Pro Series. Yes. He's gone the other way, basically, saying that the Pro Series is doing a great amount for our sport, isn't it? Last year really brought the level of racing and seeing pros go to the set amount of pro races where we're seeing the real top races against each other. However, Joe has been really honest in his latest YouTube video, just saying that the schedule doesn't really work for him and it doesn't work financially. He's saying, unless you're in your podiuming in the overall series, then the effort and the cost of going to all of these Pro Series doesn't add up because, obviously, the caliber's higher. It's going to be harder to get on the podium. He's not being defeatist about it. He's just being, I think, a real realist. He says he had so much travel, he wouldn't necessarily plan his schedule to follow those races if he was just planning a typical schedule. You've got to do three Ironman races and if one goes wrong, you've got to do four. Races don't flow, he says. Basically, that means that this calendar hasn't worked out that you could do one to prepare for the next one, build your season around the Pro Series. There's just a whole bunch, as we've just seen with Cam Wurf's schedule, where you literally can't do the Pro Series races, all of them, or maybe Cam can. It might still be proved wrong, but you probably can't do all the Pro Series races, so you have to really pick and choose. It doesn't feel like the athletes have been involved in building the schedule or building this calendar. Heather Fletcher-Pickens Yes. He also points out that you've got to think of your bonuses you get from sponsors. For him, his sponsors pay a few podiums and he's more likely to podium in a non-Pro Series. You've got to take his hat off to him for being that honest, I think, and transparent about how he's planning his schedule. That said, he is actually going to be on the start line at 70.3 Oceanside, which is a Pro Series. He wants to race, he wants to have fun and still be out there mixing it up with the best. Mark Threlfall Yes. Then he says Ironman Austria and potentially Ironman Leeds, which would be a bit of a hometown race for him or a home race for him anyway. Yes, difficult decisions and it's almost like the pro athletes need a union that can talk about their interests. Anyway, we're going to leave that one there. Emma Pallant-Brown has announced she's pregnant. This was also immediately after we filmed the show last week and we had actually said she's not doing the Singapore T100 despite being a contracted athlete because she doesn't enjoy the heat, but we were wrong. There was another reason why she wasn't doing it. Heather Fletcher-Pickens We didn't have any evidence to support that. In the past, she has struggled in the heat. Mark Threlfall That's true. Heather Fletcher-Pickens Yes. Congratulations to Emma and a very good excuse to not be racing in Singapore. Mark Threlfall Yes, exactly. Then Fenella Langeridge has announced that she is injured. She's been struggling with her form quite a bit in the whole last year and can't really figure out what it was. She's finally got a diagnosis. I've never heard of this. Have you heard of this? Heather Fletcher-Pickens No, I haven't. I'm glad you've written it down. Mark Threlfall Yes. It's called EIAE, which is external iliac artery endofibrosis, which basically is a hardening of the artery, I think, in your hip that restricts and reduces the blood flow down your whole leg. It causes this numbness, tingling, and it causes a lot of power, inability to use that leg. She's been like, well, have I got something neuromuscular going on? Is something going wrong with my whole body? What is going on? She hasn't been able to figure it out. She finally got a diagnosis. Unfortunately, the solution is surgery, it looks like. Heather Fletcher-Pickens Yes. You say unfortunately, I think for her as an athlete, just not knowing is so hard. It's a bit of a relief that she was even debating, is that me done as a pro-athlete? Now she knows that there is a reason. All my training hasn't just been wasted. She's got to play a waiting game until the surgery is booked in, but then after that, hopefully, she can move forwards and still regain this season and hopefully, yes, many seasons to come. Mark Threlfall Yes, fingers crossed for a quick recovery. Heather Fletcher-Pickens Yes, definitely. We now have a few triathletes over the weekend who have been running or doing races, which this time of year, you do often see. It's getting quite late in the season now to still see triathletes running races. Georgia Taylor-Brown, as we did talk about a few weeks ago, is not even sure of her triathlon plans at the moment. That's quite evident still because she has raced cross-country again this past weekend. This time, it's the inter-county, so she