Well, I hope I'm wrong but I wouldn't be surprised if no triathlons were held in the U.S. in 2020. The experts seem to agree that mass gatherings, like triathlon events, would be the last piece of life as we knew it to come back.

In their place, virtual events have been popping up. I have some reservations on how fair they can make these, for them to actually be valid competitions but while in the void, why not give them a try? At least nobody is drafting these days.

Here's a short list of what's available currently (this page will be updated):

Ironman VR Series

This series has now developed to include qualification spots for the 70.3 World Champs.

VR Races

Rules: here

Date: Nearly every weekend

Distance: Sprint to Half Ironman

Entry Fee: Free

Prizes: Digital Badge

Tips:

• Make sure your watch is set to metric (e.g. for a Garmin 735 Settings - System - Units.)

• You want to stop your watch right on the distance specified. A good way to set this up on a Garmin is by going to the activity Menu, selecting Training - Set A Target (Not Workout or you will have a warm up included!). Enter the target distance and it will display a count down for you.

• It's important, especially for this shorter race, that you don't record your warm up, or if you do make very sure it's under 3K). If you do record it make sure you stop and save it before starting the time trial. I suggest just not starting your watch until you're ready to go. Similarly you don't want to record a long training ride or run before the time trial.

• You're allowed to space them out so take advantage of that if you can. on the U.S. west coast you could schedule run 1 on Friday afternoon, bike 1 on Saturday morning and run 2 on Sunday morning.

USA Triathlon

USAT TriWeek Challenge

Date: June 22 to June 28

Entry Fee: $50 includes USAT yearly membership

Prizes: Sweepstakes of "various prizes"