Why Bother?

Many (most?) of my friends are pretty bewildered by my desire to do what they feel amounts to torture (swim, panic, bike, sweat, run, lose feeling in legs, finish, eat, repeat).  If not torture, then minimally something so far from fun that I cannot get them to even consider considering doing one of these races with me.   

Triathlon is a sport that is growing extremely fast worldwide, but especially in the US and the northwest in particular.   You can pick out the triathletes running (why else would they be running in spandex riding pants?), riding (the lone rider, without a group, what are those funny handlebars?) or swimming (go sit at Martha Lake some evening and count the number of folks that show up and put on wetsuits).  In Mill Creek alone, the Mill Creek Running & Multisport has something like 80 fans on facebook.  Many of those people really are in Mill Creek.   Something about the sport itself must be rewarding right? 

I think that a big part of the draw of the sport is that you don't get bored doing just one thing.   For hours.   And HOURS.  I think a bigger draw is that the races just get longer and longer.   There is always a bit longer distance you can attempt to complete.   And it really does begin to be an attempt to complete it.    Anyone can complete a marathon - they dont need to be able to run.  One can train and walk one.   It sounds daunting, but trust me - anyone can do this.   But you can't limp through and fake an Ironman.  Or a half Ironman for that matter.    The point here is that much of the reward is the comraderie in the people and the feeling of accomplishment of completing the event, and of (hopefully) bettering your own performance.   98% of us will never come anywhere near winning one of these puppies.

The thing about Triathletes that I have found is that they are super friendly.   All of them I have met really have been.   I also think that many of them are super self indulgent.   THis is where I veer off of 'those I know' and into my not so secret obsession with blogstalking.  It is incredibly easy to blogstalk elite Triathletes.  They blog about everything - their diet, their training, their crashes, their personal lives, their race reports.  I especially like their race reports, but I find the other posts very informative.  I get tips on how to mentally prepare, physically prepare.    I get a lot of insight into what makes these athletes tick.  I blogstalk a lot of blogs.  Blogs about swimming, running, mountain biking, riding, triathlon, training, athletes nutrition - you name it.  It has kind of replaced my former obsession with Wii Games and hollywood gossip.  But I regress....

I have been blogstalking one particular blog for a few months now, and it never ceases to amaze me how out of touch with the real world this girl is.  She is currently living with her mom.  She must be in her mid to early 20s.  I get the feeling she has never really had anything crushing happen to her.   And she is constantly judging people.   Now - I am a judger of people - I may win an olympic medal for it.  But this chick blows me away.   Today was about the last straw - I think I may 'unfollow' her.    The main reason that I blogstalk these blogs is for inspiration and information.   What I learned today is that this particular competitor looks down on anyone who competes for a reason that is not to win.   She linked to a runners world article with a title that implied it was a quicky route to train for a tri. She ripped on the author for promoting a 6 week program, which would not result in a 'successful' race, in her opinion.  She hadnt even bothered to read the article (which is actually a very accurate and insightful article about a first triathlon from an very seasoned runner who had NOT trained enough in the swim or bike) and then basically said how she would never bother to try if she couldnt basically win.  And how she really just couldnt understand why one would.

Earlier this year, she had a ranting post about how she didnt want to hear about anyone's training, training methods or training times, and didnt want to discuss hers, because she was convinced that really anyone who speaks about training is just trying to prove themselves through big talk, and they should save it for the race.    From what I have noticed, triathletes talk about training, not because they are trying to compete or sound cool, but because that is what they are interested in.  These people live this stuff.

So anyways, this blogger has really just annoyed me too much.  But I guess she has made me think a bit today about what my motivations are, and what I will consider success.