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”.
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
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
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
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
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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
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 race day. Three pairs of shoes is probably about right for someone putting in the mileage necessary to train for an Ironman marathon, so let’s call it £450
TOTAL: £450
A big mistake people make is spending too much on their bike, and not leaving enough for the other associated costs. Let’s look at just a handful of the costs required to own and ride a bike.
Clothing, mechanics fees, spare parts, lube, tools, helmet, sealant/tubes, tyres, hydration systems, shoes, eyewear, components, brake pads, power meters, brake cables, a bike box for travel. The list could go on and on for just about forever.
I’m going to go and quote a number here which will probably scare you. I’m going to say two grand. Some would no doubt say even more. You’re probably looking at £500 on clothing, you’ll want a full service in the run up to the race and you’d be a fool not to upgrade the tyres on your bike. It can start to add up pretty quickly even without any damage associated with a crash.
I’m not telling you this to scare you or put you off, just to help you draw up a realistic budget so you don’t get battered with costs you weren’t expecting.
TOTAL: £2000
Opinion can be split on whether a bike fit is worth it. Most of those who are naysayers tend to be road cyclists who head out for 2-3 hours on a weekend and rarely ride for more than an hour without stopping for cake or to wait for someone at the top of a hill.
However, if we’re racing Ironman we’re going to be on our bike for somewhere between five and nine hours (probably closer to nine for first timers) without much of a break. Any back pain, over extension or asymmetry in your pedal stroke is going to be magnified ten times here, possibly resulting in race ending pain. Having a professional look at every aspect of your fit is going to vastly improve your comfort. And you can’t perform if you’re not comfortable.
Prices vary, but around £200 for a three hour sessions seems to be the going rate.
TOTAL: £200
There’s a handful of pieces of equipment that you will only ever need or want to use on race day.
You will most likely want to use a trisuit on the day. You can use the changing areas, but these tend to have queues so if you’re worried about time cutoffs, these may not be the best idea. £150 will get you a reasonable suit, you don’t really need to spend much more than that if you’re budgeting for your first Ironman.
The first is a race belt, which can be purchased for under £20. In the UK you need a race number at the back during the cycle leg, and at the front for the run. As you will only receive one number, the done thing is to attach it to a race belt which can be spun round as you start the run.
TOTAL: £170
When training for Ironman we will need to use two types of nutrition.
Firstly is the products we use when training and racing. These can take the form of energy gels, energy drink mix, salt supplements, energy bars, energy chews or any other kind of fuel source. If we’re planning to use these on the day we need to practice with them in our training, and they’re convenient but not cheap.
The second thing to consider is the impact on our food bill. We’re probably going to need to increase our calorie consumption from somewhere between 10-25% to meet the demands of training, and eat more protein which tends to be more expensive gram for gram then carbohydrate or fat.
It’s very difficult to put an accurate number on this. If someone doesn’t use any pre-packaged energy products and cooks meals from whole foods (as they should), the impact might not be as profound as you expect. However if we were to look at the average athlete, you probably need to allow an extra £1000 in total costs.
TOTAL: £1000
If you’re training for an Ironman, you’re going to get a few niggles, maybe even a full blown injury through no fault of your own. It would be foolish of us not to allow something in our budget for this. Whether you want to get a regular massage or just save it for seeing someone when things go wrong, you need to have a nest egg to one side to ensure it doesn’t derail you if the worst does happen.
Physios are magicians, but not cheap. You can expect to pay in the region of £70 for an appointment, which you may need several of in some cases. Let’s be pessimistic here and allocate £500 to ensure we have a budget to get the care we need.
If you’re in a country which uses a health insurance model, this will need to be higher.
TOTAL: £500
This covers costs which don’t fall into any of the above categories. This includes things such as gym membership, driving to and from training sessions, books, wetsuit repair, software subscriptions, the list goes on. As with other aspects of this budget, I’m going to round up to the £500 mark.
TOTAL: £500
If you are an athlete with zero swimming, cycling or running kit who wants to take on their first Ironman it’s probably going to cost you the best part of…
£9,045
That’s over 10,000 euros, or 11,000 US dollars depending on the exchange rate on any given day.
That’s quite a chunk of change. Even as an established athlete myself with all of the kit, entering a local race with a buildup free of injury, I’m probably looking at closer to £2,000 when all’s said and done.
It probably won’t have escaped your attention that I haven’t included any costs for coaching so far. That’s because I wanted to put the cost of coaching in perspective of the costs of the event.
Broadly speaking, coaching isn’t cheap. If someone wants to come onto my most popular package it costs £120 a month. If we assume a nine month build ahead of an event, that’s just over £1000. Or someone could join one of my lower budget options for only £500.
But when we look at the overall costs of an Ironman, this is going to be less than 25% of the budget for many athletes. The best way to look at this is to consider it as insurance for all of the other money you’re spending. If you have expensive tastes or want to bring your family to the race, you could end up spending well over fifteen grand. Imagine after all that time, money and effort failing to finish.
Now, coaching isn’t a magic wand that guarantees you will finish an event, but it’s as close as it gets. We ensure your swim technique is good enough to get you round comfortably within the cutoffs, help you ensure your training is built at an appropriate volume to reduce the risk of injury, get your nutrition plan dialled before the race so you don’t end up puking in a bush, and make sure you maintain a healthy balance with work and family at the same time. In a way, you could consider it a form of insurance to all but guarantee your finish in most situations.
No coach is going to be good enough to stop another rider from crashing into you or guarantee that you’ll have zero stomach problems on the run, but we can guarantee that if you follow the plan to the best of your ability and put in the hard work, that you’ll be in the strongest position possible when you line up on the start line.
You probably didn’t need me to tell you that triathlon is an expensive sport, but I hope this has provided you with budgeting for your ironman and made you aware of the costs associated before you blindly pay your £500 entry fee. Or that you don’t overspend on one area (bike purchase, we’re looking at you), leaving you unable to afford treatment for an injury or having to settle for accommodation in a caravan because you blew your budget elsewhere.
It’s your money and your choice on how to spend it, but I hope this article has left you more informed on the financial realities of racing Ironman.
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