Awesome. Thread over. Nothing more to see here.

Imagine my surprise in Navy Boot Camp when there were people who could not swim.

---

All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

I find it interesting that people know I do Ironman, and the distance of the race, but are then shocked when I mention a 4 hour training ride.
I can't understand how they think one happens without the other, or why the ride is so impressive considering the event.

I'm probably a motor moron so take this for what it's worth but I never swam other than well enough not to drown before I got into tri's. I spent a few years trying to learn how to swim properly. I eventually quit doing tri's because my swim was so bad, usually in the bottom 10% while my bike/run were usually somewhere in the top 20-10% range. I would never get passed in a race because I started so far back after the swim. I would guess not more than 5% of the population ever had any proper swim coaching as kids and would stand no chance of making the swim cut-off if you just threw them in the water with no training, regardless of how fit or unfit they were.

I have been racing sprint and Olympic distance for the last 4 years as a slow age grouper.

It is by no means a forgone conclusion that I could finish within the cutoff. I have some advantages (I am tall, swam as a kid, no major injuries, able to comfortably take on nutrition while biking and running etc). But despite these things the iron distance is in its own right a major undertaking.

The claim in the OP is nonsense.

I bet a good number people would fail based on mental "weakness." I'm always surprised at the number of people who give up at the first sign of adversity. I'm sure there's some people who could make the 17hrs...but at hr 10 they get a cramp...or at mile 20 of the bike they get a flat...or a heel blister at mile 3 of the run. It's like a built in excuse to give up.

Even if they have the physical ability (which I don't think the "majority of Americans" do), the mental aspect adds another challenge to overcome.

The majority of Americans wouldn't fit into a wetsuit!

I came on here to say exactly this. Whether or not someone's body can do it is irrelevant. 100% of untrained people will quit after a while. Hell I ride and run a fair bit (way less than many on here) and I have to constantly battle the urge to quit during long efforts -- rides >75 miles, or runs over an hour. It's a mental AND physical game. And so much of what you learn with training is that you CAN keep suffering.

. And so much of what you learn with training is that you CAN keep suffering.[/quote]=======================================================================
which, as it turns out, is quite handy in life's general and rather steady adverse situations.
peggy

Short of the threat of a bullet to the head, why in the world would these Americans be doing an ironman in the first place? Of course there is going to be no motivation to keep going. You kind of have to take that out of the equation since it's not really in the equation.

When I read this story, I thought of this thread.

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/...o-facebook-for-help/

I get "page not found."

Fixed it.