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I think it's because most of the responses on this post smack of humble bragging a la, I went to school in Cambridge instead of just saying you went to Harvard.
Neat-o.
I'd like to offer a different perspective. I've been a MOP athlete my whole life. I love competing and exercising. I've been running for 20 years and doing triathlon for 8, and triathlon is an important part of my identity. This is probably because I'm also a juggling being a wife, mother, and full-time employee. Triathlon is something I do completely for myself. I'm aware that I am a worthy and whole person even without triathlon/running, but training and competing fills my spirit in ways that those other pieces of my identity can't.
I also wear my race t-shirts because 1) I'll be damned if I'm buying other t-shirts 2) I want other moms to see me and think, hey if she can do that, maybe I can and 3) they're reminders of good times.
FWIW: The tendency for some in this community to be more dismissive of the completer or one and done can make it feel very exclusionary to some athletes that might want to post or be part of the forum.
I can recall going to a triathlonfest thing in Maryland almost a decade ago and I thought to myself that these were my people. Turns out I was not really like anybody there, but that's entirely okay.
I'm not sure why anybody cares about other people being stoked about racing, their accomplishments, wearing a race shirt, etc... Why care about somebody else being happy or having found a place/Identity within the sport?
Live and let live, even if that means neon visors and compression socks in public places.
It's okay to love triathlon and to encourage others to give it a go. Somehow it's perfectly okay to lie about FTP or what defines an easy session, but somebody wears a finishers shirt and the forum thinks the person needs to be stoned in the town square.
But this is the reality -
If you're training like 12,15,20 hrs a week, and you've gotten really good (odds are high you are if you train a lot), AND you go around parading in your IM or whatever triathlon gear most of the time, in public, and talk about it all the time, you're going to come across as a tri-hard obsessive, like it or not. It would be the same if you did nearly any other self-centered activity to the same extent, particularly any other self-centered sport. (I call it self-centered, because you won't get this view from the public if you're giving your time to help others primarily.)
You really kinda do have to tone it down to be treated as a 'normal' person if you're in this group, like it or not.
Same thing with the Harvard humblebrag. You don't just lead with it , and you certainly don't parade around advertising it on all your clothing even if you absolutely loved it, or even if you continue to love it AND attend it or work there in some way that's really meaningful to you.
And like it or not, Slowtwitch is known for being a place to really nerd out on the nitty-gritty stuff that diehard serious triathletes care about but is not in the universe of a beginner or completionist. Like whether a bottle down your shirt matters on the bike, etc. Everyone can participate but it's clearly not going to resonate as much with the folks who aren't interested in high performance and that's fine too, even if it feels exclusionary because so many conversations are so far away from the realm of beginner/completionist frames of mind.
I love ST, but it's going to be overwhelming and arcane for most beginners/completionists who aren't necessarily interested in maxxing out their possible performance with lots of training over many years.
aerobean wrote:
Bluefishy wrote:
I'll admit that most comments on this post make me feel a bit defensive, and I'm trying to be curious about that feeling. I think it's because most of the responses on this post smack of humble bragging a la, I went to school in Cambridge instead of just saying you went to Harvard.
Neat-o.
I'd like to offer a different perspective. I've been a MOP athlete my whole life. I love competing and exercising. I've been running for 20 years and doing triathlon for 8, and triathlon is an important part of my identity. This is probably because I'm also a juggling being a wife, mother, and full-time employee. Triathlon is something I do completely for myself. I'm aware that I am a worthy and whole person even without triathlon/running, but training and competing fills my spirit in ways that those other pieces of my identity can't.
I also wear my race t-shirts because 1) I'll be damned if I'm buying other t-shirts 2) I want other moms to see me and think, hey if she can do that, maybe I can and 3) they're reminders of good times.
FWIW: The tendency for some in this community to be more dismissive of the completer or one and done can make it feel very exclusionary to some athletes that might want to post or be part of the forum.
I can recall going to a triathlonfest thing in Maryland almost a decade ago and I thought to myself that these were my people. Turns out I was not really like anybody there, but that's entirely okay.
I'm not sure why anybody cares about other people being stoked about racing, their accomplishments, wearing a race shirt, etc... Why care about somebody else being happy or having found a place/Identity within the sport?
Live and let live, even if that means neon visors and compression socks in public places.
It's okay to love triathlon and to encourage others to give it a go. Somehow it's perfectly okay to lie about FTP or what defines an easy session, but somebody wears a finishers shirt and the forum thinks the person needs to be stoned in the town square.
But this is the reality -
If you're training like 12,15,20 hrs a week, and you've gotten really good (odds are high you are if you train a lot), AND you go around parading in your IM or whatever triathlon gear most of the time, in public, and talk about it all the time, you're going to come across as a tri-hard obsessive, like it or not. It would be the same if you did nearly any other self-centered activity to the same extent, particularly any other self-centered sport. (I call it self-centered, because you won't get this view from the public if you're giving your time to help others primarily.)
You really kinda do have to tone it down to be treated as a 'normal' person if you're in this group, like it or not.
Same thing with the Harvard humblebrag. You don't just lead with it , and you certainly don't parade around advertising it on all your clothing even if you absolutely loved it, or even if you continue to love it AND attend it or work there in some way that's really meaningful to you.
And like it or not, Slowtwitch is known for being a place to really nerd out on the nitty-gritty stuff that diehard serious triathletes care about but is not in the universe of a beginner or completionist. Like whether a bottle down your shirt matters on the bike, etc. Everyone can participate but it's clearly not going to resonate as much with the folks who aren't interested in high performance and that's fine too, even if it feels exclusionary because so many conversations are so far away from the realm of beginner/completionist frames of mind.
I love ST, but it's going to be overwhelming and arcane for most beginners/completionists who aren't necessarily interested in maxxing out their possible performance with lots of training over many years.