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Patagonman is an extreme, Iron-distance triathlon in Patagonia, South America. It is known for its iconic race start, which sees triathletes jump off the back of a ferry into icy cold water, testing competitors with unpredictable weather conditions, long ascents and tricky off-road sections.
Inspired by the iconic image of triathlon legend, Tim Don, running alongside the lake against a backdrop of bright blue skies and snow-capped mountains. Long distance professional triathlete Laura Siddall decided to add Patagonman to her race calendar as an adventure to round off her 2023 season.
A few weeks after the 2023 race, we caught up with her to find out what it was like to take on one of the hardest triathlons going.
Why Patagonman?
Laura Siddall has had plenty of success out on the “regular” IRONMAN and long distance triathlon race circuit. As four-time IRONMAN champion, ETU Long Distance champion and a former top 10 Kona finisher, the first thing we wanted to know was – what drew her to a race like Patagonman in the first place?
“I think I was just looking for something different. I’ve always liked to do races in amazing locations, and I’d seen other people do Patagonman over the years. It just looked amazing. I’d flagged it at the start of this year as something that would be good to have in the diary for the end of the year. I wanted to have an adventure.
“Getting hit by a car at IRONMAN Brazil in May changed the direction of my year a fair bit. But it was good after that happened, to have Patagonman as goal to look towards at the end of the year.”
Following in the footsteps of triathlon heroes Lucy Gossage, Ben Hoffman and Tim Don, Laura finished on the top step of the podium at Patagonman 2023.
Training for an extreme triathlon versus a regular IRONMAN race
“After the accident at IRONMAN Brazil, my training had to change a bit anyway. I got a wildcard for Kona but even training for that, I did a lot more adventure riding and running up here in the mountains in Boulder. It wasn’t as structured as people would maybe expect building up to the IRONMAN World Championships. There were still some interval sessions on the bike. But a lot of the riding was about going and exploring – riding up Leadville and Vail in the mountains of Colorado.”
“My training continued on with more of the same after Kona. The changing weather meant the bike rides became a bit less explorative. But as the run at Patagonman is all on trails, a lot of my running was just long runs in the mountains. That was an amazing opportunity – heading out on all of those long 2-2.5 hour trail runs in Boulder.”
Cold water swimming in Boulder helped Laura to prepare for the water temperature at Patagonman
The water temperature at Patagonman is notoriously cold,