
Ordinary Mortals®
Talking Tri-/Duathlon for Ordinary Mortals: A Series
Last year, I believe it was, Pearl Izumi issued a Pact. Online (of course) they urge people to sign on to it. In my long experience with our sport (34 years at the end of last season), I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
This column is about my long-time friend, Dan Honig, the founder and long-time President of the New York Triathlon Club. I first met Dan at the second triathlon I ever did in October 1983.
But turning 80 itself, that was different. For those of us born in the 1930s (and, I suppose, in the 40s and 50s too), 80 had a sort of a special ring to it. Eighty was old.
Is the goal to win the race, to win your age group, to set a PR in a particular race, to qualify for an Worlds, to make the time limit, to simply finish, happily and healthily, saying to yourself “I had fun out there today!”
On Sept. 25, 2016, I reached a milestone in our sport: closing in on the end of my 34th season, I did my 250th multisport event.
I have been lucky enough to have been able to go to a number of triathlon national championships, beginning with St. Joseph, Missouri in 1999.
I first did the sprint at CGI’s New Jersey State Championships at Princeton, New Jersey, in 2012. I did it again the next year, but then I missed it until I was able to get to it once again this season. There are two events, a sprint and an Olympic-distance race.
The goal was to get my feet wet for the season — without actually getting my feet wet. At any rate, I did get renewed, and so off I went to the USA Triathlon Duathlon National Championships in Bend, Oregon for my sixth Duathlon Nationals.
“Renewal time! Yes, I can still do this. And I still want to do it. And I still have fun doing it.”
They will help you get going and keep on going, on a rational basis, whether you are starting from scratch or ready to begin race-specific training or even if you’ve been racing for a long time.