triathlon vs. marathon

LOL, this cracks me up because it sounds like the same place where I work! I always thought it was a pretty dismal statement about the fitness level of the general public when, at age 55, I'm probably the fittest guy working in a company of 140 people! If I tell some people that I rode my bike 100 miles the other day, I get statements like "I can barely drive my car 100 miles." I feel like saying "Why don't you get off your fat *&#!% as do some exercise once in a while instead of wasting gas at $2.15 a gallon" but I smile and try to be sympathetic and understanding as to the reasons that they are just not into exercise.

The average American does not take care of his or her body for an entire lifetime. Then someday they wake up and find they are in their 60's and having medical problems, and end up cursing society for not providing exotic health care options (for free) to cure them from illnesses that "just happened."

I guess the best thing is to just smile to co-workers and secretly be smug that we are living a healthier lifestyle and are enjoying life more because we are triathletes.

Max

Oh, I forgot to mention though, I'm a nurse and work in the ER. Let's talk about the 60 year olds that come in with massive heart attacks and the nurses who eat take out
fast food for lunch that day, and everyday, or the 50 year old with COPD who has to be intubated and the nurse who smokes who takes care of them. Not to be holier than
thou, but at 29 I've had my enlightenment way earlier than coworkers twice my age.

Of course, to some, doing a triathlon, even at a sprint distance is just as unfathomable as running a marathon. But hey, you could doggie paddle the swim, take a leisurely
bike ride and walk the run portion and you would still have completed a triathlon. Anyone can do that...I guess the word 'triathlon' would scare people off before they'd
even consider doing it.

I get the same thing about training for a marathon. People just don't understand the difference. I'm also getting tired of people telling me I'm wasting away. That last person who said I was starting to look to thin got to get my reply of; I'm not too thin, you're just not used to seeing what healthy looks like. Maybe a bit harsh but I had heard that too many times that day. Goodness sakes, I'm 6'3" and 196#'s. How is that looking unhealthy? Sorry to rant. ;-)

I know what you mean. People at work keep telling me not to loose any more weight, stop training so hard. For goodness sake, I'm 52, look 30 and weigh in a 127. That's what training will do for you. I've been a runner for 8 years now, always worked out though, now I'm branching out into triathlons. It really keeps you young and you mind sharp.

When I tell them I'm biking 20 miles (which isn't a lot) or swimming 900 yards, they look at me like I grew a third eye! Some even say, "I wish I had time to do what you do". My reply is "You make the time". Instead of heading home to watch a soap opera tape, take a walk, join the YMCA, take up dancing. Do anything buy lay on that couch and grow OLD!!!

Sorry about the venting
Evelyn

It is weird, the same thing happens to me. Before I started training for triathlons I knew the difference between the two, I am glad to hear that it just isn't the weird people I know.

Mindy

John and Evelyn, it's not venting at all. What you and everyone else said just makes a whole lot of sense. I hear that "time management thing" as well. You just end up making time for what's important in your life. For me that's training instead of maintaining a weed free lawn like my neighbor. I don't have much time to watch TV, I'd rather be biking or running or swimming or hiking up mountains, or playing guitar on a rainy day. It's funny how the people that exercise a lot come to the conclusion that fit people are happier people.

I always joked to my wife that when it comes my turn to go, I want to be 95 years old and be shot by a jealous husband!

And Sparky, my wife was a nurse too, so I know what you're saying...she's seen the very same things. Some people never learn. My mother in law died from a stroke caused by smoking 3 packs a day for years, but my wife's sister continues to smoke nevertheless.

Keep on training and feeling smug...you deserve it!

Max

Over here it seems that running a marathon is more well-known to the common folks then say doing a multi sports like a triathlon which is why they get confused over a triathlon.
Fortunately the triathlon sports is getting a lot of publicity and coverage in the media now and is getting more popular.
I might be veering a bit off topic here but I came across an article in the news with the following

"Coming up for British school kids: 'fat' tests"
Death of obese toddler sparks alarm over growing number of youngsters who gorge on junk food and do not exercise.
The 3-year old toddler died from heart failure bought on by excessive weight
"The boy was so overweight he had breathing problems and his heart could not cope. He choked on his own fat" said Dr Sheila McKenzie, head of a clinic at the Royal London Hospital.

