desert dude wrote:
From what I've seen on the FB groups for various races, training groups here in AZ & NC is a lot of people wondering do they train, if they train and the theme seems to be put it in cruise control. That also goes along with the complete, have fun training with friends, get through the race without shelling myself crowd growing while the compete & crush people's dreams crowd seems to be shrinking as a % of total entrants.
I'd say the average person on ST is more in the second camp, highly motivated, wants to do well, wants to improve (not saying the other camp doesn't want to improve it's just not their primary focus completing the event is), is willing to roll the dice now and then and either blow up or be rewarded nicely approach to racing.
I'd say there is a middle ground between these two crowds which if more people were truly honest with themselves it'd be a substantial sized crowd. It's the love to train, work your tail off, strive to improve, and compete with only yourself crowd. It's the crowd that I consider myself to be in. At the end of the day, I ain't going to beat too many folks no matter what training I do. It's just not in the cards for me. I'm ok with that but try to improve all the time.*
*Technically I've moved on from the triathlon world after 10+ years and then dabbled in ultras and now spend most of my time mostly riding (road and gravel).