Eloah Rocha has spent nearly 15 years as a counselor in the youth activity center at the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital. Outside of her work monitoring and evaluating child-care services at the hospital, Eloah Rocha leads a physically active lifestyle. She regularly trains for and competes in swimming competitions and triathlons.

1. AN
OVERVIEW
OF
TRIATHLON
DISTANCES
Eloah Rocha

2. Introduction
■ Eloah Rocha has spent nearly 15 years as a counselor in the youth
activity center at the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital. Outside of
her work monitoring and evaluating child-care services at the
hospital, Eloah Rocha leads a physically active lifestyle. She
regularly trains for and competes in swimming competitions and
triathlons.
Athletes can take part in triathlons of various lengths, with the four
most common being the sprint triathlon, the standard triathlon,
the half-Ironman triathlon, and the Ironman triathlon. Although
the shortest triathlon run today, the sprint triathlon is actually the
closest to the original triathlon developed in France in the early
1920s.The first triathlon consisted of a swim across the Marne, a
12-kilometer bike ride, and a 3-kilometer run.

3. Triathlon
■ The sprint triathlon, meanwhile, consists of a 750-meter swim,
a 20-kilometer cycling leg, and a 5-kilometer run.
The standard, or Olympic, triathlon features a 1.5-kilometer
swim, followed by a 40-kilometer ride and 10-kilometer run.
The half-Ironman triathlon, meanwhile, is a substantially longer
event, though still only half as long as the distances involved in
a full Ironman triathlon, which dates back to a 1977 race that
asked athletes to run 140.6 miles around the island of Oahu in
Hawaii.The modern Ironman begins with a 3.8-kilometer swim,
continues with a 180.2-kilometer bike ride, and concludes with
a full 42.2-kilometer marathon.