In response to the comments on your father, I've always thought that sometimes it's better to get into a fight and lose then not fight at all. Of course, I've always had a chip on my shoulder. I've always been a little too aggressive because of that (and because of it I've gotten the shit beat out of me a couple times).

the "chip on the shoulder" is a big reason for my interest in endurance sports. proof that I can hang with anyone maybe?

The other reason is a bit strange. I'm 25 and yet I fear getting old. It honestly consumes me at times. My wife thinks I'm crazy.

Burns (starting at age 7, lifetime record: 9 and 4)

I got into the sport as I needed a way to get 85 unanswred pounds off of my frame. Some of them crept back on through injury.

I did get reinvigorated into the sport after a car wreck which had threatened my ability to get back onto the bike and run. This pushed me onto another plane. I felt that I had to be fit or risk being a live corpse.

With multisport, I feel alive. Without it, I struggle to find meaning in my life.

On the subject of physical confrontations, I was without fear when I played ice hockey (even though in the end of my playing days, I was about 2/3 of the size of most of my foes!!!). But on the street, I learned easily that fights are not fair, and always ended up with the stitches to prove it. I have learned to turn the other cheek and walk (sometimes run). But also, I learned last year the hard way to never turn your back on a threat, as I ended up with eight stitches from a drunk at a party (I was jumped from behind). Call security if there's a threat. But- I will not be in a strange surround without some sort of weapon, even if it's a weighted keyring.

Record: hockey from 1976-89: 7 W, 6 L, 10 D, 3 KO, 25 stitches total, four hundred team power play goals from drawing penalties. Non-hockey: 3 W, 4 L, 3D, 2 KO, 50 stitches total. I have all of my teeth, thank you.

The story of how I got into triathlons is a bit odd... But I'm sure glad I did. I can't think of any other "thing" or influence that has been a bigger contribution to my life.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Tom, please share. It can't be any odder than mine.

By the way, is it a fight if you never get a punch in?

That's kind of a sad story. If that happened to me, the solution would have been to copy the guy's license plate, report it to the police and have the guy charged with assault. IMO that's a much better solution than popping him back.

My story is I did my first tri as a lark to celebrate turning fifty years old. It was either do a tri or get bombed to celebrate my half century birthday and I'm getting too old to do the latter but not a tri. Also my teenage daughter claimed that I was too old to do a tri, so I had to show her as a parent that a lesson in life is that it's never too late.

I never imagined that I would become so addicted. To me tri is strictly an excuse to stay in shape, which hopefully, along with other lifestyle routines will help me to live a long and healthy life well into my late 90's as have some of my relatives. Of course I could always get hit by a truck while riding my bicycle.

at age 43 I met and fell in love with a wonderful woman who did Triathlons. I was a life long Roadie so one thing led to another and I started training with her and here I am anxiously awaiting the start of another season.

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"on your Left"

A buddy who raced told me one day "I have something you should try." Three years later, on the national age group team at worlds, I couldn't thank him enough.

I am alive when I'm training. I know myself better when I'm in pain. It's a crazy addiction, but it brings a smile to my face every time. Sometimes, when it's feeling just right, it even brings a tear to my eye (at 70kph).

And besides, pain is purifying.

left one thing out. we got married a year later and we celebrated our 3rd anniversary last night!!!

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"on your Left"

My story as to "why I do it" (or more properly "did" in my case) was that it was just a natural progression of my athletics. Jr high track, the mile was introduced. I was already doing the 440/880 (this was before meters were used as the scholastic standard), but they wouldn't let us do the mile/880 (apparently it would have been too strenuous). I stayed with what I knew, and I LOVED the 880. In high school, I dropped down to the 440/220. My jr year, I gave up my aspirations to be the next Pistol Pete Maravich, and ran cross country. The long-distance bug had bit me bad. That winter, we did the 700 mile club (700 documented running miles from the end of cross country to the begining of track), and I went with the 800/3200 combo (odd, I know).

