Extraordinary Sports

Triathlon

Triathlon is a sport that includes swimming, cycling and running. Athletes race against each other. They swim first, cycle second and run last. Triathlon has been an Olympic Sport since 2000. In the Olympics athletes swim for 1.5 km, cycle for 40 km and then run for 10 km. A popular triathlon event is the Sprint Triathlon. It is a shorter race. It is half the distance of the triathlon of the Olympics. In the Sprint Triathlon athletes swim for 750 metres, cycle for 20 km and run for 5 km. If you think this is too short for you, you can try the Ironman Triathlon. In the Ironman competition athletes swim for 3.86 km, cycle for 180 km and then run for 42.2 km! The fastest athletes can finish an Ironman Triathlon in just over eight hours!

Running a Marathon

A marathon is a race that is 42.2 kilometres long. Many cities host marathons. You can run marathons in Toronto, Ottawa, Boston, New York City, and many other places around the world. Many marathons include shorter races of 5 km, 10 km, or 20 km. You can run some marathons in a wheelchair. The fastest marathon runners can run the course in just over two hours.

Bungee Jumping

When you Bungee Jump, you jump off a cliff, or other high places, with an elastic rope tied around you. You go into free fall for a few seconds before coming to the end of the rope and bouncing back up. You go up a jumping ledge first. It is always at a very high place, like a mountain or a very high bridge. Then, people working at the ledge tie you into harnesses and then hook you onto the main jumping rope. If you are nervous, they calm you down. They turn on some music or they talk to you about funny things. Then, they count 3… 2… 1. JUMP! They let you swing for about a minute and pull you back up to the ledge. That’s it. And it’s a lot of fun.