Nope. I'm definitely better at triathlon, where I'm FOP, as compared to basketball, where Im def BOMOP. It's just more fun to be in a team sport competitive, fast paced situation, and I think most people who try both sports would likely agree, despite my love of triathlon.

i also think that tri, at least in north america, wrong-footed itself by becoming too boring an experience, frankly.

i started racing in canada as a teen in the 90s, and distances and formats were all over the place. people wore all kinds of different clothes, rode all kinds of wacky bikes, and just generally had an adventure with it.

but over time things became so homogenized, standardized, and yes, expensive. i'm looking at my calendar for racing this year in switzerland and i don't think there's a single standard-distance (sprint-oly-half-full) race on the calendar. there's some interval supersprints, some draft-legal middle-distance, a swim-bike-mountain bike-run, and so on.

make racing an adventure again and i'm there.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Tri Nova Scotia just released their tentative schedule for 2018. looks like there are 3 new events this year, the last new one is a 2 day affair - women's event on one day and a mixed team relay the following day.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I agree, as a 47 year old dad (and youth xc coach). Observing other sports, running, uncool compared to other sports, can in some instances have a coolness factor associated with it, particularly in cross country. My kids are on a swim team and once you get close to that sphere, there's the cool factor too. I don't know much about youth cycling. The problem is that triathlon has no cool factor, and whatever association is to the middle-aged parent - since there are limited gateways for exposure, so often the exposure comes through parents or at least older people.

I try to encourage kids (my own included) who've done, swimming (team or summer) and, run track or xc, to give triathlon a go. Rather limited success, the avenues are not always there. Too expensive, too foreign, no access due to expensive bikes (and they're not always enthusiastic about racing in their old mountain bike, particularly if friends will be watching). And, probably more importantly, limited cool factor.

It seems to me that to attract that demographic you need access (cheap events and affordable bikes) and coolness in a social type of way, it's what cool kids do (the counter-cultural feel doesn't seem to be as important to this generation I think).

Your comment is similar to many here. Triathlon is old, it is stale, it's no longer cool, etc. Apart from the changes to the rules, I don't see that the basics of the sport has changed as much as people's approach to it. If I compare triathlon now to the first two triathlons I did in 1980, the bulk of changes are on the participant side not the event side. And yes, the atmosphere was different precisely because it was new and there were so few competitors. But that new-status ship has sailed and you can only tweak a sport so far before it is no longer the same sport.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with people exploring other sports. And there is nothing wrong with triathlon remaining a small, niche sport. In attempting to chase popularity, RDs risk losing folks who like the basic format regardless of the distance. Meanwhile, there is nothing stopping people from wearing different clothes and riding wacky bikes...that's a participant choice, not a sport issue.

BTW, I've done IM Switzerland and Powerman Zofingen. I hope to get back there one more time for the Rapperswil 70.3. I know there are lots of other great events in the country but I don't live there and its a big trip. Enjoy your racing season...I'm envious!

I am new to the sport. I am pissed right now at getting sucked into it. The problem is the bike. The gap to be competitive is too big and too expensive. It is frustrating and I should have just rode my POS hybrid bike. My suggestion to the sport is to have a recreational wave or a friends and family wave for people who just want to complete the event. Maybe they could give free beer to the competitors on the course and have a 10am start time.

I have helped produce a couple races locally the past few years. Every year the cost to produce goes up. Add to that more and more events that take up road space, not just Tri's, pop up each year. It's getting very crowded here.

I am not doing Tri's next year. Part due to finances of expenditures going to other ares of my life, part career focus, etc. However, if I didn't have all these other commitments, I would probably still race/compete less than I have in previous years. Nothing is really pulling me in, I want to seek adventure in other areas. I want different challenges.

Races that are fun and different draw people in. Triathlons need to have some unique characteristic and advertise it.

For example, the best race I've done recently was an 8x6 mile trail run (48 total miles). Each of the run intervals started at the top of the hour, so it was up to each participant to decided on their pace/rest cadence. There was also a sledding hill near the start/finish. At the end of each loop, participants could run up and down the hill as many times as they wanted to get the "king of the hill" prize (but they had to complete the loop in 1 hour). There were also 4x6 and 2x6 options, so the crowd increased during the day as more runners joined the race. It had a great vibe during the day too. People brought chairs, tents, food; family and friends came to spectate and set up portable grills to tailgate. And the winner was whoever won the last loop - although the race was more about having a good time and challenging yourself than winning.

