Posted: July 13, 2004

Triathlon: 2,500+ Professional and Amateur Triathletes to Compete in July 17 Life Time Fitness Triathlon

2,500+ Professional and Amateur Triathletes to Compete in July 17 Life Time Fitness Triathlon, Inspiring Competitor Stories Abound

Event Draws International Attention as Popularity of the Sport Grows Rapidly

From a 12-year-old boy, to an 86-year-old grandmother and an 80-year-old grandpa...From the world's most elite Olympic athletes, to the novice competitor...From husband and wife teams, to a celebration of health after life-threatening injuries...These are just some of the stories surrounding the participants in this year's Life Time Fitness Triathlon, set to take place on Saturday, July 17th, in Minneapolis/St. Paul. The event also will be televised nationally in a same-day broadcast on NBC.

In addition to an Olympic-distance course (1.5k swim, 40k bike and 10k run), a Short-Course distance (.4-mile swim, 10-mile bike and a 2.1-mile run) will be offered, enabling many first-time amateur competitors to participate in the event.

A field of the 44 professional athletes - more than half of which are current or past Olympians - also will compete for the event's history-making prize purse of $500,000, with $250,000 going to the winner. In true "battle-of-the-sexes" fashion, the winner can be a man or women based upon Life Time Fitness' unique Equalizer handicapped timing system, which allows the professional women to start ahead of the professional men by a predetermined amount of time.

The Life Time Fitness Triathlon offers no shortage of inspiring participant stories, including:

-- Erik Vilen, who just returned from military duty in Iraq, where, despite the harshest of conditions, he found the wherewithal to maintain his training for the Life Time Fitness Triathlon - a goal that was abruptly interrupted prior to the 2003 event when he was deployed last May. Erik trained six days per week, battling the heat, dust and other inherent dangers, as well as the difficulty of maintaining mental focus in a war zone. After spending time in Iraq, he now is struck by the freedoms he has here as he finishes his final stages of training for the July Triathlon.

-- 86-year-old Mary Stroebe will participate again this year, with her son Bruce tagging along every step of the way to ensure her safety. "She doesn't swim very well and she can't see very well," Bruce Stroebe says. "So I kind of serve as her buoy to keep her going in the right direction."

-- Lindsey Nielson, a leg amputee since age 14, has always wanted to be the "first" to do many things. She has set world records in track and marathons...and, now, for the first time, she's participating in a triathlon in hopes that the first-ever Paralympic Triathlon will take place in Beijing in 2008, and she'll be leading the way.

-- Four very overweight sisters in their 40's will compete against each other in the Life Time Fitness Triathlon. They've challenged each other to get in better shape - they were all athletes as youngsters, but two had not exercised in years. They'll sport shirts that say, "Babes from H---, The Pederson Sisters Get in Shape."

According to Marilyn Franzen, director, Life Time Fitness Athletic Events, "The Life Time Fitness Triathlon has become one of the summer's premier sporting events. On the heels of a wildly successful event in 2003, we expect even more attention on the Life Time Fitness Triathlon and the sport in general due to the 2004 Olympic Triathlon in Athens just five weeks after our event."

About Life Time Fitness, Inc.
Life Time Fitness (NYSE:LTM) operates distinctive and large sports, athletic, fitness and family recreation centers. As of July 9, 2004, the Company operated 35 centers in eight states, including Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Texas and Virginia. The Company also provides consumers with nutritional products and supplements, the award-winning healthy lifestyle magazine, Experience Life, world-class athletic events, full-service spas, cafes, personal training consultation, health and nutrition education, and corporate wellness programs. Life Time Fitness is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. (www.lifetimefitness.com).