The financial side of an IronMan

Is triathlon and specifically IronMan a sport for the rich and wealthy? A spicy question, isn’t it? Well, I’ll leave it up to you to make your own judgement on this question. My opinion on this topic is based on the couple of IronMan 70.3 I’ve done and the experience with the full IronMan race organisation as well as on the many conversations I had with others who have completed IronMan races.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The following prices are what I had to pay in 2023-2024 season for the IronMan Austria. These fees will vary depending on the location, year and obviously on what extras you want to book or organise yourself. The following is a reflection of my personal experience and I haven’t included a few prices, i.e. for the bike, wetsuit, etc. because these will vary drastically based on everyone’s buying decision! I personally decided to go for the options on the lower price-range because, well, you’ll see in a moment why…in my experience: IronMan is a sport for people who either have the money or for people like me: Who save up money over years and years to be able to afford to take part in such an event…and then, I didn’t even take part because of their unprofessional and dissapointing organisational skills. You can read all about in this blog post.

Equipment and fees you have to pay for in order to take part:

• Registration fee for IronMan: ~£710

• Race license: £6 for the day

• Equipment:

  • Bike

  • Helmet

  • Running shoes

  • Wetsuit

  • Trisuit

  • Nutrition

  • Race belt

  • Hydration flask and bottles

  • Bottle cages to mount on the bike

Additional optional cost depending on what you require:

• Accommodation via IronMan partner: ~£1,300 for 4 nights including breakfast

• Flights: ~£380

• Airport transport via IronMan partner: ~ £130

• Alan Bike box: ~£480

• Bike baggage for flights: ~£85

• Insurance for bike: ~ £80 per year

• Bike mechanics via IronMan partner: ~£120

• Bike check before the race including any replacements or fixes it might need: ~£120

• Equipment:

  • Sunglasses with prescription

  • Goggles with prescription

  • Lube to avoid chaffing

  • Suncream

  • Hat

• Additional, optional extras from the IronMan and partner organisations:

  • Clothing with your name on it: Totally depends obviously what product you want to buy. The shirts cost ~£50

  • Fee for photos of you on race day via IronMan partner: ~£70

What really annoyed me was what I call ‘hidden or misleading’ cost because on their registration page, it stated that you’d get access to the bike mechanics and airport transport if you book the accommodation via their partner. I understood that this means it’s included in the price. But what they actually mean with “access” is that you can book all these services for an additional cost! It might very well be my English because English is not my native language. I was certainly baffled when I realised I had to pay for these services on top of the already over £2,000.

I won’t go into detail about their refund policies because it’d just upsets me and winds me up.

Looking back at it all, these are my final thoughts:

Now I understand why their marketing material shows so many bougie, high-end brands. They target the rich people and the elite professionals. The “normal”, middle class people who train and save up money for this event over years, aren’t on their agenda.

This whole experience had one good result though: I now know that I can make anything happen without having to pay for it thousands of pounds or rely on a big event organiser. I managed to organise and pull off a self-supported IronMan within 48 hours. I didn’t even know that’s possible. What it proved me was that A) finishing such an endurance challenge with friends instead of on a red carpet is much more meaningful and B) my thoughts and believes are my only limitations. I’m so curious to see what else is out there to discover.