BTW, the 48 mile winner was also the king of the hill. He ran about 8min pace, walked up the hill and ran down as many times as he could, and crossed the finish line right before the hour, drank some water, then turned around and started the next loop.

Homogenous is a good word for it. A lot of the races have removed the challenge from the race. The fact that it’s a triathlon is now the hard part, instead of throwing it on a harder course that is the challenge.

Look at all the downhill races for running that are out there now, it’s more important to have a PR course than a fun hard course.

Hello lightheir and All,

'Boring' perception poll (for observers) report: http://www.cyclingweekly.com/...darts-snooker-365046

They left out bowling, curling, birding and probably some others.



Excerpts:

"YouGov poll puts cycling mid-table in the league of most boring sports, less boring than golf but more boring than football, tennis and athletics"

Results of a survey into the most boring sports to watch on television show that cycling is more boring than football, tennis and athletics but less boring than golf, darts and snooker.

The survey – carried out by YouGov in November 2017 – polled members of the British public on 17 sports, asking them whether they found each one boring, exciting or neither one or the other.

Fifty per cent of respondents said that they found cycling boring or very boring, with 25 per cent saying that it is ‘very or quite exciting’. Perhaps they weren’t thrilled at last year’s start-to-finish coverage of every stage of the Tour de France?


American football, cricket, darts, snooker, basketball and horse racing were are ranked as more boring than cycling. [emphasis added]


Formula 1, boxing, rugby league, swimming, rugby union, gymnastics and tennis joined athletics and football as being more interesting to watch on TV than cycling."

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

"Athletics" = Track & Field???

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Hello japarker24 and All,


"Athletics" = Track & Field???


By the dictionary .... yes .... although who knows how respondents of the poll defined it.

Gymnastics is mentioned in the article but I did not see a list of 'athletic' sports .....

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

I can tell you why I had a coach last year. I'm been doing triathlons for 5 years now. starting with sprints. moving to olympic. then a few half distance. then before last year I decided to do a full distance triathlon. the year before training for a half I really burned myself out in my training. so part of my rational was having a coach to help me better manage that and also just maximize my performance. I had planned on a doing one full distance and that's it. So I wanted to give everything I had to train and perform as best as I could for my one full distance triathlon. It's some of the best money I've ever spent. I loved the training program. Loved how my coached worked with me. And was satisfied with my full distance results. If I had the money, I would probably keep up with a coach. Having someone plan and create workouts for me was great.

That you need a fancy bike is a myth. I ride a 2007 p2 that I bought on Craigslist, similar bikes are currently listed for less than $1000 on eBay, and I'm competitive at almost every race I enter.

Having a 10am start time is unrealistic. Cities don't want roads closed and won't approve the permits. At the same time, I agree with you that a recreational wave is a good idea.

In the four years our facility has been around, we just had our single biggest month of new unique athlete registrations ever. I am hoping we continue to see an upward trend. Our triathlon program fluctuates between 80-120 athletes depending on the time of year and general ebb and flow. We have a goal to get that number up. We are also seeing increased interest and participation in our junior program. We had nearly 20 junior triathletes at our training session on Tuesday.

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Fit Endurance Coaching - Head Coach|Facebook
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Might be less boring to watch than darts but at least in darts pro makes a killing. Christ its on sky sports weekly! There are million $ payouts in darts. Win Kona? $120000.

Premier League
Tournament information
Venue Various
Location Various
Country United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany
Established 2005
Organisation(s) PDC
Format Legs
Prize fund £825,000 (2017)

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@rhyspencer

Hello rhys and All,

Rhys wrote in part: Prize fund £825,000 (2017)


Good point ...

Well .... there is more to the money equation than observer boredom ..... look at American football and basketball on the boredom chart (keeping in mind the respondents are in the UK).

How about triathlon races getting all that free labor from the volunteers?

It seems triathlon is still sort of unique.

How many other business plans would like to have that to plug in?