The summer after graduation, I REALLY went for long distance, averaging 70 mile weeks (okay, not so outrageous, but it was a big step for me). I got down to 135 lbs at a height of 5'10". Started getting runing injuries. Doc says get in the pool (I had been a decent swimmer since I was about 10, but never took it seriously, and never competed). The guys in the pool told me to get a bike. Natural progression to triathlete.

But I think because of my background in the faster events (400/800), I really enjoyed the SPEED part of triathlon rather than the DISTANCE. I did do a half-IM once. But I really enjoyed the Oly and below (and got quite good at it). Unfortunately, I came to a cross-roads: make the step to pro, or stay with the day job and just be good. With a wife and a house, I decided the steady and sure income was needed more than any massaging of my ego over a pro card. Within two years of that decision I was out of multisport competition entirely -- but had moved into bike racing.

About 3 years ago I shelved that to put my time into a business venture. My eventual goals are to get back to some bike racing, get back into tri (which I may take the plunge late this season), build my own velodrome, fund a team, etc.

But the whole underlying "why" is pretty deep: it's just what I do.

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Some are born to move the world to live their fantasies...

https://triomultisport.com/
http://www.mjolnircycles.com/

My entry in this sport was at the age of 45. I had always been a fairly active person and dabbled at a multitude of different sports. While ski racing at age 44 I crashed and tore up a knee. I had always loved bicycling and during my rehab I started cycling up to 150 miles weekly. I also had gained weight over the years and I dieted during the rehab and ended up losing over 50 pounds. When cycling season was ending due to the shorter days I started running. I had never been a runner before and at first I hated it. I was already wishing the run was over with a block from my house but I pressed on and within a few weeks that feeling went away. A couple of months after starting to run I entered a 5K and did OK. I was starting to like running and the competitive juices started flowing. Reading the local paper one day I saw a blurb about a local triathlon club and decided to investigate what it was about. I was a decent cyclist and now I could run some and I had been a good swimmer back in high school. At the first tri club meeting I found out there were other distances beside IM and I thought I would do a sprint to see how I faired. I started swimming again in order to be able to complete the 800 meters in my first tri. In the first event I did OK. Not a great swim, but acceptable - a decent bike and a poor run, but I got through it and was determined to do it again - only better. The first year I did 6 events and was placing regularly in the top 10 in AG. I thought I could do better and started to really focus on improving my training in the swim and run. The second year my swim was greatly improved but my running still sucked. However towards the end of the season I took first in AG in a small event and I was thrilled. My next race was a much larger USAT sanctioned event and I took another first in AG. In both those races I had a good swim and bike and a decent run. I was fun to win but this year will be very different because some very fast people have aged up and my lack of running ability will hurt me. As fun as it is to win what really pushes me is to improve on the preceding year's time. Last year I was better in every race. This year I have been training for my first ever marathon and that has taken away some time from the other training. I have only done sprints and Olys and if my marathon goes well I will do a couple halfs this year and possibly a full next year. One thing I've noticed is that the longer the race, the better the competitors. In the sprints there are a large number of people who can barely swim, people on mountain bikes and others walking on the run. In the Olys the people swim better, very few mountain bikes and few walkers. I would think in the longer distances a person has to be a decent swimmer to even complete the distance and the other events will be taken seriously as well. I'm looking forward to it. Now that I'm 47 I don't really ever see the possibility of taking a top 3 overall award and mostly I do it because I enjoy the training and it keeps me from getting fat.

Since we are on the topics of getting into fights I thought I would add my little piece of wisdom into the arena.

My Judo instructor used to say. If a man comes up to you with a gun / knife / killer bunny give them your wallet. After he takes your wallet and you still want to fight beat the crap out of him when he is running away...

My friend (who grew up in trinidad and has been shot 3 times) used to say. Taku, if you think that you might get into a fight pick up a bottle or something else before you get to the point of no return. You may need something to hit them with.

Another friend used to say. "never get into a fight with a wrestler... you will lose" (he also happened to be a nationally ranked greco roman wrestler. )

I personally would try to avoid fights but my advice, if you are going to be in a fight aim for the throat or a straight kick to the front of the knees. Hardt to fight when you can't stand or breathe...

