As the title says, it’s been quite a ride for me in the sport of triathlon. Formerly a non-athlete (except for downhill skiing, which I took up at age 22), I did my first triathlon at the age of 46, on September 17, 1983. For those of you who have been following my writings on the pages of the USA Triathlon Blog (and before that in the original version of the magazine), you know that my career in the sport is winding down. In fact, it may have already wound down completely. Due both to COVID-19 and other factors, I have not raced this year. But I won’t know that for sure about that until next season, when, all else being equal, I plan to give it another whirl. And so, over the course of the next year or so, with the kind permission of my Editor for this space, Tom Lenneberg, I am going to reminisce about 10 of my favorite races, out of the 256 tri’s and du’s that I have done over years.

In a recent column in the Spring 2019 issue of USA Triathlon Magazine, our CEO Rocky Harris commented on the new, growing relationship between USA Triathlon and IRONMAN. 

Overall, this new relationship is going to be very positive for us and the for the sport. At the same time, we do have to deal with the perception held by some, both inside the sport and outside, that the only “real” triathlon is an IRONMAN. 

“Not Dead Yet?” you might ask?  Is that any way to title a column on our blog? 

Well, yes, that is if it is the title of a new book containing the collected wisdom of a group of 18 world age-group champions in our sports of triathlon and duathlon, all of whom are over 75 years of age. That wisdom, in the form of 56 tips, each with commentary, is provided for (as it is said in the preface to the book): “everyone in mid-life and beyond who wants to be fit and well or, as we say, thriving and flourishing.” 

Last year was not a good one for me. I had the worst tri/du racing season I have ever had since I first started in the sport in 1983. As I recounted in my last two columns of last year (My Lost Season and A Season Recovered), I ended up doing just one of the half-dozen or so races that I had planned for that year.

My previous column in this series was entitled “My Lost Season (Almost?),” and in it I described my 2018 season going into September as a “totally lost season, for one reason or another.” I dealt with pre-race sickness twice, a cancelled race, water that was too rough for my seasick tendencies and a family illness preventing travel abroad. Would it end up being totally lost? Well, as I said:

I’m calling this one my “lost season” — actually my first one ever.

As some of you know, I have been racing triathlons and duathlons since 1983. My first triathlon was on Sept. 17, 1983, at Sag Harbor, N.Y. — the second running of the Mighty Hamptons Triathlon. Since then, by the end of my 35th season last year, I have done a total of 255 triathlons and duathlons.

Since last year I had been looking forward to doing the 2018 USA Triathlon Sprint Duathlon Age-Group National Championships (non-drafting), held in Greenville, South Carolina. It was the qualifier for the 2019 International Triathlon Union Age-Group Sprint World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain. I was especially looking forward to going there. Among other things, the city has many historical sights, including a 12th century bridge built near the site of a bridge built by the Romans during the time of their Empire, 3rd century B.C.E. — 5th century C.E. (Given the size of my age group, Men’s 80-84, crossing the finish line would have qualified me to go to Pontevedra.)

This my third (and last for now) essay in the series on the mental aspects of multisport racing. For the first two, I talked about mental discipline being central to both training and racing: understanding why we are doing what we are doing, being rational about how we go about it in our training and our racing, and then staying focused on what we are doing in both. That is, rationally staying within our limits, even as, over time, we may expand them. In the second, I talked about the power of the mind on a day-to-day basis and over time as well.

Let’s first talk about the value of what we can call “mind-work,” in both training and racing. (Of course, the most important aspect of mind-work in multisport racing is “knowing why you are in the sport,” which I discussed in last month’s column.) One aspect of mind-work is “knowing your body.” For example, it can be knowing that the physical pain you are feeling on a ride on in a race is indeed not due to an injury. Rather it is knowing that the pain is from muscle-use, knowing that when you finish, or perhaps even when you go on to the next race-segment, in a few minutes it will go away. And it is being able to act on that knowledge and keep going.

Talking Tri-/Duathlon for Ordinary Mortals®: A Series, (No. 49, 2018/01)

I think that it was the renowned American inventor Thomas Edison* who was supposed to have said: "Invention is 10 percent inspiration, 90 percent perspiration."

Taking "inspiration" to mean mental work, at the time back in 1992 when I wrote the original version of this column (see my note below at the end), I thought that the ratio in triathlon racing was almost the opposite of that one (even on a very hot day) — that is 90 percent mental work, 10 percent perspiration.