good story. It made me think back to a talk given by Geoff Smith, the former 2 time Boston Marathon winner . He spoke of how he had come to America to run on an athletic scholarship at Providence College. He felt so lucky to have this opportunity. He thought most of his American teamates didnt appreciate the gift they were given and viewed getting the scholarship as the end of the hard work. He said he was so used to hard work and tough conditions from his less than affluent upbringing, that he would get up before dawn to do his own grueling workouts, then attend all his classes and then run track with the team. Some days he would even do another run after the track workout, finishing at his coaches house with just enough time to get a rub down and quick meal before heading back to the dorm for homework and bed. He said he was always amused when we Americans were quick to accuse successful foreign athletes of using performanance enhancing drugs. He used the example of the Chinese women who were setting the world on fire at the time in the longer track events. He said, maybe they are using drugs(which turned out to be true) but the thing Americans dont understand is that the conditions in China are so bad that if the national team coaches went out into the rice fields and picked out 1000 women and brought them to a track and said" if you are willing to train until you vomit and your feet bleed and you have talent you and your family will have a better life and you can travel the world. If not you can spend the rest of your life in the fields 14 hours a day." How hard would they be willing to push themselves? probably harder than the average American college student? He felt that in endurance sports, the poor athletes hardened by the tough conditions they were raised in would always have an advantage. The recent dominance of distance running by athletes from poorer nations seems to bear this out. Luckily for us Cervelos and Endless Pools are beyond the financial reach of these same "hungry " athletes, so the U.S., Austrailia, Switzerland, Germany etc will continue to dominate triathlon for a while.

Tom,

Glad to see you writing your editorial again.

Thanks guys. That was a fun story to write as I have always been a student of Russian history and avid History Channel geek. More to come...

I briefly spoke of a piece on the future of Ironman coverage in the media. -Seems like this might be the week to put that one up.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Excellent reading. Makes me think of the 10 km I ran as my usual MOP AG. There was a guy from Kenya, probably a student over here. It was a winter run and this poor fellow had never experienced a Canadian winter before. Somebody must have told him to run in spikes which was a very bad thing to do as although it was bitter cold there was very little snow. At the start of the race he stopped and took the spikes off since he just couldn't run in them. I'll never forget the site of him running in his bare feet in the middle of winter, spikes in hand and still finishing third.

You mean he didn't win?

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The deeper you get the sweeter the pain. Don't give up the game until your heart stops beating.
--New Order

the russians know, there is beauty in suffering.

good job.

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

Great read, Tom - so glad that you're back in the game and writing again. I can't tell you how many times I re-read that Petacchi (sp?) editorial while awaiting your return.

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<If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough>
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Thank you very much for reading and your kind words. It has been a terrible year- the worst in my life. It was a long time before I could sit down and write again. It took a while to come back, but I'm back.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com