A very old friend of mine ran her first triathlon this weekend.
Unlike my first race, which was pretty much a guerrilla race with a pool swim, a bike loop on totally open roads with no cones or police and a run on sidewalks, and I am pretty sure, no permits, her first race was legit. (Also there were about 30 of us, I think, and the post-race food was pot luck - it was a pretty awesome first race).
Anyway, it has been a lot of fun going through the process of getting ready for a first triathlon with her as she asks all the questions that we all had that first time and tried to figure out registering and logistics and what all this stuff triathletes have is. It really brought me back to my first tri season and how every race was a little bit of an adventure and every day of training and racing felt like it taught a dozen lessons. That was fun.
Some of that remains, particularly when a race I have never done makes its way onto my schedule, but now I want to do well and that requires limiting the mystery factor a little, through research on the course or checking it out ahead of time. Of course, you never quite know what you are going to face on race day, so there is that part of it to embrace.
Know what was also fun? That after all that training and planning and, yes, worry, she pretty much rocked it. I wasn't there for the training or for the racing, but I know how it feels when those hours pay off, and I felt good about it from here.
There was something else though, something I might have guessed at but haven't had put in front of me so clearly before. It became clear in several of our conversations that triathletes don't have the reputation of being the most welcoming group. I don't think of myself or the triathletes with which I associate as people who would judge a first-timer or someone who is asking questions on race day or riding the bike they happen to have, but it occurs to me that as a triathlete, maybe people think I would be like that. I am not sure where this reputation comes from, and maybe it has a basis in reality, but I find it isn't a wide-spread attitude.
I just have to make a bigger effort to be obviously not like that. If first-timers are nervous on the day of their first tri, shouldn't it be because of the physical task they are about to do, not because they think the other people in transition are looking down their noses?
Kath -- Only got to read this today. Giving some thought to what made me feel intimidated by tri folks before my first race, I think a lot of it had to do with snarky posts on a couple of the better known triathlon websites. Another key factor is the mere fact of being an outsider:; the sport has its own lingo, strategies, behaviors and so on, so it's easy to feel unsteady at first. A new runner heading out for a 5k can blend in pretty easily. Just put on the sneakers and go. But you can't fake it in triathlon. You need to know how to set up in transition, you need to have the basic gear, even if it isn't the best brand. In my case I was glad you had made me aware of basic etiquette and course rules, because they weren't posted anywhere on the event website.
ReplyDeleteFor all my fears, almost everyone was unfailingly pleasant to me at the race itself. In particular, just having crested what seemed to be #200 in a series of rolling hills, I was passed by an Asian man on a fancy bike. Rain was coming down in sheets and if I hadn't been pumping hard to climb the hills, I would have been seriously cold. He turned around, gave me a warm smile, and said, "Good job!" It made my day. I was so grateful for that little encouragement. And from that point on I made a point of encouraging as many people as I could in the same way, particularly back of the packers and anyone who seemed to be struggling (this was enabled by the fact that much of the course was out and back, so I saw the folks behind me as I was heading back). Most people seemed a bit taken aback, but also genuinely grateful to be encouraged. I encouraged a few fast people who were way ahead of me and they didn't really respond at all, I guess because they were just in the zone.
In the last half mile I passed a guy who was doing the oly (the course overlapped the sprint substantially); he looked very fit, but it was clear his right knee was really giving him a hard time. I asked him if he was okay as I passed and he smiled and waved me on. I made sure to find him at the finish and just make sure he was alright. Again, he seemed genuinely grateful that anyone would notice or care.
All this is to say that I liked the triathletes I got to talk to, and being a good citizen is all to rare but very easy to put in to practice and clearly makes a big difference to people.
Thanks for the great blog post!