After 22 years of training and racing I’m calling it quits. When I first started triathlons I had just had a cast removed from my leg. I was hit by a car directing traffic as police officer. I used to watch a triathon near my home and always gawked as the speed these guys had. This was way back in the time of the Bud Lite Series and the Mid Atlantic Regional Champ. were held at a place in central Virginia called Lake Monitcello (I was Chief of Police there for 10 years) As soon as the cast was removed after 6 months, I decided I’d give it a try. I couldn’t even run 10 yards when they removed that damn cast. It hurt like hell.
Well over the years I’ve won my share of races, placed in my fare share, sucked at a bunch of them, got DQ’d once for moving left of a cone line to avoid hitting a wobbling newbie, slept in on race morning instead of racing in wind and pouring rain (Desert Classic Duathlon, twice!!), swam in COLD lakes, completed 2 IM’s races, DNF’d 3 times with a broken bike and DNF’d once after drinking something I never did before about 1 hour before a race, DUH !!!. Owned more bikes then I care to admit. Bought enough cycling stuff to outfit a national team. Put up with bad hips and knees for too long. This is what happens after you get hit by a car and your right leg is a full inch shorter then the left.
So, thanks for saying HI on this forum and for all those people I met over the past 22 years…have fun, stay safe…maybe we’ll meet again on the golf course.
Congratulations. It’s hard to quit a habit but it sounds like you’ve made the decision, which is the first step. I will warn you though, that there will be days when you will look back on the old days and say “perhaps one small sprint”…fight it, it’ll do you good.
Having said that, you can still swim and bike, it’s the running that has beat you down! You can also continue to post here, have a laugh, make shit up and hope for a re-hash of the “Hotties” thread.
I will give you a 100 bucks for your bikes and wheels. Are you allowing kids at the inn yet? Since you have nothing better to do now Paul you can watch mine while I still do all the swim , bike , run stuff :0)
I have not really raced in a very long time. Yet, people still ask me when I show up at a race to watch, “Are you racing?”
There are more than a few of our generation in the sport of triathlon who have moved on and don’t really race anymore or have any interest to. We ride. We swim. We ski. We take long walks and hikes. We stay active. We try to do something everyday, just like we always have, but if the schedule dose not permit, no big deal - maybe tomorrow!
The great think that I have found is that, that huge base of aerobic fitness truly takes years to go away and you just need to keep at it a bit to maintain a good percentage of it. No, we’ll not be breaking 60 minutes for 40K and time soon, but back off a bit from that, and we can go for a few hours if we want.
Wish you well. Although I think we disagreed a little while ago, there is no doubt you brought a lot of wisdom, experiance and knowledge to help others here and just plainly raise the level of this site. Wish you well. Kenney
I’ve seen your posts in the year that I have been a member of this forum…I’ve always wanted to say that I spent a vacation at Casa Sedona in 1996. From what I understand, you weren’t the owner then, but still, I thought it was an interesting tidbit of information that we had something more than just triathlons in common. I never knew how to bring it up in other threads, but it seems fitting in this scenario. As they say, “its a small world”.
Good luck.
I have not raced in over 10 years my last one was Cali ironman 2001 the last year it was a full IM. Every year since then I have thought about it but never did it. I still keep up on whats going on in the community though. Enjoy all the extra time.
I said that also and was considering quitting tris altogether and my tri team. What I started doing this year was really super small races, where everyone was like ‘OMG this is my first tri!’ not to cherry pick races I could place in, but just to get that ‘I am really excited to be doing this’ vibe. No attitude at all, and reminded me of ‘back in the day’ and why I used to love it. No aero helmets, fancy wheels, etc. Lots of hybrids and mt bikes.
I was SO ready to quit and did a race like that…the guy next to me on the bike rack actually said: “do you have enough room? do you want me to move my stuff?”
And that reminded me again why I love doing this. It was fun to help new people and made me humble again.
