Beginner Triathlete - Scott Tinley's Writings articles

When people say that sport is “just a game” don’t believe them. Love is not just hanging out with someone that you like and raising a family isn’t just putting food on the table. Sport is more too.

The attitude of Wildflower

Triathletes have embraced any new device in the belief it will increase their speed and performance. Ten millimeter thick wetsuits and ten pound bikes sell for more than most paid for their first car.

If you ask beginning triathletes what they fear most, a standard response usually includes some reference to mass swim starts and bike crashes.

Why it’s so hard for us to talk about losing at a simple game? Sports are supposed to be about building positive character, supposed to be about fairness, equality, and striving for excellence.

Multisport athletes don’t have to look like cover models from some cheesy sex-and-abs magazine. You just have to be comfortable in your own skin however logo-d or clear.

There are races to prepare for and health to be found and a lot of adventure and release to be sought in the oceans of the world.

As endurance athletes we purposely trick our psyches. Our minds hop-scotching our physical bodies. We play chicken with something very personal.

Triathlon style is no longer defined in the Nuevo replication of wool cycling jerseys and neon footwear. The style of swim/bike/run is a look and feel and way of being in the multisport world.

To succeed in a multisport event is to sign the entry form and show up to the start. If you put but a toe in the water consider that a bonus. This sport is hard.

I didn’t used to like to run slow. You begin to recalibrate your needs and wants and if-only you could jog an easy two miles, three times per week. Running is a gift.

A hundred years before the first Hawaiian Ironman in 1978, the geographical frontiers had been discovered. So we turn to triathlon to fulfill our genetic drive to test and conquer.

The sport of triathlon is rife with untold stories of chicanery and altruism, deviousness and grace.

Traveling as an athlete is better than traveling as a tourist or on business or even just wandering around with a backpack and a holey sleeping bag. An athlete is given wide birth.

Part Three: What's Reality Got to Do with Anything Old?