runk8run - 2011-06-16 7:22 AM
It's encouraging, actually, to see someone post here who's not all like, "I just did my first tri and I placed 2nd in my age group!!" I wasn't happy with my first tri times, either, particularly the run, even though I was nursing an injury and had started back to running (after 2 months off) three weeks prior. Come to think of it, I'm never happy with my times. Guess that's the curse of being an endurance athlete.
Sometimes I have to take a break from forums like this, where people post their times and I start thinking, "Why can't I be that fast??" I try to remind myself of where I've come from and, even though I'm still comparatively slow, I've actually become a lot faster than I used to be. More importantly, every day I can swim/bike/run farther and it's less of a struggle.
Okay how about this:
I've been doing these things for about five years now. I've done one IM, Four
(and a half
) HIMs and who knows how many OLYs and sprints.
I've never been DFL but I've still been running when the person who was DFL was on the last lap or had already hit the turn around on a few occasions.
I'm a MOP swimmer
(literally 140 out of 284 in my last race
), a FoMOP biker and I'm regularly beaten by arthritic water buffalos in the run so the odds are I'm never even going to be finished a race of OLY or longer before the awards ceremonies are either started or over.
For some here, this racing stuff is literally all they have and it's important they're good to the best at it there is so they write up their accomplishments and share them with people who at least can understand and may even care a bit about them. That's us. Few outside of those who do this sport much care about it and they do get bored hearing about it in about 20 seconds.
Me, I'm just in it because I got tired of being fatter than I am and I like the biking and swimming. Running is my payment for being able to do the other two.
To the OP, congrats! This is one of the most fun groups, for the most part, that I've ever been part of. Now that you're hooked, start looking at aero helmets and wheels