had her county vest on as opposed to running for her club at the Nationals, which we talked about a few weeks ago. Mark Threlfall Yes. Also, Jonny Brownlee raced the Bath-Hoff this past weekend, his first half-marathon, I believe. He ran a solid 1.10, although it does look like he didn't particularly enjoy the distance because Heather pulled up his splits. Heather Fletcher-Pickens The 1.10 was impressive, but I also ran the half and I passed him quite early on. Mark Threlfall You ran a 1.10. Heather Fletcher-Pickens I wasn't anywhere near, Jonny. I only had a few more kilometers to go when I passed him, but we'll pass on that one. Mark Threlfall I'm going the other way. Heather Fletcher-Pickens I thought, oh, I'll look up his results because he was right up there. I saw he finished 25th, so I wondered what had happened. The 5k splits were a 15.15, which is pretty hot to go out then, a 15.54, 16.42, and the final 5k, 18.17. Mark Threlfall Ouch. It does have a nice big hill at the end of the half, which does take some of your time off. I have done it and I didn't enjoy that last hill, but yes, those splits do not make for comfortable reading if you know what pain you must have been going through running those, but yes, a solid 1.10 for your first ever half. Heather Fletcher-Pickens It is. I wish we'd known he was here because literally the course goes past the office, and that is the final hill past the office, which did kill me yesterday, but yes, good to see him out racing on the streets of Bath. Our final triathlete running over the weekend was Kat Matthews, who raced a 5k in the podium 5k. Now, she actually was in the B race just because she didn't, I think, have a running time per se, but she won it quite emphatically, I think. I think next time she will be in that A race. Mark Threlfall I don't know what her time was though, but I assume it was pretty fast. Heather Fletcher-Pickens It looked fast. As some other news, Scott DeRue has finished seven summits, the seven summits on seven continents. This is the Ironman CEO, and it's very impressive. He's 48 years old, and he finished his quest by summiting Australasia's highest peak, Puncajaya, or Karsten's Pyramid. Never really heard of it, but that's been a 17 journey since he first climbed Kilimanjaro 17 years ago in 2007. He's also climbed South America's Aconcagua in 2010, North America's Denali in 2011, Antarctica's Mount Vincent in 2019, and Europe's Mount Elbrus in 2019. Obviously, his most notable achievement to get the final of those seven is in 2013 when he climbed the world's tallest mountain, Mount Everest. The one thing that's not on his palm so far is finishing an Ironman, so maybe that's next. Heather Fletcher-Pickens I mean, it's got to be easier and cheaper, surely. Mark Threlfall Well, definitely for him, he needs to pay an entry fee. He's just holding that one to a last. Our final piece of news or whatever you like to call it, what we spotted online is in the world of OnlyFans. Now, apparently, Sabrina Stanley is the first ever trail runner to be part of the team OnlyFans. They actually have a team of athletes on their roster, so she's going to be wearing OnlyFans on her t-shirt. Apparently, it basically allows her subscribers to have an insight into behind the scenes when it comes to her training, race prep tips, et cetera. Mark Threlfall I have to excuse my naivety on this, but it's just behind the scenes of her racing and her training. Heather Fletcher-Pickens On the press release that I read, James, that is all it says. Mark Threlfall She's wearing an OnlyFans shirt. Heather Fletcher-Pickens She is wearing a shirt. Mark Threlfall All the time. Heather Fletcher-Pickens Apparently so. Mark Threlfall Not wearing the shirt. I've just heard OnlyFans is- Heather Fletcher-Pickens If you follow Sabrina, let us know. Mark Threlfall Don't know of any triathletes on OnlyFans yet. If you do, let us know. Moving on, last week, Ironman put out a press release that was a bit of positive news for the world of triathlon, even if they were slightly blowing their own trumpet. The statement said, excitement for Ironman and Ironman 70.3 racing in Canada and the US is continuing to grow for 2025 events as multiple racers have already sold out with a number of additional events likely to reach sellout status in the coming months. The early sellouts were Ironman Texas, 70.3 St. George, 70.3 Chattanooga, 70.3 Rockford, Illinois, and 70.3 Oceanside. Meanwhile, many other events across the US are already 80% to 90% full and likely to sell out soon. Heather Fletcher-Pickens Yes, they're basically saying that the rate of selling out is much higher than it was a few years ago. More races are probably going to sell out than previously. Interestingly, they are noticing that there's an increased participation in the 18 to 35-year-olds