Deeper Reason For Doing Triathlon and Endurance Sports (Page 3)

and can't make a free-throw to save my life but I do triathlons.  ~Mike

I wrote this yesterday in a tread and then re-posted it in my blog....thanks for the opportunity to get some more mileage out of it.

Why I tri

I'm 6'3" and was 293 lbs this past Sunday at my last triathlon.  I haven't always been this heavy but I've always been tall.  When I was a kid in school and we'd chose up sides, I'd often get picked first because people ASSUME that, because I was big/tall, I must be good in basketball or football or whatever.  But I sucked at basketball.  I sucked at football.  I can't hit a damn slow pitch softball much less a fast pitch baseball!  So participation in sports was non-existent.  I didn't play ANY organized sports in grade school, junior high, high school or college.  Nothing! 

Years later I found myself at a slow pitch softball game with the guys from work.  I showed up to drink beers afterwards but they expected me to play ball first.  I struck-out at my first at-bat and someone laughed and said I “threw like a girl”.  OK, this was a mistake; I'm never doing this again!

Then when I was 33 years old I was in the gym lifting weights and walking on the treadmill.  A good friend encouraged me to run on the treadmill and said there was a 5k at the airport on the runway that many people did for a PR since it was such a flat/easy course.  So I set a goal of running 3 miles.  I trained for months on the TM - never once getting out on the road.  Finally race day came and I ran my heart out.  It nearly killed me but I ran the entire 3.1 miles.  I don't know what my time was and didn't care; my goal was simply to run the whole thing and not have to walk.

About a month after that I saw a flyer in the gym for a sprint triathlon...the Rocketman.  It was a triathlon!  OMG!  I had heard about triathlons...I thought they only did that in Hawaii.  I had no idea they had shorter ones.  It had a 5k run and I was confident I could do that since I'd just run a 5k.  Bike ride of 12 miles didn't sound too hard - I'd been riding a bike since I was kid!  The swim had me a little concerned but I grew up around the water and swimming came easy.

And so I became Rocketman!  I did the Rocketman every year for the next 5 years.  I loved the Rocketman because I had finally been able to participate in a sport and not have to feel bad about letting my teammates down because I had no athletic talent and sucked at all sports. 

I still can't hit a baseball and can't make a free-throw to save my life but I do triathlons.  I love to run.  I love to bike.  I love to swim.  And I'm finally able to participate in a real sport.  Yeah, I still suck at it but that's ok.  When people see IMKY poster on my wall and asked if I did that, I just nod.  They don't ask "how fast" or "what place did you come in" and I don't volunteer those. 

So for me, it is about the participation not the podium.  I don't care if I ever get faster.  If I busted my arse the best I would ever be would be mediocre.  I don't swim intervals or use pull-buoys or paddles.  I just jump in and swim and enjoy being one with the water.  I don't run intervals or do speed work or hill work or repeats.  I just go out on the road and run and enjoy being outside in the fresh air in this beautiful world we live in.  When I ride, I just get on my bike and ride.  Sometimes I weave between the reflectors on the road like I used to do when I was a kid.  And maybe once or twice a year I'll show up at a race with real athletes and act like I belong in their club.

~Mike