Is triathlon really about participation and not performance?

For me it's mostly about participation and improvement.  I don't know that I ever expect to be on a podium, and don't really care.  But I know it's different for others.

If triathlon was just about participation, I don't think I would enjoy it nearly as much.  It is mostly about performance for me, but to perform you have to participate, and I like to think I measure my performance against my own expectations for myself, and not my placement.  However, being a naturally competitive person, I do pay a little bit of attention to my place in the pack.  Occasionally something surprising happens, like my 3/14 AG finish this past weekend. 

This applies to me also. It will always be a 'race' but the race is against myself. I try not to get involved in comparing myself to others.

In fact my measurables, if you will, are Participation, Enjoyment, Performance (relative to past perfromances).

you can say <i>that</i> again...

I go to compete...against others and myself. Others push me harder than I normally would go.

Since this is my first year it will be about participating, but at the same time racing as hard as I can.  I came from a very competitive cycling background that consumed all of my time.  Now that I have three kids I know my fitness will be much lower than it used to be and I have to be realistic that I cannot train 15+ hours a week at this point in my life (4-6 hours is more likely the average) and cannot race almost every weekends, a lot of the times twice, from March through December.  I will say I do get competitive when a number is strapped on and I know how to suffer so who knows what will happen at the first race.