My First Triathalon: Sprint or Olympic ?????

Sprint.  Go all out and come back and tell us how you feel

For your first I'd say do a sprint.  I am very confident that if you want to go longer, no matter where you live you can find an Oly after June to do

if it were me, and it kind of is, I would do 3-4 sprints throughout the summer and do an olympic in aug/september.

enjoy race season.  it'll be christmas before you know it.

you dont want to do too much, too soon.

Do you want to compete to place or are you just trying to finish and have fun?

If you are not sure about the bike, I'd question the olympic.  That is the longest part of the race and you more than likely will be riding for a solid 1hr 30mins before running.  I'm assuming you already have the proper bike ready to go.

 It's hard to tell based on what you said.  But if you think the sprint is going to be easy, I'd say you are underestimating it severely.  Easy to finish without bonking on the run? Ya probably for alot of people.  Easy to be competitive and finish in the top of your age group?  Well, I don't know the race your planning, but I highly doubt it.

If you just want to finish, go for it.  You have nothing to lose but the race fee and it will be an awsome experience in my opinion.  I'm planning my first one this year too as a sprint and then moving to olympic later in the season.

 Good luck either way!

I have an athletic background, did my first tri last summer, and decided on a sprint because I was a little worried about the OWS. 

As far as the difficulty level, with the sprint, the distances aren't long, but it is still hard if you're going at an all out effort and it will be challenging. 

Oh, and it's "triathlon".

(yes, I know, I'm mean)

I mean first off, this message board in like a chat room, fast as hell with the responses, awesome.

 I am going to finish not to place...but will try my best to challenge myself.

I guess the Sprint is the obvious choice as a start...it is the total hour and half  to 2 hrs time that i figure i could do that is disappointing..based on the amount of training involved....but i know training is a huge part of the excitement.

 So the verdict is, the Sprint it is...of course I will be kicking myself when i am competing saying..."how the hell did I ever think a Sprint would be easy?"

 I love a sport that has its sprint race take 1 /12 hours (+ or - 15 min for most). It's even better when many people don't do them because they are too short. 

 "I was going to enter a 10K race but it was too short". You don't hear that too much and it would take many runners the same amount of time as a sprint tri.

It is more common to hear, at least from me: "I decided to only swim the 5K because the 1500m was too short". Keeping in mind a I do a 5K OWS in the same time I do a sprint tri.

 It is part of why I think the sport is so great. Not only the differences among the different legs of the race, but also the different experiences you can have from a sprint to an IM. Not much discussion in an IM if it is worth the time lost to put on socks.

I did not mean to sound critical. I actually do think it is part of what makes this sport so great.

 Many years ago I skied 40 miles in one day across the Alaskan Tundra pulling a 60lbs sled. It must have taken 12 hours but I loved ever minute of it. Cross country skiing for an hour on a groomed is a different kind of experience.

For me a sprint is really a race. An oly is racing with a much higher pain tolerance. A HIM? I'll tell you in June after I've done my first.