Want to do a triathlon - bike options?

There's bound to be many people like you who really just wanted to do 1 triathlon and then move forward to other things, so the re-sale market should be healthy. I've tossed around this idea for years, but never did much towards it. I ran 1 marathon in my life under similar circumstances of "I just want to do 1 to say I did it, and then no more." but after I ran it I kinda regretted it because I thought, "why didn't you just map out a 26.2 mile course and jog it on your own?" I didn't know until afterwards that I would have been happy with doing it that way. Running (or in my case, jogging...very very slowly) a marathon was just a box to be checked off in a way that satisfied me.

Have you thought about just doing your own triathlon? Map your own course and do it your own way? It would be much harder to do a triathlon that way compared to a marathon, but if you aren't competitive minded about it maybe the bike you have will get the job done. Then again, if you do find a lightly used road bike that serves you, I'd imagine you would have no problem selling it off to the next person who has a similar goal for themselves and similar concerns about over-spending on a bike.

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Olympic length triathlon in the fall. Training is going well, but I’ve realized riding my mountain bike is not ideal.

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Sure, it's not ideal. But I've done half and full ironman races where people were on fat tire bikes. They're insane people doing it as a challenge, but it can be done. And putting an okay set of tires on mountain bike wheels with maybe a longer handlebar stem to get a more aggressive position isn't the end of the world for a 25 mile ride for an oly.

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I don’t know if I want to spend thousands on a bike I may race on once....although I do enjoy swimming/biking, so may do aqua bikes in future

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I'd suggest a used road bike if you are dipping your toes in. I started with an aluminum frame cyclocross bike not knowing if I'd fully jump in. Sold that bike and jumped into the expensive stuff afterwards.

paging crazyLSUstudent

For an olympic, I would just buy slicks for your mountain bike. It's not that far a ride, and the slicks will lower your resistance. When you step up to a 70.3, I would look into a road bike with aero bars, or a tri bike.