Well some do .... college football and basketball ('volunteer players') for instance ....... and college football coaches are well paid.

http://sports.newsday.com/...ll/coaches-salaries/

Check out Alabama ... Nick Saban 6 year contract $55,200,000 not too shabby ......

Maybe if we paid our triathlon coaches better we would see bigger prizes for the pros?

Not likley ...

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

Or maybe you’re looking at cause and effect backwards. The people who were racing a ton, such as my friends and I were, upwards of over 20 times a year, werent being focused on. Instead Ironman/ other RDs looked at the one and doners as quick money. Instead of keeping the races that didn’t bring in 2000 people a year, those hard challenging ones got cut and the easy ones were brought on that catered to the average joe. This worked for awhile until Tris popularity took a downswing and now they are losing their cash cow, one and doners, and they already lost their repeat buyers. So you’re seeing the market swing that you are.

If you look at me and 3 of my good friends who used to race easily 10-20 times a year each.
Last year three of us did no Tris, just running races and one I think did one tri last year. So In a matter of 5-7 years on just 4 people who were racing consistantly they lost 40-60 some entries.

Slowman is very right in his assessment you want people to come back, and bring this back to an upswing, then bring back races that caused us to want race 20 times a year. Ones that RDs are taking flyers on like alaskaman and such. If I had any desire to do an iron distance race I’d be signed up for that instantly. An out and back swim, flat bike around a lake, and flat out and back run doesn’t cut it anymore.

Totally random thought: The fundamental goal would be to take advantage of the current cryptocurrency or similar hype/trend.

As a simple example, you could have prizes paid in your favorite coin for the top 5 swim/bike/run splits. Someone could certainly come up with a much more creative idea that could potentially broaden the opportunity for more people to win some cryptocurrency. Maybe pay them in cheap altcoins that might be worth something in a year or two.

Note: The late teen to early 20s love cryptos so it could be a way to attract more people from that age group.

Thanks, Chris

No thank you. This early 20 something would rather have real money as a prize.

Or....prizes paid in "Starbucks money" or a vinyl LP of your favorite artist. Also, how about a no lycra outfit required. That could be scaring some people away. Im' guessing you don't see alot of that in spartan races. Back in the day, speedo and shirtless was the way to go.

There certainly is a trend towards epic events. Until that one is done and the search is on for the next epic event. It never ends.
I don't really see a difference in racing IMLP or racing IMFL. I don't see one as being easier than the other. I will work equally hard in both. The only difference is my time in IMFL will be faster.

I do agree that triathlon got focused too much on the new crowd and introducing people to the sport. There is a local series that went this way and lost most/all of their competitive participants in one of the strongest tri areas in the world. They continue with this focus even though their events have had participant drops of over 50%. I took over a local race and targeted the competitive market, introduced prize money, great swag all for a lower price (<$60USD for Oly) (we don't get paid) and our event has grown 500%.

When I do a local race I should be coming in 15-30 place. I have no interest in picking events where I can come in top 3 because the focus is on fun. Bring back the competition. Competition from the front to the back breeds fun and excitement.

Is one of the challenges that the economics of holding the event require a near sellout for the RD to not lose money so the more challenging courses have gone away because the PR hunters and one-and-done crowds wouldn't show up to something like St George because they want the easier venues? Could this result in a lot of experienced people moving on to new challenges?

One thing I find interesting is the extremely hard ultramarathons have had a huge increase in interest lately to the point that sellouts are immediate or they've had to go to lotteries. Granted the field size is much smaller but it seems to me that ultras have become the new big challenge that long distance tri used to be.

There's also the fun factor. I did a tough mudder last year and it's just silly fun being around a bunch of adults acting like kids. Slog through the mud! Monkey bars! Crawl through tunnels! Everyone having a good time and nobody cares about finishing times because there's no clock. OCR is growing a market of letting adults take a small break from being adults and do silly kid stuff wrapped in an athletic event. I wonder if OCR has taken the "neat new sport" slot that tri used to have for people wanting to try a new sport.

I don't thing tri is going anywhere; it's just become a mature sport. I think the rapid growth years may be over and it'll find a level where some years are growth and some contraction but overall we'll see a steady participation level.

Interesting take....a competitive emphasis in a shorter course might be a niche that could be exploited....instead of "any one is good enough" its "are you good enough?"