USAT Winter Triathlon National Championships: Breckebeiner!
- Cindy Dallow
- Mar 23
- 2 min read
Well, that was interesting!
My first winter triathlon is in the books.
I had never done a winter triathlon before so I didn't know what to expect. Nevermind the fact that I didn't know how to cross country ski that well and I had only ridden my fat tire bike a few times. But hey, who doesn't like a good challenge??
While Kurt is pretty much an expert at winter triathlons, I am not. He competed in last year's event but I was sidelined with meniscus root repair surgery so I stayed home.
Kurt learned how to skate ski in the late 70's so that part of the race was a breeze for him. I didn't know how to skate ski (at the time of the race) so I did "classical" cross country skiing for that portion of the race and quickly learned that if you don't know how to skate ski, you can pretty much give up on placing in your age group. Skate skiing is much faster than classical XC skiing!
Traditional triathlons are swim, bike, run and winter triathlons are run, fat bike, XC ski, all on snow-packed trails. Kurt did the intermediate race (6k run, 10k bike, 10k ski) and I did the sprint distance (3k run, 5k bike, 5k ski).
For me, the run was fairly easy, the bike was a blast, and the XC was hard. The distances weren't that long so all in all, the race wasn't that bad. Next year I want to try the intermediate distance and use my newly-acquired skate skiing skills that I learned AFTER the race (of course!).
Think you might want to try your hand at a winter triathlon? Feel free to contact us for more info - we're happy to share our experience with you. It's a fun race and good training too. Hope to see you at Gold Run Nordic Center in Feb of 2026!
A few photos from the race:
Contact Kurt: kurt@2doctricoaching.com
Contact Cindy: cindy@2doctricoaching.com
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