all the time, which is really cool. They've got some numbers here that apparently last year saw a 32% increase in 18 to 35-year-olds registering for long-distance Ironman races, and the female participation is up 10%, which is awesome. Mark Threlfall Yes, which is a good thing. Heather Fletcher-Pickens Yes, it's really nice to see. Mark Threlfall We tried to compare it to some numbers. This is obviously for USA and Canada. We tried to compare it for some numbers. For Europe, we don't actually have the numbers, but we did look at what's available. All 70.3s until August in Europe are sold out. Of the 12 Ironmans that are available, six of them are sold out, and there are six that are still open for entries. It seems like a similar pattern in Europe as it is in the US. Heather Fletcher-Pickens Yes, I personally was surprised when I saw this because I thought just looking at races in Europe that that was normal, and maybe it is for Europe, and maybe it's America that's seeing that trend. Maybe if you're skeptical, you could say this is Ironman trying to help their races sell out in the USA, but that would maybe be a little bit pessimistic of me. That said, though, USA Triathlon have actually done their own impact report, and that has found that the numbers are increasing. They've got their membership sitting at 302,000 active members from last year, which is a 1.6% increase. Not back to where it was pre-COVID, but definitely going back in the right direction. Mark Threlfall Yes. Interestingly, much like Ironman, they also found that the biggest growth is actually in the 20 to 29 and 30 to 39 demographics, which is really good because obviously those demographics growing delays any fears that the triathlon population is aging out. Heather Fletcher-Pickens Dying out. Mark Threlfall That they were all really into it in the 80s and 90s and 2000s, and now that age group is moving out and triathlon is dying, but apparently the numbers don't back that up at all. USA Triathlon CEO Victoria Brumfield is excited about the future prospects for triathlon. She did point out that there are some challenges like triathlon not being in school. She said, if your kids are in junior high school, the sports offered to them will not be triathlon. It may be swimming or it may be running, but it's probably not biking and it's very likely not triathlon. Heather Fletcher-Pickens Yes, that is very true. Well, beyond that, she then highlights that need for infrastructure and for programming, bringing it in. A recent speech, she also noted some other phenomenon. She said, basically, ask the crowd to raise their hand if they were a triathlete. Apparently, not that many people raised their hands. She then asked them to raise their hand if they had done a triathlon. A huge amount of people put their hands up. She's now also trying to work on changing that mindset and getting triathlon not just to be a one-off, like go and do that Ironman, put it to bed, tick that box, but actually for it to become more of a lifestyle change. Mark Threlfall Yes, of course, creating more triathletes who do it as a lifestyle means you need enough events. Somewhat worryingly, they did point out in that same impact report that while the numbers are increasing and the sellouts of these races is increasing, the actual number of triathlons is not increasing. In fact, it's dropped and there's been some consolidation since they had a peak number of events all the way back in 2012. Heather Fell Yes. All of that said, though, the news has got to be positive. It wasn't very many weeks ago when we did a show just looking at, is triathlon dying? Quite literally, this is really giving some strong backing evidence to say that it isn't. There's obviously still lots of work to do, but it's positive. Mark Threlfall I also take issue with it saying that it's not a school sport. That's a bit defeatist. Why can it not be a school sport? I don't see why you can't have triathlon in a school as a school sport. Heather Fell Yes. I guess the school schedule's already got so much, but it needs to have the, I think it goes back to the role models of needing enough for people to look to. Then those kids can go to the swim club, go to the run club, and then there is a triathlon if they want to do it, but do they need to have a triathlon club? I don't know. Maybe that's beyond. Maybe at college level, yes, there should be. Mark Threlfall Kids into endurance sports and trying to get them into sports, I think a lot of parents would be very excited if their school offered triathlon. We've seen it around here in this area. My wife is actually doing a bit of a triathlon club at my kid's school, and it is way oversubscribed. I think parents are well into it, and if the parents are well into it, then the kids will be well into it. All it really takes is for a