B_Doughtie wrote:
You are proving my entire point. Your celebrating you've done hundreds of triathlons....How many triathlons have your son or daughters done, why aren't you celebrating that? You made a point...."you do it because you want to do it"...That's exactly my point, for whatever reason your generation's kids who are now the millennials want nothing to do with the sport. Your generation who's basically been among the largest age groups from the 80's to now, has created the sport that younger generations want nothing to do with. It's a sport that is filled with old people. And then you wonder why the sport isn't growing? ETA: Which is my point...to make a change you need to evolve. And as I said a few pages ago, some of the changes are considered far to radical for your generation. The biggest reason for pro drafting you completely missed....cost. Draft legal races are cheaper for equipment purchases for the overwhelming majority of people. No longer would it be an aero arms race to "buy" speed that it is now...just look at the prices of an average tri bike; almost $3k? You have far better choices of road bikes at cheaper price points than you do for tri bikes. You simply get back to the more basics of show up with what you got, and get after it.
There are a lot of routes to triathlon and you are making the assumption that us old people doing triathlons are part of the group doing them regularly since way back when. I'm only a data point of one, but I did 2 triathlons in 1980 several years before USAT existed, before rules existed (i.e., all races in 1980 were draft legal), before gear existed, etc. Then I went right back to running because triathlon was EXPENSIVE and time consuming. I paid $15 for a half-iron in 1980 and thought that was really steep. I thought about doing another tri in the late 80s but by then lock step pedals and aerobars were on the scene, helmets were now required and I didn't have the money for that. On a lark, I competed in a sprint triathlon in 1994...only my 3rd triathlon in 14 years, and that was that. Finally, I came back to the sport full-timein 2006 just before I turned 49, because I simply could no longer withstand the mileage I needed (wanted) to run to stay competitive in single sport. So now I've been at triathlon for a little over 11 years.
My influence has led three of my four kids to have done triathlons. Two have done 70.3s and one has completed an ironman. But none are in the sport now for the same reason I didn't stay with it in my 20s...too expensive and too time consuming. You can change the rules all you want but you cannot change this one fundamental nature of the sport...even if you go draft legal. Equipment requirements (even with a good road bike) plus entry fees are just so much more expensive than other options.
Meanwhile, the sport is evolving. XTreme triathlons have proliferated as Ironman became Everyman, the IM70.3 circuit and associated WC was created and is extremely popular while Olympic distance has shriveled, Duathlon is nearly dead, and SwimRuns are exploding. I look around and I do not see stasis. However, I am not against change at all. I am merely a consumer of sports experiences; and as a consumer I look at the market offerings and select those that provide the most value for me; just as my adult children look around and do the same...and they have all chosen the same sport I did at that age ... running. It is classic, simple, and inexpensive. My point is that triathlon will never be mainstream and the fact that the sport is retrenching back from a short-lived stretch of extreme popularity represents a return to normalcy and nothing more.