Race day is coming next week and it will be my first shot at 70.3 distance. With all the press lately about the power savings just from shaving your legs I am now torn on shaving my beard or not. Here’s some of the back story/pro’s and con’s.
I have had a beard for almost 5 years, shaving with a razor only once when my beloved Blackhawks won the cup. Other than that it has just been some trimming here and there (mostly there). My girlfriend has only seen me without a beard that one time, and she almost broke up with me for shaving (she’s cool like that). Now I have been trying to get races to add a bearded division for those of us brave enough to race bearded, but have not had much luck, so here I am debating.
Now the benefits are pretty obvious. There’s the aero data that came out about shaving your legs, so I am going to guess shaving the beard would only increase my aerodynamics. There’s also the heat factor, it’s looking like temps around 85 or 90 for race day? I did a track workout this morning and the beard was hot…real hot.
The con’s are going to be losing my beard, pissing off my girlfriend, and well…losing my beard is a pretty big one. I know you may be thinking “it’ll grow back” but those few days will be pretty painful, and if you’ve ever been dedicated to a good beard it’s a bit depressing to see it go.
That may be true, but there is also the fact I look like I’m 12 when I shave. When I go to bars with beard, no ID required, without beard I need 2 forms of ID…
There could also be a third option here which is a righteous mustache…
Bradley Wiggins grew a beard, and then somehow became a contender for Paris Roubaix this year. Draw what you will from that, but I say you keep the beard.
couple years ago at IM Texas spectators kept yelling at me “run Forrest, run!” We lose a bit on the swim but other than that no problem. Keep it. My next Ironman I’m going for beard braids.
As a follow up to “hey aren’t you that guy?” - did you do a swim clinic for the Chicago Tri Club last year at HPI? Would swear it’s you and have been talking to Dan there about getting some eyes on my swim stroke and he mentioned “Eric”…pretty sure that’s you…will shoot you a note through your url.
That may be true, but there is also the fact I look like I’m 12 when I shave. When I go to bars with beard, no ID required, without beard I need 2 forms of ID…
There could also be a third option here which is a righteous mustache…
Consider that a blessing. Shave all of that shit off!
