I would like to know others opinion on “substituting” religion with triathlon training. I was having this conversation with a friend who is religious and they totally did not agree with my viewpoint.
My viewpoint was that I dont neccesarily feel the need to attend church and read a bible as triathlon acts as a religion for me. Training seems to ground me and give me the clarity that attending church does for others. I feel that people attend church for many reasons, but one of them being to get to know themselves better. But why dont these people go for a long run in the woods or up a mountain? I feel they will learn themselves more deeply this way. This conversation obviously was longer than this, but that was the jist of it.
What are others viewpoint on triathlon/religion and their intertwinement?
The people I know that substitute tri for church, practice the “religion” of triathlon 7 days a week. Those i know that go to church practice religion when its convienient. Just my personal observation.
Not sure about religion leading to self knowledge, but there’s an errie similarity to the ‘holier than thou’ attitudes acquired by training and by attending church, although personally I can only vouch for the former.
All I can say is don’t try to mix the two - whenever I get caught sleeping in church after a hard workout my kids laugh at me and my wife gets mad at me.
I will also add that both the triathlon community (lavender room) and the Catholic Church are guilty of trying to tell me how to vote.
I agree with CG that this is in the wrong room. But as I’m tied up over there in a desperate and futile attempt to defend traditional marriage. . .
But why dont these people go for a long run in the woods or up a mountain?
Who says they don’t? I certainly do. The two aren’t, and shouldn’t be considered, mutually exclusive. And I certainly don’t dispute than one can come to appreciate aspects of God’s glory by hiking in the mountains, or on a long ride with friends, or watching a garden grow, or any of the countless wonders that make up the world. But there’s a place for formal worship, too, and it shouldn’t be neglected.
There are people who practice religion only when it’s convenient. That’s too bad. But of course, not everyone is like that. Religion (like triathlon) is something that if a person means it and is serious about it, they put their full heart/energy into it. That said, they can be combined at times. For example, I was taught to show religion/spirituality rather than talking about it constantly. (it’s too easy to get preachy and put people off) The quote from a friend of mine was “Preach the gospel and use words only when absolutely necessary” … this can happen every moment of our lives - in the bike leg of a race when you point out a stray bottle or pothole to the racers behind you, making an effort not to clock someone on the swim, stopping on a ride if you see someone with a flat on the side of the road… and outside of the triathlon world in countless ways. So it’s not all about going to Church and reading the Bible. Although those things are important. I do my long runs Sundays after Church, which in the summer works out perfectly with my “heat training” and also gives me some quiet time to think about the sermon. I like to read every night before going to bed - I’ve substituted my fiction books with the Bible. It can be done, but like combining triathlon with the other aspects of our lives (work, kids, other non-tri committments). Sorry if this went off on too much of a tangent or if it dipped into the preachy tone - I tried to keep that out of here.
This is not a spiritual high it is a biochemical event in your brain. After being released by the pituitary gland, endorphin attaches itself to specific receptor sites in the brain and affects the brain’s perception of pain. According to reports athletes descriptions of such experiences or “state” vary considerably, ranging from being merely pleasant, to intense joy and euphoria, to experiencing spirituality, to a sense of power and invincibility, to feelings that are similar to the out-of-body sensations induced by drugs, to sexual orgasm.
Nothing to do with transcendental (i.e. spiritual) properties of endurance sport. The links between any sport and religion is based on a cognitive interpretation that an individual will carry out in trying to attribute the cause of the above experience to either an external or internal locus of control.
ever since i’ve started training (about 2 years now), i’ve realized that not only was i improving my body, but i was also filling a void that had been there since i stopped feeling comfortable in synagogue.
some of it is self-awareness, some of it is penance (not “punishing” myself, but just working out the stress of something that went wrong and was my fault). mostly it is appreciating what is good in the world and having time to think.
whenever my fraternity brothers ask me where i’m going when i’m about to go for a run or ride on a weekend morning, i tell them “to church”.
however, i also agree with vitus… nobody said that these things are mutually exclusive, and i still go to synagogue for the high holidays. neither one can replace the other.
Triathlon does not appear to be a recognised religion, and these guys should know.
I find the beliefomatic questionnaire very interesting. Without fail I find that everyone has considered spiritual matters very carefully, but have issues with the requirements of a particular religion. This might broaden the scope a bit.
By the way, I do a long bike ride on Sunday mornings rather than going to church. I don’t save my spirituality just for Sundays.
You bring up an interesting point. To me it depends on how you define religion. Typically, people associate religion with church so people who go to church are religious. I think too many churches have watered down the Gospel message (Jesus Christ died on the cross, rose from the dead, paid the penalty for our sins and it is all a free gift from God that we cannot earn). I tend to associate the legalistic crap that is taught in churches with religion. If Christ is indeed who he said he was, then the most religious people of his day, the Pharisees, missed their redeemer because they were so bogged down being religious. So that being said, I have no problem substituting religion with training but you can’t substitute faith with training or else you are into New Age stuff.
The voice of reason.