Just curious. It seems there are two distinct groups posting on this forum (with some small amount of overlap).
One group seems to be people who are invested in the pro aspect of the sport. Maybe as fans or as sponsors or maybe as friends/relatives. Occasionally even the pros themselves.
But the other group seems to be people like me, “hacks in the back”. Age groupers or below elite level athletes just out there doing it to do it. I have no delusions about ever competing for anything of value or even a qualifying spot. I’m just out there finishing the best I can and trying to keep going.
One thing I like about this sport is it is small enough that I can be out there on the same course, at the same time (well, kinda), as the elites.
I’ve had seasons where I did well, like when I was out of work for 6 months And others where I probably shouldn’t have even been on the course due to injury or whatever.
I have a lot of respect for the triathlon community as a whole for being welcoming to people regardless of age or ability.
I’m not, nor will i ever be a Pro. But I’m not a participant in the back either. My brother says I take it to serious. He barely trains for any triathlon and is okay being a 7 hour 70.3 guy. If i was a 7 hour finisher then i would never sign up. My goal is around 430-440, but still far from Pro 340 times.
I’d give it a 65% chance you could qualify for worlds in St George if you wait around until the very end. Start shopping for flights now if you’ve ever wanted to go race in Spain
To your post – in general, I think the more long distance races you do the more you get sucked into following the pros and the pro drama. That’s specifically because the pros are often racing at the races we race at. Unlike the Olympic distance, none of them are ever seen by any of the oly racers, so most of that population is oblivious. It shows you the key to anyone caring about the T100 in 10 years, assuming it’s still around, is they need to have age groupers attending. Otherwise, it will eventually just become an expensive alternative to the Olympics, with a bunch of world class athletes “nobody” ever heard of.
Couldn’t agree more about the overlap.
My first larger race was Challenge Wanaka some years back. Not only did I get a cheery “sup!” from Javier Gomez when he was heading in to rack his bike while I was leaving, but I was also stood the evening before talking to a friend about my nerves when a voice behind me piped up “Nah, you’ll be fine!” I turned round and it was Laura Siddall who proceeded give me a cheery grin and then wandered off. I’d never met her before, and never have since.
Oh, and Erin Baker raced as an age grouper too.
Although there are a few people in the community that take themselves way too seriously, I find the overwhelming majority from the pros to the back of the pack to just be really decent people.
I would never argue otherwise. I was referring more to this forum in particular. Again, not saying its a bad thing, but I have noticed a lot of threads really involved in whatever the pros are doing, and then a lot of threads about “what performance can I expect from a 10 year old frame?” Many times the people posting in one type of thread don’t wander into the other.
I’m as guilty as anyone in that regard. Y’all post names and I have no idea who you’re talking about. Any one of the pros could walk right by me on race day and I wouldn’t know him or her from someone across town. For me, the pros are impressive, but I don’t follow any of them. It blows my mind that elites can finish a full distance in 8 hours (or less). But I’m not going to get involved in stats or strategies.
Likewise, none of them care that I picked up a lightly used set of Reynolds for my 2015 Shiv. And that makes sense. Like I said, just an observation.
I’ve been here a long time and I’m almost certain that the typical poster here is a serious long term triathlete. A huge percentage for sure are competing for or winning local age group podiums at some point in their career.
You simply don’t find beginners or many just-want-to finish triathletes obsessing over aero details like bottle placement, power meter calibration, etc that we commonly discuss here.
I only barely follow pro triathletes myself but def am way more aware of them than the typical casual intermittent triathlete.
Which is,in my opinion, THE major flaw on Slowtwitch. I have been pointing out for years that there seems little interest in “the community” of ST and that posters aren’t interested in finding out about each other as people and just don’t care to share, what I consider to be the fun stuff about triathlon.
I am sure there are plenty of beginners registered and lurking who just don’t feel that anything they post will be appreciated because what may be important to them just doesn’t register here and that is the grand adventure of just doing cool training sessions and the excitement of all that comes with the lifestyle.
Not everyone here gives a damn about all the latest and greatest gear and gadgets and not everyone gives a toss about Watts and Lactate Testing.Just look at this thread,it is a great opportunity to tell weird and whacky stories about our triathlon lives but what am I.response number 9? That is sad,
I’ll give an example,I’d much prefer to see videos of Lionel beating himself up trying to get a KOM on Mt Lemmon and laughing with Sam Long about it,than watch another bloody indoor bike training session while trying to explain what VO2 Max training is.
Jen,there are more people like you here than you would think,they are just the very silent majority.
To each their own, I’m quite happy that this place is a place to really geek out on triathlon and not simply another social forum trying to masquerade as a triathlon forum. Even if it’s tilted toward the experienced triathlete, it’s great that you get folks from the BOP to top elite pros posting regularly here - and even the top pros ask questions around here to benefit from the huge experience.
I personally find the highly detailed aero testing threads on this forum too much, so I just skip them, but the rest is plenty interesting.
To me, at least right now and for most of my tri career, squeezing out personal performance has been THE most fun part of it for me. I’ll happily go on hammerfest group workouts where you really work, but I’ll avoid the social ones since I know I’ll want to go faster at some point.