school to be a little bit progressive and go, rather than swimming and cross-country, we're just going to call it triathlon or endurance sport club and include the triathlon in there. Heather Fell Could you be a runner and go along to a triathlon club and say, I don't fancy swimming, and there's just one club for all of it. Mark Threlfall Yes, exactly. As for how we get over the people who don't identify as triathletes or don't want to identify as triathletes, I'm not sure how you do that. You're not going to put your hand up if someone says, oh, you're a triathlete, but you have done a triathlon. Heather Fell Do you identify as a triathlete still? Mark Threlfall Well, it depends where I am and what crowd I'm in, I guess. I don't think triathletes have done themselves a lot of favors wearing lycra and calf guards and no socks. I think you could probably work on our image a little bit. We're all a little bit guilty of not being so stylish. I think if there are enough races, people will go to triathlons regularly. If you go to triathlons regularly, you will definitely say you're a triathlete. If you've done one in the last 18 months, then you might just say, well, I've done a triathlon. I wouldn't say I'm a triathlete. Heather Fell Are you a triathlete? I'm going to be a triathlete again soon. I think you are too, James. We'd love to know whether you guys identify as triathletes or not. Do share your comments in the comment section below. Well, onto race news, but it isn't race news, it's more of a preview because the season is about to start. Mark Threlfall We've been saying that for a few months now, but it really is about to start now. Heather Fell This weekend, there's a very exciting race coming up, the Leaven Cup, which you might have watched last year. It's a World Cup from World Triathlon, but it's indoor racing, and it is very fast and furious. It consists of a 200-meter swim, a 2.8K bike, and a 1K run all indoors on an actual running track with a pool in the middle. There's some pretty big stars lining up to race this. We've got the Olympic gold medalist, Cassandra Beaugrand, is going to be turning up. Hayden Wild is going into the really fast end, having gone at 70.3. It's going to be really exciting to see him back racing. Those competing with Wild, we've got Dorian Connix, Leo Bejaer, Chase McQueen, the E-Tri World Champion also lining up, along with quite a few young names who maybe aren't quite so familiar with. Mark Threlfall Yes, interesting fast racing over really quickly, less than 10 minutes per race. It is heats and rapid charges and finals, et cetera, so a lot of action to watch and interesting to see what kind of form. You've got to be really firing all cylinders this early in the season. Heather Fell It is, yes, moving along quickly. Anyway, 70.3, Geelong, the first of the Pro Series, the Ironman Pro Series kicks off also this weekend. That has got 70.3 World Champion Helle Keens back in action. See if he's still on form from the end of last year. I imagine he probably is. Then the Pro Series kicks off properly with a full distance at Ironman South Africa on the 30th of March. The start list for that has been announced. Pretty stacked fields. The women's maybe not as stacked as the men's. Marta Sanchez, Maja Staje-Nielsen, Else Visser, Anne Reschman, all going for the win there in some early points in that Pro Series. On the men's side, I don't want to say it's going to be Ditlev because it's really early season. You never know what kind of form these guys are in, but I do think that Ditlev is the man to beat. He's actually a trial ratings number one for this race, but he's got his work cut out for him, doesn't he? Yes. You've got Martin Van Riel who everyone is very excited to see if he races it because he's also got the T100 in theory the week after in Singapore, but we're still yet to see his form. Statistically, he doesn't have a good ranking because he hasn't completed. No, did he? He completed Poznan, but he crashed at the mark, so he's lost a lot of time. Lipped to the finish line. Leon Chevalier, I'm excited to see him race. He's often one that gets going a bit later in the season. He does, yes. Brad Weiss, South African favorite, and then Rasmus Fennington who's actually the defending champion at Ironman South Africa, and quite a few more including potentially Cam Wurf. Is he going to be there? I don't know. Then the following weekend, the racing really kicks off. I keep saying this. It's going to get more and more exciting this season. It really is. It really is. That's with the 70.3 Oceanside, the next race in the Pro Series, and the same day, the T100 Singapore. Now, the T100 Singapore has just announced their wild cards. We'll run through those now, and then in a couple of weeks, we'll do the full race preview for these events. The wild