Telling someone that you had a great training weekend and spewing out the hours you did this or that has no relevance in society. You might as well just stop now. No one cares how many yards you swam, miles you biked or kilometers you ran. You constantly get the same blank vapid expression before the conversation turns away.
Saying that you biked three hours and ran an hour has no gravitas to non athletes. That's a four hour workout. Thats more than an Olympic distance triathlon in time commitment. That's as long a some people run a marathon. Thats like one full sitting of Lord of The Rings Extended Edition. That was three seconds to comprehend.
Meanwhile my peers started watching football at 10 am and then caught the 1pm game that gets over at 4pm; thats six hours of football watching which equals six hours of ass sitting. Yet I am the weird one for doing six hour bike rides instead. And while at lunch on Monday there is plenty of back whacking and cajoling about who did better with the bookie, there are weird stares and snide remarks because I couldn't scrub my age off my calf from the race I did that weekend and wore shorts to work.
And why is it that its weird for me to buy new Shiny Things for triathlon but not weird for my peers to spend thousands on a football game with a bookie. "Oh hey man, thats just weird that you bought a $100 helmet that matches your team colors but not weird that I bet a $100 that Shaun Alexander will score the first touchdown in Sundays game. The odds are 4:1 man. I can't lose."
Really folks, its just that we can't win. Get used to fact that until Oprah or Diddy do Ironman we will continue to be without respect in the mainstream society and among our peers. Dear lord I hope we never get to the point when 'regular' Ironmans becomes the trivial and the only thing that matters is Kona. Its sort of that way with the NYC marathon. "Oh Oprah did that. Diddy did that. No big deal." No big deal? NO BIG DEAL? This is the NYC marathon were talking about here. Next to Boston there is none more hallowed except maybe Chicago. But because its been conquered by the mainstream it no longer relevant.
The world of triathlon is exploding with new finishers every year and growing exponentially. Its a beautiful supernova to observe. But will there be a time when we amatuers have to say, "Yes but I finished my Ironman before Lindsey Lohan." God forbid Paris Hilton every does a tri.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
14 comments:
That was great.
I enjoy your passion and honesty.
Great essay, Comm!!
If I can paraphrase, Dear lord I hope we never get to the point when 'regular' triathlons becomes the trivial and the only thing that matters is the official m-dot Ironman.
I don't want to be normal. The football watchers will be long dead or incapacitated when I am living out my retirement riding my bike over mountain passes in Colorado.
I just care if everyone in my neighbourhood decide to tri. Can you imagine, 5 am and every sidewalk is fill with ppl jogging and every road is fill with cyclist *shudder**.
A large part of reason I do this sport is to get away. If everyone is tri-ing, I guess I will get away by staying home and become a couch potato :)
shees - to the people that matter (triathletes) it seems like the only race that matters is a M-Dot Ironman. People are the same all over - when some of these guys I work with say, "oh, I could do the swim..." or any other part of "x" race, they just don't get it. I'll ask them how much swimming they do, and of course it's none, and they think it's nothing to swim a mile or two. People just don't get it - and that's ok - those are the same guys on sleeping pills and blood pressure medication or worse, alcaholics or drug addicts and/or gamblers who get red-faced walking up a flight of stairs. See that, you got me started...
At work, I do most my training talk with training partners. Whether they are marathoners, 10K specialist, or the lazy days charity walkers, they understand what it means to commit to something like this.
For the couch sitters, I just try to stay out of their way as they talk about marathons of the "24" series or American Idol. I can't contribute, because I'm in bed before they come on.
It's funny Iron Pol mentions that "TV Show Marathon" thing you hear all the time......and now for a That 70's Show marathon. After running one, when I hear that word it means something totally different to me now. I think that's where "the comman man" is when you start talking about training. I think they just can't comprehend running 26.2 miles or riding a century or swimming a mile.....they have no benchmark. Alot of people played high school basketball, maybe you should break it down into how many "suicides" it would be :-)
amen!!
I made it a point to get my Ironman in before Oprah.
Comm's ... I don't think the phenomenon is restricted to tri, but extends to many sporting activities.
I have faced not only the you are weird looks, but also, "why would you ever want to do that?" In your example, I would ask the better right back, why would you want to bet on Shaun Alexander???
To each their own.
I will have to say, I love to visit the west coast during football season!!! Football from 9a-9p rather than 12p - 12a
Murtha...
Fear not.
P-diddy and Oprah face steep opportunity costs on their time; the chances that they'd allocate sufficient time to complete an IM is diminishingly small.
My unimportance is my ticket to the show.
1/2 :-)
Couldn't agree more. But I have a feeling we're safe being the weird ones, at least for a while. 'Cause right now, if Paris or Lindsey showed up anywhere at sunrise they'd still be drunk from the night before ; )
Post a Comment