What have the parents been feeding him??They ought to be charged with child abuse......
It is not just adults that have heart problems or obesity. Kids nowadays are just getting way too fat compared to yesteryears.They also take in a much larger serving of food and leading a more sedentary lifestyle. Maybe it's because they think that it's normal to be fat since their parents or friends are also like that or that some are just in self-denial until the overweight problem gets really bad.
Since most of these kids spent much of their time in school. Maybe there ought to be a compulsory physical training programme in school to get them to get off their lazy butt and start doing some physical exertion or exercises. What I am saying is to get them early and incalcate a sense of healthy wellbeing and benefits of exercises in our young.
It is not just other people's business because as as these kids grow up they will have all sorts of health and social problems and the health care expenditure starts to go up and so do our taxes....

And another thing, they are all of this weight loss ads on TV. just one pop of so and so pill and you will start to lose weight. YOU CAN EAT ALL YOU CAN while losing weight by popping this magic pill. These misleading Ads ought to be banned. Instead of going through a proper weight loss programme by losing weight gradually and safely through exercise and a proper diet you have all these people buying up these pills in the hope of losing weight.

Then you have all these McDonalds happy meal ads targeted directly at kids. Most of the kids in the ads are happy slim kids running around.....What they don't show is the number of kids growing fat from eating fast food every day.....

I do like fast food too maybe not mcdonald but what choice do I have since they seem to be everywhere but always eat in moderation....or make sure you do a really strenous and long workout after all that junk food.

I feel that we should do something about it early and not wait until it is too late.....
Just venting off.......

I'm in constant amazement of people's looks and stares when I tell them I run marathons. I'm by no means built like a runner, even though I used to be a sprinter in high school and eventually moved into the sport of rugby of which I competed in the last 8 years. However, when I got injured playing rugby, I needed something that was going to be challenging for me, so I started doing marathons. I know that I'm not going to qualify for Boston or make the Olympics, but it is something I enjoy.

People will never understand why you do it. Remember, these are the same people that are sitting down eating fast food every day and sleeping in til 2pm getting over a hangover on Saturday's while you are out doing a brick workout for a tri, or running an easy 10 for your marathon. The way I look at it, people don't understand the feeling of accomplishment, the challenges, and most importantly what you find out about yourself while you are training and eventually competing in a marathon or a triathlon. I've even questioned my own sanity when I'm having a bad training day, but the reward at the end is much bigger. The good always outweighs the bad.

Another thing to look at by your co-workers asking all the time, is that you sort of become an ambassador to the sport. I have a friend right now who is training for her first half marathon. She's never down endurance training, but she heard me talk about my marathon training and my marathon for a year and decided to plunge into this addicting lifestyle.

BTW...I hope to eventually meet some of you in the future, I've been lurking on the website for a period of time. I have a few marathons lined up before the end of the year, but I'm looking to switch over to tri's and compete in my first one in 2005.

Hmmm.... I really hope that I don't start a flame war here, because the exact opposite is my intention.

I just don't think that smugness is ever called for. Nor do I think that people who don't understand -or who aren't interested in- triathlons are either dumb or necessarily unfit. Moreover, I DO think that medical care should be easily accessible and elite -and that at the same time I have a responsibility for maintaining my body as well as I can.

We just can't know what people are struggling with in their own lives. It's very dangerous to judge, and in the end, the judging tells us more about the judger than the other way around. If people aren't exercising, that's their choice. We don't have to like it, but we don't get to vote. They may very well be making the best possible choice or taking the only road open to them. Not everyone leads the kind of life where simply turning off the television creates available time.

Moreover, we could very well need expensive and accessible medical care in spite of all our good efforts. Bicyclists are hit by cars every day. We could still get cancer.....

And, finally, there are many ways of being fit, even at the elite level that some of us aspire to. The person who doesn't know the difference between marathons and triathlons might know everything there is to know about something else.

I'm sounding judgmental myself, and I didn't mean to. I shouldn't write posts like this before coffee, I guess. But I thought it was important to remind ourselves that we have everything to be proud of and hopeful for. But those feelings are dependent on what WE do. They don't require that we judge other people to be unworthy. Smugness sort of implies that there is a definable hierarchy of humans, that we're higher on the list than some people, and that they even WANT to be where we are. I'd much rather see a joyful, confident assessment of ourselves that's primarily self-referential. SOmething like "I feel better than I did 20 years ago." Or, "I've accomplished things I never dreamed of." Those statements don't hurt or judge other people, when we just don't have all the needed information for doing that.

Edited by Andrea 2004-05-28 9:10 AM

I get the "you are wasting away" comment all the time. It drives me nuts. The funny thing is that I have basically been the same weight for 2 months now. Yet people who see me every day still tell me I look like I just lost weight. I think that people just obsess about what everyone else looks like. It is annoying.