Getting Laughed At (Page 3)

Great job man!  Reminds me of a bumper sticker I read once.  Something like "Those that discourage you from fulfilling your dreams have often given up on their own"  Something like that.  I always think of that when I see people giving me double looks when I'm swimming, biking or riding. 

Keep up the good work

Hey Kevin.  I'm 5'7" and down to 225lb from 254lb last September.  I got some ribbing at work when they found out I was doing the relay team for the corporate challenge.  Needless to say, they saw the pic of me in my speedo (yeah I look bad but WTF, what do you think it's made for!) but stopped when they heard the team placed second on our category.  And yeah, the rest of the people at the pool don't laugh at my red drag suit either.  They know why I'm there, along with the rest of them.
Dan

For me, honestly, dealing the ribbing, joking, and rude comments was by far the hardest part about training. I don't consider myself overly sensitive, but these comments really got to me after awhile. I got it from all sides, coworkers, people at the gym, random vehicle drivers. Ironically, these comments often happened when I was feeling really good about myself.

For example, I remember getting out of the pool (after swimming the race distance for the first time) and realizing I *would* be able to finish my first sprint swim. I was on cloud nine... until I walked in the locker room and a "friend" asked me if I were embarrassed to be in a bathing suite. I stepped out of the pool feeling like a athlete; I stepped out of the locker room feeling fat. WTF?

I've been sidelined with injuries, but part of me wants to get back into triathlons. But, thuthfully, I hesitate because I just don't want to deal with rude people anymore. I really do hate rude people.

The sooner you accept that the world is full of rude people, the better off you are. That is the beauty of these events. I don't need to deal with anyone and a basic goal of simply completing training and finishing an OLY establishes a short-term goal which enables you to lose weight and feel better about yourself as you go.  Worst case scenario, I get injured a week before but by then, I will have lost weight and end up looking and feeling better.  It's really a no lose situation for those of us who want to become more fit and shed some pounds.  The actual event is just the grand finale.  I don't see it as actually being that important in the big picture. 

Just a comment -

Any true athlete will never laugh at you. The only people who laugh are those who are jealous/envious, who can't believe that you (or anyone really) are going to do something like this. Those who are mean/laugh - that's more a comment on their own insecurity than anything about you, other than you are showing them up somehow.

The people who really get out there and do these types of things will either congratulate you, help you, or encourage you.

If I were at the pool and saw someone like you really working hard on learning to swim, I would feel honored if you asked for help or advice. I would be the exact opposite of that jerk. I remember all too well how hard it is.

In summary, a laugh, smirk, ridicule, or rude comment from the pool deck, the sideline or a moving vehicle is just chicken****.

Dont feel too bad, trying getting laughed at by your own roommate.

Some of his quotes consist of...

"You will never be in as good as shape as me."

"Whatever you are trying to do won't work"

"I can eat whatever I want and still will be in better shape than you"

To say the least I am fuming at him.  I really just want to cram it all down his throat, and it takes so much control not to lunge at him. 

Need to get a better friend/roommate

Plus ask him to race with you

Kevin

FYI - I'll be completing my first sprint tri on July 26th, and am well into the Athena category.  I've done a few tri relays and gone to tri club practices, but this is my first one where I am doing all three events.  One of my favorite things about the sport of triathlon is that I've NEVER been laughed at or even questioned by a fellow triathlete.  Those who know what the sport is all about are nothing but encouraging.  I'm sure some jerks must exist, even in the tri community, but for the most part, the tri-folk are a welcoming bunch and know how hard you had to work to get to the start line!

He claims he's non competitive.  Its ok, I pray to god, that one day he wakes up a out of shape slob and I am resembling a greek god. lmao.  Its incentive to work hard, to ram it back in his face and feel good about myself.

Ok  one last update on this thread

Mr Laugh  walked up to the pool tonight when I did.  He asked how the training was going and no laughing when he saw me freestyle swiming keeping up with him for one lenght of the pool.

This story is over.

I have his respect now that I am sticking to my plan and I am showing improvement.  I will be glad to tell him how the race goes.

Let's move on.

Kevin

I have known people like that and sometimes they are in great shape and sometimes they arent. I am super competitive so I would train and then stomp them. I work w/ several people that talk like that and appearing in shape and being in shape are very different. I would look at it as the fuel that drives you to the finish line. Shove it up their *** and move out.

I'm not a Clydesdale - but I've been in races with plenty of athletes who are that sure seemed to be smoking alot of the rest of the field. Bottom line - A COMPETITOR IS A COMPETITOR. Skinny -- or appearance - doesn't mean sh*& when it comes down to competing. Heart and desire are the only things that can give you the ability to suffer and commit to performing. Competing isn't diminished by not winning - you had the guts to get in the ring and you competed against someone while giving it your all.

Everyone on this board is an athlete. You may be a beginner athlete, or a "coming back into it" athlete, or a seasoned athlete - but YOU ARE AN ATHLETE.

Here is a favorite quote from Teddy Roosevelt:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

^^^ Nice One!!^^

I was running last week, ear buds in, I turn them up just loud enough that I can still hear my surroundings. Anyways, I was running and a little kid probably 4 or 5 was came cruising up behind me on his bicycle and his father was riding on the other side of the road. The guy had enough nerve to say, "look you can ride a hell of a lot faster than he can run." I said, "that's ok I ride too." I wanted so badly to say, "watch me kick your arse in front of your boy." But I refrained. I figured at least I'm attempting to change my lifestyle and have laid out goals to get there.