The World's Top 25 Best Triathlons: Finding Your Perfect Race

Our analysis of the world's best triathlons has been covered by major media around the world, and our most recent feature is in the May 2012 issue of Triathlete Magazine: The World's Best Races. We've raced in more than 40 triathlons around the world, and know what great triathlons should be like. Beyond that, we've analyzed results for of than 150,000 triathletes in over 100 different triathlons.

Our featured analysis focused on the World's Best Ironman Triathlons, but in a unique way. The 'Best' triathlon really depends on what the triathlete's abilities and goals.
  1. First-Timers or PR Seekers: For those choosing a first race, or for those who want to set a PR, the best races are ones with faster times, lower DNFs.
  2. Crush the Competition/Qualify for Kona: But for others who have the fitness, ability and desire to crush the competition, and maybe even qualify for Kona, the best races are the toughest in every aspect.
  3. Top 50% to Top 25%: Finally, for the athletes somewhere in-between, the best races are the ones that play to their strengths -- better cyclists can take on races with tougher bike courses easier run courses; same principal could work in reverse for strong runners who need a bike course that is somewhat forgiving
Here are some general parameters to consider when matching your goals and abilities with your potential best races.

With those criteria in mind, we created the we took a completely new approach to ranking the Best Races: we compared and contrasted 30 different Ironman triathlons based on the relationship between their bike and run splits. Here's our analysis as published in Triathlete Magazine, to help pick your best race based on your fitness, abilities and goals.
  1. First-Timers or PR Seekers: Races with fast bike splits and fast marathon courses, Green races in lower left quadrant of the graph
  2. Crush the Competition/Qualify for Kona: It you've got the ability and fitness to outgun the field, choose the toughest race courses, upper right quadrant, labeled in red
  3. Top 50% to Top 25%: If you're a strong runner, but cycling's more of a challenge, choose a race with a faster bike course, upper left quadrant, orange labels; if cycling's your strength, a course with faster run splits may be best for you.

 A More Traditional View: Top 25 Best Triathlons

For great races that afford outstanding experiences, regardless of difficulty, these are our Top 25 Best Triathlons, in approximate Calendar Order. How do these races compare? We've done the analysis for most full and half ironman distance events on the list: Toughest/Easiest Ironman; Toughest/Easiest Half Ironman.




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Top 25 Best Half Marathons

RunTri's picks: the best Half Marathons in the US. In Alphabetical order:

For those who also run marathons:

We've competed in many of the best marathons in the world since 1994. We know great races, and these are our Top 50:


Also see our Top 25 Toughest Marathons, Marathon Training and Racing section, and our complete coverage of Chicago, Boston and New York City marathons.

Among the most popular marathons, which ones are Hardest/Toughest? Which ones are Fastest/Easiest?

New for the 2011-2012 marathon season: we've analyzed 75 of the top marathons in North America -- with 330,000 finishers and 50,000 Boston Qualifiers --  to determine which ones are the biggest, toughest, fastest, and more.

Beyond the numbers, we've got personal experience, having competed in many of the marathons listed here, a total of 85 marathons overall, to add credibility to the rankings.

Toughest: Boston is toughest of our top 25, but with a deceptively fastest overall time, being exclusive to the qualified marathoners. Among marathons open to all runners, Los Angeles, Disney World, Portland (Oregon), RnR San Diego and Marine Corps are most challenging, based on average finish times.

Noteworthy: Chicago's 4:43 in 2010 ranked it 6th toughest overall. For more, see our detailed analysis of Chicago Finish Times by Age Group.  


Easiest: There is no such thing as an easy marathon. 26.2 miles is 26.2 miles, and competing in one is an awesome undertaking and an extraordinary achievement. But when it comes to faster marathon courses, Hamilton, Bay State, Pocono Mountain, Sugarloaf and Hudson River top the list.


And yes, we know very well that there are many, many smaller marathons not on this list that are wicked hard. We limited the analysis to these races, representing hundreds of thousands of finishers. For more see our Complete Marathon Coverage, and more detailed analysis, below.

Top 50 Best Marathons to Qualify for Boston


Race Pace Examples: How to Qualify for Boston at Chicago Marathon




Predicting your full marathon time based on your best half marathon: Marine Corps Marathon example.


Average finish times by Age Group: New York Marathon example.



Average finish time by Age, year-by-year: PF Chang's Arizona Marathon example.


Impact of Weather on Average Race Results: Boston Marathon Example.


And more . . .


How Much Time Does it Take to Finish a Half Ironman 70.3? Average Half Ironman Finish Times

How long does it take to finish a Half Ironman Triathlon?

The answer, based on our analysis of more than 67,000 finishers in 40 Half Ironman triathlons: about 6 hours, on average.  Swim 1.2 miles in 45 minutes, Bike 56 miles in 3:00, and Run 13.1 miles in 2:15.


Of course, there's a great deal of variation by age group. Here's the breakout of average half ironman finish time by division.


Then, we dig one level deeper, to define the average swim, bike, and run splits by age group (here, the columns are sorted by overall finish time, ascending). How long should it take you to finish your half ironman? These times and splits by age group are perfect targets to shoot for.



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