Friday, May 6, 2005

Look Pa, That Thar Triathlon Is A Comin To Town

The computer on my Softride 'Lucille' went schitzo so I lovingly placed her in the back of the truck and took her to Tribe Multisport here in Scottsdale so Kevin could perform an emergency diagnostic before my ride tomorrow.

It looked like a M.A.S.H. unit triage tent when I came in the door. Apparently I wasn't told they were the packet pick up location for a local tri here on Saturday. Its an off-road tri, so all these muddy suspension bike were leaning against the walls and people were comparing knobby tires and dual suspension forks. So it was a bit incongruent to see Kevin, two women and a twenty year old ten speed up on the rack getting the once over. Who knew Panasonic made ten speeds, I thought they only made lousy telephones and decent televisions.

The two ladies were getting a long course on a short subject, "How to change a tire 101." I don't normally get into watching instructional pieces on tire changing but I could not help but be transfixed. The woman had just bought the bike from a friend, and the bike is in really good shape by the way, but ancient. All of us took great delight in watching Kevin remember how to work on a piece that has not been made in fifteen years. He tried to convince the ladies to ditch the hand pump circa 1990, and switch to air cartridge. Well apparently one of them had a bad experience with a cartridge in the past so that was not going to pass muster. Even when he explained it would take a hundred pumps to inflate the tire, they were intransigent.

So after a decent amount of time in instruction, they both seemed to have the knack of changing a tire, though NASCAR pit crew they will not make. The owner was simply resigned to leave the bike on the course and walk back to transition if she got a flat. I think I can relate to that after having more flats than tubes on one particular ride.

There were many people crowding the wares and picking up race packets and a great general buzz in the store. Triathlon is such a growing and still maturing sport in many ways. Each year it brings more and more people to the line, ready to subject themselves to a swim, a bike and a run. Those two women, who were doing the off road tri, so not really sure why the ten speed was there, were doing their first triathlon. They had that gleam in their eyes, the stary look of doing something bigger than themselves.

One of the ladies told me that she hadn't swam in ten years. That until two months ago she hadn't swam longer than a play pool length to get a beer and tomorrow was going to swim 850 yards and oh yeah ride and run. She said it with such pride that I knew she was getting no sleep tonight. Tonight is going to be like Christmas Eve.

I think its important to remember what it's like to get into a sport. To control and master fears, to learn discipline and self control. Like after a few marathons, they become highlights of a yearly training program, not the capstone. Triathlons have such a intrinsic gut reaction of, "Oh my goodness, I could never do one of those. I haven't swam since high school, I don't own a bike and they costs too much money, I haven't run farther than after my kid heading down the driveway and towards the street in years." Yeah I said all that too. Then I thought bigger than myself, I got that gleam in my eye just like that lady and my first triathlon hooked me so bad that next year I am going to finish Ironman Florida with a dozen friends I have never met, except online, and you know what...I just know they have that gleam in their eye too.

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