cards, on the men's side, Talamish LeChuck, a Canadian who only made his 70.3 debut in January. He won 70.3 Pucon. The other wild card, Max Stepley from Great Britain, who's only done two middle-distance races. He was third at Bahrain in 2023, and he won 70.3 Gdynia in Poland last year. Both of those, they're only two wild cards because 18 of the 20 contracted athletes are actually going to be at that one. Heather Fellowes-Hallorand Yeah, whereas we have four female wild cards, including Amelia Watkinson, who finished fourth last year in Singapore. She must be pretty excited to get the call-out because it obviously does well in the heat training over in Australia. Marlene De Boer, one Ironman Sweden, so this is going to be quite a short distance for her. Lisa Pertera and Cecilia Perez, who also won 70.3 Pucon. Mark Threlfall Yeah, the race season's finally starting. Can I say that now? Lisa Pertera I think we can. Well, when we actually have race news, race results, next week. Mark Threlfall Okay, now it's time for Tri-Spy. Last week, we had this elevation profile, which we thought would be really tricky, but there's actually only one wrong answer. Hanad said, Ironman Switzerland Tun, he said 50% confidence in that because I'm racing that this summer, and I know the elevation is actually worse than that. He seemed to know that it wasn't the right one, but he guessed it anyway. Everyone else knew what it was. David O'Dyer said, GTN Tri-Spy, that is Ironman Lanzarote, and I'm there for the second time. I looked at the elevation profile more than a few times. Lisa Pertera I bet you did. Mark Threlfall I bet you did, yeah. James SMHD also said, Lanzarote, feel, see, Tri-Spy must be Ironman Lanzarote. It's near the top of my bucket list to race in. Then McAttack said, agreed, Ironman Lanzarote. This week, we're going back to the old school Tri-Spy, and we're going to go with a pro's nose. Whose nose is that? Say what? Okay, a couple of weeks ago, Mark and I went and did some aero testing where we tried to get our watts as low as possible using some aero hacks on the TT bike. Mark, well, you opened up a can of worms because he asked you guys what other hacks you would have done if you were there with us trying to get your bike as aero as possible, legal or not. He probably should have said, let's keep it legal because some of these are out there. Lisa Pertera I mean, they're fun, aren't they? We've got EJ Gibb says, trip-stips on the bib shorts, bottles- Mark Threlfall He says, trip-strips in the bib shorts. Lisa Pertera Oh. Mark Threlfall Where do you put them? Lisa Pertera In them, right. Mark Threlfall You must mean on. You must mean on. You don't want to put it in the bib shorts. Lisa Pertera Bottles behind a saddle, aero fairings for triceps. This one's interesting, magnet in the jersey and helmet tail to keep your head position. Mark Threlfall What? Lisa Pertera So you don't walk around with your- Mark Threlfall It sticks to, yes. Lisa Pertera Go out at noon in the summer when temperatures are high and air density is low. That one we do like. Mark Threlfall Yes, well, yes. Except then you've got to swim really, really slowly. Edward Sela says, suggestions front triangle fairing build from duct tape and pizza boxes. Lisa Pertera That sounds GTN-esque. Mark Threlfall Yes, it does. Surely, we could build it out of carbon fiber sheets rather than pizza boxes. Lisa Pertera Yes, take it one level up. We have ijadf says, this sounds mad, but try putting on an actual wind guard in front of the aero bars. It'd be fairly small. He's thought about this, hasn't he? Only about 300-mil diameter, ideally transparent and curved. It goes on but finishes here with them saying, obviously, not legal or probably safe, but it might work at 40 kilometers an hour. Mark Threlfall When you start your idea with, this sounds mad. Lisa Pertera And you finish it with- Mark Threlfall Probably mad. Anyway, Riley84 said, Mark did a great job of reminding us how ridiculous we get as triathletes. Mark's pretty good at doing that, actually. Lisa Pertera He is. We also have a video, well, out now, actually. James goes back into the Open Pandora's Box on Zone 2 of why it actually gets harder as you get fitter. Mark Threlfall Yes. Sam Long joined me for that and he discussed why, for pros, Zone 2 is actually pretty hard, whereas for beginners, you see it feels you have to go so slowly to get. It's a really interesting video and we dove into quite a lot of detail, including having a physiologist explain it all to us. Then, coming up on the channel later this week, Mark raced a duathlon, an attempt to qualify for the World Champs. No spoilers on how he did there, but yes, Mark's back to racing. Not a triathlon, but a duathlon. Mark Threlfall Nice. Sam Long Thanks for watching. We'll see you guys again next week.