Lets define something slow

I have had the opportunity to catch up with most of my missed reading from my bloglines and if you have a blog I read and haven't left a message lately, I'm 'On The Way' (another military term Bolder-say it with gusto). Where I was down 900 posts I am now only down...475. Okay I guess I haven't gotten as far as I thought. But it seems like it. Boy you've all been busy.

Its been a blast reading all your race reports and long training for upcoming races. I have read a trend though of bloggers bemoaning their personal times as slow. Then I read those times and I realize those times are my times or faster. Wendy even wrote to me that doing her double-breasted-decaf-half caff-back stroke at 2 minutes per hundred was "pig slow". And that was "on 2:00" which means she was finishing her 100 and resting for a few seconds before going again.

Uhmm...this is uncomfortable. 2 minutes per 100 is a few seconds faster than my Ironman pace which is vigorous freestyle or as I call it, "The Keep Going Or You'll Drown Stroke".

Now I don't mind being called a pig. I am a pig. I am a knuckle dragger, puke after a hard run, more comfortable sweaty than clean, straight talker. But I am not slow. I once took second in a Clydesdale division, to quote Ralphies Dad from A Christmas Story, "Its a major award."

Others haltingly confess their slow running speed of 10:30 miles. Crap. Really. Thats slow. I have a 9 minute pace but try to run 10:00 to 10:30 when I do my LSD runs. I could only dream of the day I run an Ironman course at 10:30 miles. You realize that's a 4.5 hour marathon? I could finish an Ironman under 12 hours with that run pace.

So let me tell you my personal parameters of slow.

The cut off for an Ironman swim is 2hrs 20min. That equals 3'17" per 100 yards. If you're slower than that you get pulled from the race.

The cut off for an Ironman bike is 5:15pm, if you concede a middle of the pack swim time including T1 is roughly one hour forty-five minutes that means approximately 8.5 hours on the bike. That by the way is an average of 13.17 mph. You would then have 15 minutes to get out of T2 before the cut off.

That means a "slow" person has 6.5 hours, or from 5:30pm to Midnight to complete the marathon. That a 14:53 per mile pace. Truth be told my training partner John who is a capable swimmer and cyclist, walked the entire IMAZ course in 2006 at a average pace of 17 minutes per mile and still finished with twenty minutes to spare.

So in my book, you're slow if swim 100 yards in 3:18, bike slower than an average 13 mph, and run a mile in more than 15 minutes. Other than that and your just great.

Believe me, I know, its hard to celebrate personal success when compared to the media perception of what a triathlete is. I have been clocked almost twice as slow as the pro's at one time or another. At Ironman Florida I came out of the water with Heather Fuhr. Of course she was done with her two loops and I still had one left. Even though I had no business doing Ironman Arizona this year with as sick as I was, I did the blustery bike course in (off the top of my head) 8hrs. 15min. Norman Stadler did Kona in half that. I consider myself a capable runner and yet my Florida pace was 12 minute miles. Most pro's are half that pace.

The point is, do not ever, I mean ever, be ashamed of your speed in this sport. Proper humility or self deprecation is fine, but be excited and celebrate the completion of a hard workout or hard race course. For example, do not be ashamed to tell a co-worker that you finished a marathon in 6 hours; they have either never done one before so their criticism in invalid or if they have done one before they are most likely asking so they can give you a personal anecdote or give a specific congratulation.

There is no shame in your speed or your time. There is only glory in the completion.