Overview
With over 25 years of history, Challenge Israman is one for the bucket list with its striking and testing course through the desert highlands.
Race information
After a beautiful swim in the crystal clear 22C waters of the Red Sea, the Challenge Israman bike course is world famous for a reason. The crisp morning desert air will charge you up the initial climb from the shores of the Red Sea, to the desert highland that hosts the spectacular bike course. Challenging and magnificent, the ride in this biblical land, will not be forgotten. The T2 transition from bike to run, has its own designated area on the mountain (from which the organisers transport the bikes to the finish). From there, it’s a beautiful, yet quadricep taxing, 10km downhill run with fabulous views of the gulf of Eilat, back to sea level, and another 11.1km on the promenades hugging the gulf, en-route to the stadium-like finish line near the start.5 reasons to race
A magnificent Red Sea Swim and breathtakingly beautiful desert race course. Constant water temperature of 22 degrees. Normally sunny 20C weather on the course. Enchanting Eilat race venue, with a stadium atmosphere finish line. Voted a top 10 destination race by the world’s pro triathletes.Race categories
Long distance
Middle distance
- Route
Typical race-day conditions
Air 20 °C · Water 22 °CRace distances
Long distance: 3.8km swim · 180km bike · 42.2km run Middle distance: 1.9km swim · 90km bike · 21.1km runSwim course
Start and finish point- at the Royal Beach. The swim course is counterclockwise, in a triangle path, bounded with buoys – 1,900 meters long. The full distance participants will swim the course twice. At the end of the first lap they will exit the water, pass on the “timing mat” before starting the second lap.Bike course
According to Challenge Israman tradition, the cycling will take place on route no.12, featuring the steep climb to the surrounding mountains and the rolling-hills route overlooking the Gulf of Eilat and the Arava Valley – a region known for its gustily wind. Participants of the half distance race will get off the bikes after approximately 91.5km, while the full distance participants will perform a U-turn and cycle another 44.2km each direction.Run course
The run course starts from T2 in Netafim, downhill along Route 12 towards the city of Eilat before finishing at the lively finish line.
Update history
2 Oct 2026
Details added from challengefamily.com: description, routeInfo, imageUrl
2 Oct 2026
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2 Oct 2026
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Challenge Israman
Fri, 29 Jan 2027