I think the bit about watching Lionel do a VO2max indoor workout vs hanging on Mt Lemmon is a different issue. Him and other youtube pros have a challenging bit, finding ways to make content while training really hard and not compromising the quality or volume - we all know that hanging in the hot tub with friends and shooting the breeze at Kona is a lot more interesting on youtube than yet another indoor workout session video. I’m actually fairly certan that even after he’s done racing, Lionel would still rack up tons of views each year by doing a hot-tub hangout with other pros for the week just like he did before.
Eh…1) I don’t know that I have any “weird and wacky” stories about my athletic life, 2) see the “what stupid way did you hurt yourself thread”—notably also started by Jen, which blew up pretty quick (eta: I guess it didn’t really blow up…didn’t notice that it was from March-2024)
Those of us who have stayed around for a while do get to know each other over the years. Not in any one compact, “Hi my name is Tom, and I’m a triathlete” kinda way. But, life trickles into these posts if you read carefully enough. It certainly has in mine.
I do like the comraderie aspect of the forum, and I tend to gravitate to those types of threads. The 100/100, the DryJanuary, the weekly accountability (though I just lurk there, so far), the SwimThread (when I’m swimming) where people tend to exchange and encourage, and maybe share a bit of life in between.
I’m way more likely to post in a thread where I hope I can be helpful, or encouraging to someone. I couldn’t give two shits (or even one) about Lionel or any other pro for that matter.
I would say much of what I think I know about triathlon going back years is from reading Slowtwitch, so thanks to Dan and later folk for making it available.
I typically look at Slowtwitch forum early in the morning while procrastinating getting on with the rest of my day, opening up only the items with interesting (to me) subject lines, so maybe three or four threads a day.
I don’t post often. Generally I keep my posts to personal anecdotes and what I hope are constructive replies to sincere questions. I don’t enjoy the toxic masculinity that sometimes pops up here when folks start arguing, and have occasionally commented on that and the need for more women’s voices on the site.
I’m very interested in the pro side of the sport, especially the women T100, 70.3 and Ironman competitors going back to when Chrissie Wellington was beating many of the men at Kona. The $99/year I pay for Outside TV subscription is entirely to get access to recordings of the Ironman Pro Series, and I haven’t explored much else on the channel.
When I started in triathlon Beginner Triathlete BT was the forum to be on, ST was just too intimidating. After gaining confidence in my ability, ST was then the go to site for serious information. Other than the ‘just learn to swim’ advice I once received, 99% of the advice provided has been invaluable. The pro issue is a tough one. Every pro I’ve met has been absolutely fantastic, but it’s so hard to get excited about watching others do triathlons. It was even an effort to watch the Olympics. The nice thing about the forum is just click on the threads that interest you.
I immediately thought of a different Jen (@ironclm might know who) and thought of another point …
“Where did everyone go?”
I understand that people go through changes along the road, and some/most stopped doing tri’s over the years (I myself did my last right around the turn of the century, and just run now - “more than what most people would consider ‘reasonable’” LOL) but that’s no reason to stop coming by, and contributing what they had in the memory bank
I don’t consider to have stopped doing tri’s…but, I haven’t gotten wet since 2019-ish? After heart surgery, my wife did ask that I not do any more open water tri’s.
But, yeah…running is the only thing I’ve done in any significant amount since 2019.
I meant to respond to this post last week but I got a little sidetracked with vacationing out of state.
Anyway, I was impressed with this take, and it reflects my own view.
I think a lot of people who have been doing triathlon for years, or even decades, have a tendency to dismiss the beginner who is just completing his or her first sprint. “Ya, that’s nice” as they go about dialing exactly 74.5psi, not 72psi or 77psi, into their 2025 Cadex Tri.
This is kind of personal to me because even though I have now completed (barely) a full distance IM event, I only started triathlon less than four years ago. Finishing that first sprint was a big fkn deal to me at the time. And now, not even four years later, I’m in better shape and I’m much faster than I was back then, I still vividly remember what a big deal it was to cross that finish line. That feeling that I actually did something, no matter how small in this community, is a really big deal to the population at large. It was to me then, and it still is now. And I think we should be far more encouraging, as a community, if we want this sport to continue and grow.
I agree with this as well. My first 70.3 in 2019 at the athlete dinner/briefing they had all the first timers stand up and everyone gave a massive cheer and applause to those athletes and it felt fucking awesome.
The last 2 years (at multiple different events) they’ve done the same thing and it’s a spattering of applause across the room and then move on. It just feels different.
I think there is a tendency the more and longer we do this to become a little snobbish towards the newbies. I think it’s natural with just about anything so I’m only saying this as a gentle reminder to those of us that when we overhear conversation in transition or after a race, we take some time to provide some advice and encouragement. And I’m probably as guilty as anyone so I’m not trying to shame people. You know, we get in transition and we’re setting up our stuff and doing all the prep in our minds and it’s easy to get annoyed with some FNG who doesn’t know how to rack a bike or organize their run gear. But that was us too however many years back.
And others where I probably shouldn’t have even been on the course due to injury or whatever.