No. I once had a dental procedure performed with no anesthetic just to see how it would feel and if I could manage it. It was otherworldly. Pain doesn't hurt you, it just hurts. It can be a signal but it can also be just an annoyance.

Why do I do triathlons. Because I love the feeling and I love the aesthetic quality of the sport. There is something so elegant and visceral about being in the final miles of a good race. It is sad also becasue you relize the race will end soon. I hate when it is over. It is so intoxicating to be in a race, going hard, exceeding your expectations and just having a good day. That feels so good. Conversely, when you are having one of those awful days when you just feel flat, slow and fat you can say, "Hey, at least I'm still in the fight."

People enter the sport for different reasons. People stay in the sport for an altogether different set of reasons.

---

Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

That's precisely why I love endurance sports, it is all about pain and focus- I love those mental states where my mind transcends all the pain, and my single focus is putting one foot in front of the other- the point where I welcome it in.

Pain tests one's resolve and determination, and is also oh so cleansing. I think it's a sign of true achievement that you can bear pain greater than having your teeth pulled. It means your tough, if you didn't have triathlon, you'd be soft, and there's not many things worse than that.

---

---------------------------------------------------------

"What the mind can conceive and believe, the mind and body can achieve; and those who stay will be champions."

I agree. It seems like the people who do this sport truly enjoy the pain. Not the type of pain like getting punched in the face, but that unforgiving agony at the top of a hill or the end of the run during a hard race. My wife is convinced we're completely crazy.

Funny Tom! I've done the same thing, but for a different reason. The dentist forgot to novacaine me, and realized it when I screamed. I said...."ahh..fug it, just go ahead." He replied, as he turned the drill back on..."I love you hero types." It totally sucked, but I managed, with no droopy tongue and slurred speech afterwards.

Side note - had an M-dot put on the back of my right calf. Took about 10 minutes. Hurt WAY worse than Ironman did. Talk about asking why we do these things voluntarily?

---

--------------
Elivis needs boats.

This summer I got hit by a car while riding. And I had moderate back pain, due to a compressed vertebrae in my back, for a good 3 months afterwards. But it didn't really bother me much. I think that I've gotten used to extended amounts of moderate pain from training.

Matt

As a high school and college swimmer, I used to love it when a football player came out for the swim team. They always had to admit that they had no idea what real pain was until then. Now, I find my pain threshhold for all types of pain, not just the exercise-induced kind, is higher than the average person. When I had some very painful physical therapy for "frozen shoulder" a while back, the PTs were just amazed at my ability to push through the pain. I used to laugh my ass off listening to the screams and howls of agony from the other patients. To quote Lance, "I don't do it for the fun, I do it for the pain."

But why do I really do triathlon? Both grandfathers dead in their 40's-50's. I never even came close to meeting them. Father heart attack at 60 and again at 72. I am a Type 1 diabetic for 24 years. I have three sons ages 23, 19, 1nd 15. I want to see them grow up and mature. I want to live to meet my grandchildren. I don't want my wife to have to live as a widow for 40 years. The pain is like an IRA. I am making deposits now that I hope to be able to draw from later.

Cause the chicks dig it.

Two sayings about pain come to mind:

1) Pain is the purifier;

2) Pain is just weakness, leaving your body.

I agree with tri_bri2. My maternal grandfather died of heart failure when my Mum was 16, and my Dad just had triple bypass surgery (at 61) and had a post-op stroke which has left him functional but unable to work (he was a math teacher). I want to be strong and healthy for my whole life (Bill Bell rocks!). I will never say "I've fallen and can't get up!".

mp

p.s. one more thing - as long as it hurts, you know you're still alive

i get this question a lot from family and friends, especially now that i'm aiming for my first IM next year (and they thought this year's half-IM was nuts).

because i love sport
because of the health benefits
because it is a challenge
because it builds discipline
because i know my ability to set goals and push myself to achieve them can be applied in other facets of life

but mostly because i enjoy it, and for no other reason than i purely and simply do

Because I'm training for retirement. Only 25 years to go!

