Welcome to the 24th Annual Grizzly Triathlon, held April 21 2012!

Welcome to the official site of the Grizzly Triathlon, the biggest  mulitsport event in Montana, and the largest pool swim  triathlon in North America.  We will have over 500 racers on the course from 8am-3pm on race day.

THE RACE IS FULL!  It filled in two hours when it opened on Jan.9th.

GET ON THE WAIT LIST.  We will process hundreds from the wait list, so get signed up!  Your credit card will not be charged until you are accepted into the race.  Go to www.signmeup.com/80620

REGISTRATION FOR 2011 Filled up in 20 minutes and we have had over 250 folks on the wait list, so the event is as popular as ever.  However, by race day we had less than 10 folks left on that wait list and all that wanted to race did, so get on the wait list if you want to race!

This race was first run in 1987.  Brian Fruit, the Grizzly Pool manager at the time, organized this event and it had 10 heats with14 racers per heat (2 per lane for a total of 140 participants).  The first heats had the fastest swimmers, and the later, warmer air-temperature (this is a triathlon in April in Montana after all!)  heats featured the more casual racers of the day.  Oh how times have changed!  In 1999 Giles Thelen took over leadership of the race (Brian dropped the race after 1997 and there was no event in 1998) with the support of the local triathlon club, Team Stampede.   Since then he has tweaked and modified the race with a few key points kept in mind:

1) keep the race open and accessible to first time triathletes, while at the same time having it be a venue for spirited competition - we have had at least 30% of our racers every year use this as their first multisport event ever! 

2) keep the course safe, fun and challenging.

CONTACT GILES THELEN at 406.543.2532 or giles@mso.umt.edu for further information