Why I Like Triathlon

The title kind of sounds like one of those papers you had to write in 7th grade … “What I Did on Summer Break”, but I’ve really been thinking about why I like this sport.  It’s not the competition … I don’t think you can call what I do competing.  It’s not the rush … I’m long past that.  It’s not the need of something to do … I have plenty of projects with my name on them, just ask my wife.  No, it’s much deeper than that.

With few exceptions, I think all of us are triathletes down deep inside. When we were around 10 years old, most of us raced our brother or sister or cousin or best friend from one side of the pool to the other in the morning, from one end of the block to the other on our Stingrays after lunch, and then ran as fast as we could to the pecan tree later that afternoon. All done in an effort to determine who got to claim bragging rights that week.

We’re all triathletes … it’s just that not everyone knows it yet.

But that’s what I love about triathlon … more and more people are figuring it out. Triathletes come in all shapes and sizes. We’re tall and we’re short. We’re young and we’re old. We’re skinny and we’re, um, not so skinny. We’re fast and we’re slow. We ride new bikes and we ride old bikes. We run in the latest shoes and we run barefoot. We’re basically still 10-year-old kids at heart.

I love that triathlon is a sport for everyone … and I do mean everyone. In my five seasons of organized competition (as opposed to swimming in farm ponds, racing up and down the road, and running in cut-offs) I’ve seen a lot of people who have gotten in touch with their inner 10-year-old. Every year I “compete” against a one-legged man, who by the way, smokes me every time. This summer I was at a sprint in Texas and got to compete with a blind man … a blind man who decided it was okay to be ten again. And then there’s Team Hoyt.

I talk to people all the time who say, “Oh, I could never do that” to which I respond, “Sure you can.” You just have to be willing to be ten again.  And that’s why I like triathlon.

Why do you like triathlon?

The ICEdot Crash Sensor attaches to a helmet and notifies emergency contacts of a crash and your location. Be the first to own one. Sign up for our Crash Sensor newsletter and we'll email you when it's ready to purchase.