I Live Alone: Minho's 2:27:14 Triathlon Finish Led Friday Variety at 5.1%
Shinee's Minho took third in the men's 35-39 amateur class at a triathlon, shown on MBC's I Live Alone on 6 November. A foot hit his face in the swim, and his gears and chain failed on the bike. The episode drew 5.1% in the Seoul area.
Shinee’s Minho took third place in the men’s 35-39 amateur class at a triathlon in Tongyeong, South Gyeongnam, and MBC’s I Live Alone showed it on 6 November (episode 672). His finish time was 2 hours 27 minutes 14 seconds, a personal best, over 1.5 km of swimming, 40 km of cycling and 10 km of running. Money Today reports the race as the 2026 Tongyeong World Triathlon Cup, held on 25 October.
Nielsen Korea put the episode at 5.1% of Seoul-area households, No. 1 among Friday variety shows. Among viewers aged 20 to 54 it drew 2.7%, also No. 1 on Friday. The peak minute reached 6.0%, at the moment Minho stood one minute from the start. iZE gives the nationwide household rating as 4.7%, against 4.8% the previous Friday.
| Measure (6 November) | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seoul-area households | 5.1% | iMBC, citing Nielsen Korea |
| Aged 20 to 54 | 2.7% | iMBC, citing Nielsen Korea |
| Peak minute | 6.0% | iMBC, citing Nielsen Korea |
| Nationwide households | 4.7% | iZE |
The swim, the bike and the finish
Minho set himself a target of finishing in the 2 hour 20-minute range: swim within 30 minutes, bike in the 1 hour 10-minute range, and make up the rest on the run. He said he entered because he wanted to try an extreme sport, and that his goal was a personal best.
In the swim, another competitor’s foot hit him in the face. “Fighting for space is somewhat allowed when you swim,” he said. “It felt like blood.” He kept going and finished the swim in 26 minutes (My Daily). On the way to the transition area, studio host Jun Hyun-moo noticed his eye and Minho agreed it was “slightly swollen”.
The bike leg began in heavy rain, with other riders slipping on the wet road. His gear shifter stopped working on the hardest climb, and he shouted to himself, “No excuses! No whining!” Studio regular Code Kunst said he was riding with twice the effort. At the 17.5 km mark the chain came off, and putting it back took more than a minute. Minho said the bike leg ran 3 to 4 minutes behind his target and that he planned to make it up on the run.
He crossed the line in 2:27:14. “I couldn’t imagine finishing third,” he said afterwards, and he named a next goal: the 226.2 km full-distance race. “Next time I have to become a real Ironman.”
The rest of the episode
Lee Joo-seung appeared as a judge for a short-film festival, with 50 films to assess and criteria he gave as sincerity, originality, experimentation and mise-en-scene. He then visited an acquaintance’s farm hut, harvesting sweet potatoes, cabbage and radish and making a wood-fired pizza.
In the studio, Jun said Kim Shin-young had received a Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism commendation at the Korean Popular Culture and Arts Awards. Kim said she does not normally react strongly to praise, but that “after getting an award, everything felt like something to be thankful for.”
Context from the same week
OSEN reported that on 1 November Minho finished the JTBC Seoul Marathon in 3:00:18, after which footage showed a pacemaker pushing him on the back, raising a question under World Athletics rules. On 3 November he apologised on social media and returned his race result to the organiser. That is a separate race from the triathlon shown on 6 November.
The next episode of I Live Alone airs 13 November at 11:10 pm KST on MBC.
Where these numbers come from
Sources
- iMBC Entertainment (MBC) — Episode 672 of I Live Alone, aired Friday 6 November 2026: Minho's finish in 2:27:14 and third place in the men's 35-39 amateur class, his next goal of the 226.2 km full-distance race, Lee Joo-seung's film-festival judging and farm-hut visit, and the next episode on 13 November at 11:10 pm. Nielsen Korea: 5.1% of Seoul-area households (No. 1 among Friday variety shows), 2.7% in the 20-54 age group (No. 1 among Friday variety shows), peak minute 6.0%. Photo credit MBC. Published 7 November 2026, 10:16 KST. · https://enews.imbc.com/News/RetrieveNewsInfo/523923
- iMBC Entertainment (MBC) — Episode 672: why Minho entered the race, and the rainy, slippery cycling leg in which his gear shifter stopped working. · https://enews.imbc.com/News/RetrieveNewsInfo/523913
- OSEN, republished by Korea Daily — Episode 672: Minho being struck in the face by another swimmer's foot, and his own account of it. Also the 1 November Seoul Marathon dispute and his 3 November statement. · https://www.koreadaily.com/article/20261106072224453
- My Daily — Episode 672: swim finished in 26 minutes against a 30-minute target; front gear failure on the bike; chain off at the 17.5 km mark, costing more than a minute; cycling 3 to 4 minutes behind the 1 hour 10 minute target. · https://www.mydaily.co.kr/page/view/2026110623210106686
- iZE — Episode 672 report: nationwide household rating of 4.7% against 4.8% for the previous episode on 30 October. · https://www.ize.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=82346
- Money Today — The race itself: the 2026 Tongyeong World Triathlon Cup, amateur class, held 25 October in Tongyeong, South Gyeongnam; Minho's Instagram caption calling it a 'miracle third place'. · https://www.mt.co.kr/entertainment/2026/10/26/2026102622422536327
What we checked
- Finish time 2:27:14 and third place in the 35-39 men's amateur class: iMBC and iZE agree. Money Today reports the same third place from the 25 October race.
- Distances: swim 1.5 km, bike 40 km, run 10 km, 51.5 km in all (iMBC).
- Ratings are two different measures, both from Nielsen Korea: 5.1% of Seoul-area households (iMBC) and 4.7% of households nationwide (iZE). The 4.7% is 0.1 point below the 4.8% of 30 October.
- The face injury in the swim: OSEN and My Daily give the same account, including Minho's phrase that it was 'slightly swollen'.
What we left out, and why
- The Seoul Marathon dispute is reported separately by OSEN and is not part of this episode. The marathon and the triathlon in the episode are different races; we do not link them beyond saying the dispute is in the news the same week.
- Minho's earlier personal best and any comparison with other finishers. The sources do not agree on a baseline.
- Where the finish time ranks overall. Only the age-class placing is reported.
- Viewer numbers in persons. Nielsen Korea's household and age-group percentages are all we have.
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