Hah and you all thought I was a lover not a fighter (I am)

I got into traithlons as an extension to running. I started running competitively at age 11 and did quite well as a junior. The summer before my final year in high school I injured my back and had to take a lot of time off (7 months). Prior to that I was convinced that I was going to head south to the USA (I'm in Ontario) on a scholarship for university but being told by doctors that my running was likely done forced me to change my plans. I ended up going to University of Waterloo and running for them for 5 years which was great. However, during this period my times stayed pretty much the same as what I was doing in high school since I was moving every 4 months due to co-op and school was tough and my training wasn't as focused. In my final year of university, with no team to run for after graduation, I got the urge to give triathlon a go after hearing how much fun it was from some of my Waterloo running teammates (Steve and Lisa Bentley were among them) that had been doing triathlons in the summer. The summer after graduation I bought a bike and struggled through 30-32 minute 1500m swims where there was my bike and about 3 others left when I got out of the water. Fortunately, I could run 32-33 minutes for 10k off the bike, so I'd finish well enough to make me feel competitive and I got hooked. That was in 1990 and the desire to learn how to swim and bike and my love of training have kept me a fanatic since then.

How many women will start by saying "I had a boyfriend who did tri's and suggested I give it a go." Well, that's what happened to me, and I can only hope more men will encourage their supportive spouses to get off the sidelines and onto the starting line. I know so many women who are more than willing to schlep to every race, watch their significant others leave the house each Sat. and Sun. for a ride or a run, only to see them in the afternoon when they're too tired to even stand up, cheer for them for hours and rub their tired legs afterward, only to say to me "oh, I could never do that." Well guess what ladies, you CAN.

Sorry, got off on a tangent on that one. I'd run 1/2 doz. marathons fairly respectably - qualified for Boston many times and went once, anyway predictably got injured and stopped running. Boyfriend had done IM and suggested since I'd ridden quite a bit and my run was good I ought to get in the pool and give it a go. Catch was, he convinced me to enter a 1/2 IM as my very first event. I didn't know any better - clearly he didn't either. Luckily I survived. That was four years ago. Since then I've gotten rid of the boyfriend and just last year did my first IM in Canada. Guess the relationship wasn't a total loss! :-)

My reason? A friend said to me, "you know we should do a tri-a-tri" and I said sure!! So I trained all last summer, I did it (she never did) and was completely hooked. What hooked me was the loss of weight, the improved fitness, the refound high of achieving a goal, the sense of accomplishment of that goal, the wonder and awe of crossing that finish line, the fact that I KNOW I can do better, the new-found focus on life in general, the sense of community with triathletes, and most importantly, the fact that I know that I can eat 4 cookies, or a bowl of ice cream, or a chocolate bar, or a piece of cake and know that it will be burned off the next day exercising.

Mark

I started my youth as a headstrong young man never backing down from a fight, and often talking my way into one. I ruined a good shirt at least once a week, but I don't think I impressed anyone especially when I lost, which after a few beers I often did.

I got into doing triathlons in this era whilst I was a Royal Marine, my commander said I could have Wednesday afternoon off if I wanted to race. I wanted the afternoon off! So I set off on my first tri, I remember crashing on the cycle leg as my back wheel fell off my borrowed bike, because I hadn't checked the fancy quick release things the wheel had! I finished third though so I got to race the next Wednesday as well. Four years later I was racing for the Corps full time (aside from the odd Gulf war etc).

After six years off that I grew restless and left to do a degree in Exercise Science and as a student I was now putting in the big miles and racing Ironman. I was now into the spirit of the sport and enjoying the journey that led me to racing abroad, even living in a forest and planting trees to earn a living whilst training for IM Canada, (I even made it to Hawaii that year). Unfortunately after doing the biggest and best I found my self flat broke and a little lost so I ended up working as a volunteer aid worker Africa for a year until a bout of Malaria left me a little off my best for a while.