My father retired a little over a year ago and he spends most of the day watching TV and taking naps. He has no energy to do much of anything. He spent the last 30 years in a high stress job while he smoked, drank and ate what ever tasted good. I would tell him that if he'd just run out in traffic he'd have all the bases covered.

My wife and I have grand plans when I retire and the kids are gone. She's a triathlete too. I want to make sure we can do whatever we want when I eventually get the time to do it.

David

I think if a non-triathlete of a "layperson" read this thread they would (perhaps accurately so) say "These guys are nuts". One peron in this thread said they "Liked pain" and it was about "being tough". I don't agree with that personally. There is pain, and then there is discomfort.

Discomfort is what happens when you do a hard workout or you are really pushing hard in a race, going to new levels. Those are the set of sensations you develop mastery over or learn to manage. You learn this internal lesson about yourself and you make peace with yourself. You know this set of sensations is not pain, it is just pressing against- and through- barriers. It is not pain. It is almost like getting to know your body better. Does it "hurt"? Yeah, sometimes. But there is this proces of management you develop to cope with and embrace it. Soon it is no longer "painful" since you teach yourself there is no negative outcome. You just get to it, work with it, and move on. Simple.

Pain is when a person lies to you, violates your trust, intentionally hurts you. Pain is when someone you trusted with the most delicate aspects of your character intentionally exploits them or damages them to acheive their own agenda. Pain is when you discover someone you loved isn't real or really what you thought you loved. That is pain. Pain is watching another person suffer and knowing you can't do anything to help them. That is pain. It hurts deeply and physically and leaves irrepairable scars.

As for being tough? I've been in circumstances where I've had to be "tough" and I didn;t enjoy it. I managed to do it but it isn't me. I don't want to ever repeat it. Sitting in the dentist chair exploring the limits of your neural pathways and yur ability to manage them is not being tough. It is being curious. I know full well that if the discmfort is too great I can tell the dentist "Wait, this is really bad, can you give me a shot or something?" So I always have an out. That isn't being tough. It is experimentation.

I think to be a good endurance athlete you cannot be tough. You have to be soft. You have to face your weakness and frailties every day in training. You have to face your shortcomings in racing and accept them and humbly try to do better. You cannot defeat nature or pain. You have to craft a gentle strategy to carefully slip by it without resistance.

I was training recently and my legs really hurt, I was a little cold and was soaking wet. I had some pretty wicked blisters going and a nasty chaffed spot between my balls and my legs. I thought "focus on your breath" and pictured my breathing as a white, sheer curtain blowing in and out of a window slowly with each breath. It was dark out so there were no visual distractions. The imagery was gentle and quiet. It elevated me to a place where my feet, legs and crotch could not follow. It was a gentle progression, not a forceful push.

"The bending and the yielding are the discipline of the living. The stiff and unyielding are the disciplines of the dead. A young branch full of sap bends and yields with the wind. An old branch, dead and dry, snaps when the wind blows."

Damn, I did that from memory- It isn't right on but it is close. It is from Lao Tzu's "Tao de Ching" (Gia Fu Feng and Jane English translation).

Good lessons in there, but few people ever learn them.

---

Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Started out cuz I wanted to be a stronger hockey player. One of my hockey buddies was incredibly strong skater and it was because of his endurance level. I figured I can do that, and started my running and swimming schedule around hockey. The water scared me to death and the running killed my legs but I kept at it.

Now, I feel at home in the water, I'm a MOP swimmer, and I love swimming

I came from cycling so I've allways liked that.

The running has come along quite a way, 13:30 miles at 145bpm for 2 miles to start to 9:15 at 145bpm now. I really enjoy going out for a long run.

I can compete against myself, I've met some great friends and have so much fun, was looking for a ladyfriend to train with but never found one. Girlfriend now is an old speed skating friend and is going to start skating with me while I run.

I am having the time of my life with this sport and now schedule my hockey around my tri training.

jaretj

I do it because it's war. Like most other triathletes, I'm a yuppie with a desk job and racing allows me to challenge myself without killing myself or anybody else.

I don't like the pain I like the fact that I can recover from it.

For example it's not so impressive to tell someone you ran 6 miles at lunch if your crawling down the hall on your hands and knees. But if you look like business as usual and you just ran 6 miles...