The stages of a triathlon

Last Sunday, I was smacked in the face with how far I have come in the sport of triathlon.  To summarize the race, I was 3rd out of the water, fell back to 10th place during the bike, and then had my knee seize up on me during the run and had to walk the last 3 miles into the finish line.   The swim and bike are likely my best performances ever in a triathlon, and gave me the opportunity to hang with the upper echelon of that day's race competition--it was enthralling!  A few years back, I could have never hoped to be in this position.   And my run falling apart was much more about the fact that I've had difficult times at work and haven't been able to get in the training required to go the distance with those guys.  I'm not concerned about it at all.

Though, what did happen was that I had a chance to witness all the different varieties of attitudes that are present at a race.

1.  The race leaders:  the guy I was running with initially showed concern that I dropped off the pace and gave me a simple "Come on, you got this..." and then remained steadfastly focused on his own performance.  The other people who passed me could not care less--I was just one less person to threaten their spots on the podium.

2.  The concerned crowd:  The people passing me quickly morphed into a group that was concerned for my well being--"Are you ok?" (with the implication being "medically").  I assured them I was--just having issues with my IT band, and everyone kept running on their merry way.

3.  The motivators:  Somewhere, the middle of the pack transitions to this group of people that are super-motivators.  Every single person, for what seemed an eternity, was determined to get me running again--by this point, I knew my knee would not function again for that day, and I was doomed to a long walk into the finish line.  This peaked with a guy coming up from behind me, grabbing my left arm, and screaming "You can do it--You've only got 2 miles to go!!!"  I nearly crapped my pants from the shock.

4.  The experienced finishers:  After the supermotivators, I encountered several people that offered words of encouragement, but clearly had seen my situation before.  They knew that I knew that they knew that whatever they said was appreciated but wasn't going to do a damn bit of a good.   I know this from the telepathic bond formed that was predominantly "Not your day today?"

5.  The walking/jogging/running dead:  There's a group at the end of a triathlon that is simply trying

to survive to the finish line--and while they're completely motivated and concerned about you, they don't have the energy to outwardly offer encouragement.  None of them appeared to be at the point of needing to eat flesh straight off the bone yet, though.  So I got to save that visual for the Walking Dead premiere later that night.

Looking forward to next season--for now, my focus is on a the SPMS Champs swim meet in December!