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The “iron distance” of Ironman is based on same principle. It starts with swimming in open water for about 4 km. As athletes complete the swimming stage and change clothes in the transition area, they start the cycling stage of 180 km. Upon its completion and after passing another transition area, they enter the running stage of 42 km, in other words, full-fledged Olympic marathon. All mentioned stages are a single race course that must be completed with no breaks in between.

Participants are given 16-17 hours to complete the course (time varies with different organizers, so read the rules of each competition thoroughly). If a participant runs out of time and fails to complete the course, he gets disqualified.

There are also time limits within the course: max 2 hours for the swimming, and no more than 10 hours for the swimming and cycling stages combined.

There’s also a so-called Half Ironman, or Ironman 70.3. This distance includes an open water swim of about 2 km, a 90 km cycling race and a half-marathon run of 21 kilometers. The time limit for Half Ironman is between 7 and 8 hours.