But back in Britain again and I found a new challenge to set my sights on 'The Double Decker' (48mile swim, 2240mile bike and a 524mile run, with the clock never stopping) in Monterey Mexico. I was now working for an Airline (Virgin Atlantic) and managed to put in some big miles whilst doing a couple of international flights a week. My body clock never left the mid Atlantic. I trained soley for a year for that competition doing 80m runs and 24hr races, and then without warning two weeks before the race my sponser (and employer) Richard Branson said I couldn't have the nine weeks off work to race as the company was in financial difficulties! (He found the cash to do his doomed balloon flights though). I was devastated but I couldn't do it without the free flights for me and my support team. I left the airline in protest but my path to Mexico ended there.

A few years on and I am married, all settled down with a house, but still get into lots of fights only now as a police officer I spend all my time trying to talk my way out of them. I am always impressed when I see somebody just walk away from such a situation, its harder to do than you gave your Dad credit for.

Anyway that's my story, so far.....

AndyA

In April’01, I was attending a meeting when a guy came in and said: “next year, by this time, I’ll be climbing Everest”. And then the guy started to tell stories about the book “Into Thin Air” and explained about guided expeditions to Himalayas. He was just joking when he said he was going to climb Everest, but I immediately thought to myself: “hey, this is something to be done…”

Since that day, I started to search in the net all the information about high altitude mountaineering, from clothing to climbing. In June, at Valentine’s Day, my wife (how irresponsible she was!) gave me Krakauer’s book. It was the final push I needed to jump into the mountaineering world. I decided that I was going to climb a very high mountain, although of course I couldn’t begin by Everest. Aconcagua seemed the perfect choice: the highest peak outside Asia, non-technical, and not too far away. A feasible project.

At that point I was running since 6 months before, having already raced one half-marathon. As a preparation for Aconcagua, I planned a trip to the Lake District, in Chile and Argentina. In this trip, I climbed to the Laguna LaQuica (~2000mts), the Villarica volcano (~2800mts) and the Lanin volcano (~3800mts). Lanin volcano was quite tough for me at the time, so I came back to Brazil and realized I needed a better physical preparation in order to climb Aconcagua. In September I raced my second half-marathon and in November, the third. But that was not enough. That’s when I decided to do triathlon. Swimming, cycling and running appeared a good preparation. In November I started to swim and in December, to pedal. In February’02, I went to Aconcagua and made to the top. My first sprint triathlon came the following month and I never stopped since then. Now, besides of climbing Everest one day, I intend to do an ironman and perhaps some other crazy stuff like a 24-hour marathon and things like that… That’s my wife’s entire fault: why she gave that book?

I swam in high school, partied in college and graduate school, though I did run a little in graduate school. Started working at a physical therapy clinic in the Bay Area (used to be Certified Athletic Trainer) and one of our patients was this crazy guy who was training for some Ironman thing and had this funny bike with a smaller front wheel than back. The PT at the clinic was a bike fanatic (which is why I got hooked on the Tour/Giro/Vuelta/etc.) and he thought we should do a triathlon as a team--he would bike, I was the only one who could swim without drowning, we roped the skinny receptionist who looked like a runner into running. We did our first tri (Riconada Tri on the Stanford campus) in 1987 or 1986.

We did a few races that summer, then fast forward to the next year--there was an all womens race, so we replaced Paul the biker with his girlfriend (now wife) and won the team category. Dumped Paul and kept the all gal team (but Paul hooked up with two other guys, so all was good). We raced for a few years until marriage and kids (theirs, not me) meant I'd have to quit, find a new team or go solo. So, Danskin 1990 was my first solo tri. And, it's just evolved from there.

Paul and I are still riding partners and the crazy guy who started it all once held the swim course record at IMC and did qualify for Kona and is one of my best friends.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I played hockey pretty much from birth up through college, so I was always running and riding in the off-season. I grew up on a lake, so swimming came easy. After college I made The Trip Out West, ending up in SF with a gaping hole where my athletic career had been. Flash forward several years - a friend was putting together a team for the San Jose International ('96), and I figured the swim would be no problem. Boy, was I wrong; I got passed by nearly everyone that day. Afterwards, I realized that the people doing these races were the kind of people I wanted to be with - not hung-over on the couch on a glorious Sat. afternoon, but out enjoying what life had to offer. (It had been a rough summer - I broke up with my girlfriend, my dad died of cancer, and my pathetic professional life was not inspiring.) I was hooked after that first race and did several more that summer (1 sprint, 2 olympics) on my own. Training for races and being with all those positive people pulled me out of my rut and kept me sane. Life got better and I found myself racing more and doing longer distances. On a lark I entered the Kona '98 lottery and got a spot - that first IM was amazing...the finish at an IM is the most emotional/inspiring place on earth. Since then I've completed at least one IM per year, never the same race, a different country every time. But one thing is always the same: the attitude of the people involved. No excuses, no (sustained) negative attitude, just a love of life expressed through hard work and the joy of motion.

