Perspective

Reading Coach Mark’s recent article on taking our sport too seriously got me thinking about an interview with an elite age group triathlete that I listened to recently. This athlete came into the sport just looking to lose weight and get fit after having a baby. However, it didn’t take long for her to realize that she had quite a gift for the sport. She was experiencing a tremendous amount of success without much direction and guidance and that was only escalated when she decided to hire a coach.

She trained and raced under that coach for four years, topping her age group in most of her races and qualifying for Kona for the last three years, with her best finish there being 10^th in her age group. She described herself as a perfect fit with her coach, believing in and fully committing to his coaching philosophies.

After he left the sport about a little over a year ago, however, she was forced to find someone new. She began training with this new coach and realized she just didn’t agree or mesh well with his philosophies and the way he coached. She stuck it out with him for close to a year and was just miserable and ultimately ended up unmotivated and not enjoying the sport at all.

She has since moved on and is doing much better, but one of the biggest lessons she talked about from having gone through all this is her perspective on the sport. One thing she mentioned that struck me was that you shouldn’t be putting into the sport what you are not willing to give up. In other words, is the time that you are putting into training bringing you the same happiness and enjoyment that other things that you could fill that time with would bring you. It is a focus on the process rather than the outcome.

For the majority of us, we are not out there making money in triathlon, we are in it for the challenge and fun of it. However, if you are not experiencing that enjoyment, it’s something that you really need to take a step back and evaluate. If you can focus on the process and enjoying the journey leading up to your races, then it takes all of the pressure off of you come race day. Of course you will still have goals that you would like to accomplish in your races, but in cases where you have a bad day and don’t meet those, you won’t be devastated, rushing home and listing your bike on Ebay. And on those days when you do meet the goals that you set out, that will just be the “cherry on top.”

All of us came into this sport looking for something fun to do, but some of us have gotten distracted and started taking triathlon and ourselves a little too serious. I challenge you to go out and have some fun this week. Ride a new route, meet up with a new group, or sign up for a race with a friend, whatever you do, just go out and enjoy the sport.

Pensacola Beach Tri

About a week ago, I had some spare time and was looking around on the tri calendar to see what was coming up when I came across the Pensacola Beach Tri occuring the next weekend in my own backyard. I had heard of the race but never really looked into it or really considered doing it. I mentioned to my parents that I might jump in and they were interested, so we all three signed up. I changed my training for the upcoming week, a little but not much, even doing some hard sessions early in the week. With it being a short race and a last minute decision, I planned on just training through it.

Race morning I was up around 5 to get ready for the 7am start time. It was so nice to be able to race locally, sleep in my own bed the night before, and not have to worry about navigating around a strange city. We packed up and got over to the beach by 6:15. It was open racking and most people had racked their bikes by then, but I was still able to find a decent spot right next to the swim in/bike in area. I found my parents in transition, talked to some other friends who were racing, and then headed across the street to the water.



The swim was wetsuit legal, but with it being such a short swim (300yd) I don't think I saw anyone wearing one. Not to mention the water temp must have been right on the border because it really wasn't that bad, warmer than I expected. We started in the water and swam an L-shaped course. All but three of the women, who were in the elite wave right befor ours, were in the same wave. When it was our turn, we lined up and got ready to go. I could not hear the PA system and I was fidgeting with my watch when all of a sudden without warning I heard the horn sound, we were off. About 25 yards into it, one of the ladies next to me hit me in the face and knocked my goggles off, but luckily the water was only waist-deep so I was able to stand, fix them, and continue on. The swim seemed to be over just as quickly as it had started, which not being a swimmer, I was totally fine with.

After the swim, we had to run across the street and into transition where I promptly snapped my helmet on, grabbed my glasses, and headed out on the bike. The good thing about riding out on the beach is that it is completely flat, the bad thing about it is that it is completely flat. It's fast, but you don't get a chance to recover on downhills or change your position when climbing. That fact didn't really come into play in this race since it was only 10 miles, but something to keep in mind for longer races you may do on flat courses. I passed the women who had beaten me in the swim early on and I was left chasing the three women who had started one minute before me in the elite wave. I passed one of the girls, Amber who also had a great race, right after the turnaround and was able to begin to reel Amy who was in second towards the end of the ride, but was never able to catch her.




Amy left T2 probably about 15 seconds ahead of me. I had seen the 1st place girl heading out on the run when I was coming into transition. She looked strong and I figured she most likely out of reach. I would be battling Amy for 2nd so long as we could hold off everyone behind us. Amy gained about 40 seconds on me over the course of the run and even with having a one minute head start over me, I knew it was close but was fairly certain she had beaten me. I was happy with third overall knowing I had raced my race and hadn't had much more to give. While I was chatting with friends and waiting to cheer on my parents as they finished, Amy came over and told me that I had beaten her by 4 seconds and gotten 2nd. I was excited, but also wished that we had started together knowing it would have been fun to have raced head to head with her with us being that close. Who knows how it would've ended up.

Overall, it was a fun race and a great way to spend a Saturday morning. The only part I was disappointed about about was that my niece and nephews, and sister didn't get to come watch because one of my nephews wasn't feeling good. We made up for it later though as me and Matt got to take them to a great festival where they had a blast.