I camped with a bunch of my friends who came up from San Diego, Boulder, Oregon and NorCal. We had a spot in Redondo Vista, up on top of a hill at the end, far away from the TNT madness of tent-city. There were also a few other folks up there that we didn’t know and who were not part of TNT.
My friends Fred and Nancy were hosting Sister Madonna Buder (very well known 70 year old nun/triathlete, for those who are new to the sport. Yes, she’s a real nun.) Nancy is a super nice lady in her 50s.
On Friday, the people camped next to F, N & SM, who we didn’t know, but with whom Nancy had chatted earlier, had pitched their tent and set up and had to run back to town, so had gone off in their car. Another car comes around and starts checking out their spot. Nancy nicely says there is someone already there, see their tent, they’ve just gone for supplies in their car. The woman gets all huffy and takes off. A little later she comes back with her husband and they try to take over the space. Nancy again tells them, look at the tent/stuff already there. Someone already has this space. I don’t know what else was said but somehow it comes out that the interloping couple is with TNT, but, they didn’t want to camp down with TNT because it was “too crowded”. The guy calls Nancy a F-C-ING B–CH and they storm off. Nancy was never anything but overly polite.
The Portland group were down the hill a few hundred yards from us and TNT actually put up a sign on the restrooms in that area saying they were exclusively for TNT. That sign got ripped down pretty quick.
A friend of ours is good friends with the Executive Director of one of the large west coast TNT groups and he said that TNT’s reputation is somewhat of an inside joke with the TNT higher ups. So, if that is the mentality, things won’t be changing anytime soon.
I was trying to explain to a friend where the showers were in Redondo Vista. Her boyfriend looks at me and says sarcastically, “Oh…Aren’t those the TNT showers?” This guy doesn’t even race; he’s comes to these events to support his gf. I think that move with the sign managed to P.O. the non-racers too. Way to spread the hate guys…
I can't believe Terry Davis puts up with this. The camping situation at WF seems to bring out the absolute worst in TNTers. They expect the royal treatment and don't seem to mind taking it at the expense of others. (How selfish of us to do triathlons for ourselves!) I think it should be up to Tri-California to set expectations for behavior and hold TNT to it -- it's not like they need the TNTers to fill the races. Let them have Pacific Grove and Treasure Island, where they may annoy other racers but at least won't sour someone's entire weekend.
I keep getting the message again and again that TNT is churning out runners and triathletes but not even attempting to produce good citizens of the endurance community. It’s extremely disappointing that the higher-ups seem not to care. And they sure are passing on the careless attitude to their participants. What can we do?
Ariel, a former TNT participant (not in triathlon)
</righteous indignation>
In any group there are a few who are nasty and rude… and I have the tendency to think that many of the nasty people simply won’t last in the overall positive and wonderful community. From the flaming I recieved after my post in anger about St. Anthony’s it seems obvious that TNT isn’t the only source of nasty people in triathlon.
Let’s be supportive of those nice TNTers to keep them in the sport… even if they do ruin big, high-prestige races.
Yeah, I know that there will always be nasty people, and that a few mean people are giving TNT a bad rep. I am not anti-TNT in general, which is why I identified myself as a TNT alum. I owe my TNT coach everything – she inspired me to walk my first marathon and now running and triathlon are my life and community. But what’s with the bathroom signs?