Life is good. Triathlon makes it better.

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I am a living animal, tied to a dying soul. -PKD

Simple story in my case... I was about to turn 40; I had been doing a lot of cycling for a few years but had started slacking off & putting weight back on. So I was looking for something to motivate me to get out and exercise... I figured I couldn't "fake" swimming & running; I'd have to train in those two disciplines to have a hope to survive a triathlon, so I decided to do an Olympic triathlon during my 40th year. It worked - got me out & exercising; did 4 sprints & one Oly. That was last year; I'm planning to continue in triathlons, although won't up the volume a lot - maybe 2 or 3 Olys this year, along with the sprints. I'm not fast, so not trying to place. Goals this year are just to improve my swim times (thru Fitness Swimming & a wet suit) and maybe get my running a little faster...

Someone mentioned how hearing there were distances other than IM helped them decided to do a tri; that also helped me decide to do them. The sprint tris weren't scary-sounding, and the Oly sound do-able - unfortunately, because IMs get all the publicity, a lot of people might get scared off who would otherwise do them. Not sure how to fix this....

I have been involved in women's team sports all my life, but never swim/bike/run. However, two of my life goals have always been to complete a triathlon and run a marathon. I just figured it was something I would do a long time from now when my kids were older. Two summers ago I was the "perfect" mother/wife (not that there's anything wrong with that!). All my time was spent taking care of other people. My husband was sick of it (he didn't think it was healthy for me to not take care of myself too) and convinced me to start working towards one of my goals. I decided to give a sprint tri a go and spent 8 weeks training for it. I survived - in fact I finished mid-pack. Pretty amazing feeling coming across that finish line!! That's all it took and I was hooked.

Last fall I completed my first marathon - didn't finish mid-pack this time, but I did finish! Now I'm working on training for my first 1/2 IM. I'm mediocre (sp?) at all 3 events, but I'm not doing this to finish in the top x%. Training makes me stronger, healthier and allows me to spend time taking care of myself. It gives me something to be proud of since I don't want to be known just for being a wife/mother/programmer. I hope that I am a positive influence on my 2 girls since I know how important it is for girls to be involved and exposed to sports. They keep saying they want to run with me, so I think it's working!

One last thing I'd like to say is that I have been overwhelmed with the help and support from other triathletes. This is truly a wonderful community. I'm especially impressed with the support that men have given me. In other sports that I've competed in, the male counterparts never took you 100% seriously. In this sport, female triathletes are congratulated and respected as much as men. I think that's wonderful and I'd like to thank everyone out there who does their part. It really makes a difference in helping women become and stay part of the triathlon world.

Sorry for the lecture...Dawn

"There is no reason to attempt such a feat of idiocy, other than the fact that some people, which is to say people like me, need to search the depths of their stamina for self-definition. (I'm the guy who can take it.) It's a contest in purposeless suffering."

--- Lance Armstrong

I actually haven't raced a tri yet, but there are 5 or so on the calendar for the summer. I've gotten into the training because I would like to find my limits, both mentally and physically. I like most of my day job, but sitting in my cube I wonder how far I can push myself to physically perform and how fast I could go in a race.

I started out at age 10 playing baseball, moved on to a little soccer, swam in Jr. High, then got into music in high school, tried ballet, then a little more soccer. Went through college on a music scholarship and got a job doing computer consulting post-college. I'd like to know how far I can push myself. This summer through a number of races and through training I plan to find out. Also for the summer I have a marathon, which will help figure out more limits. Maybe in a couple years I'll be faster, but I need to know what thresholds I have before I know what to focus on.