By Chris McCormack
2/16/2010
http://www.xtri.com/features_display.aspx?riIDReport=6260&CAT=23&xref=xx
I read Maccas article on xtri.com. He hit the spot as far as what I feel about triathlons.Call it a lifestyle sport or whatever but it changes your life , it changes your attitude and it surrounds you with a positivity. I feel that energy every time I am at a race or with fellow triathletes.
I had a chat with my fellow club members before and after the race on Sunday.I am continually amazed at the transformation of members who have done their first triathlon one or two seasons ago and are now are doing IM races and casually talking about 4 hour rides .It is the positivity of taking your life in your hands and squeezing all the energy you can extract .Every ounce of life force. There is a cockiness and confidence.I can do it.It comes with the first unsteady steps of training and concludes with the goal of crossing that line .There is no better high.Ask any triathlete and they will remember that rush and that feeling of achievement.
It may be a lifestyle but for me it is more .I feel totally relaxed in the exhaustion of training and totally focused .It is for me a meditation and a celebration of feeling alive.
There is clearly the danger with any activity but no more than any other sport.Clearly it is safer that the luge .But even in that sport ,what attracts sportmen and sports women to such a dangerous activity as rushing down an icy chute at 140kph .It must be the rush and feeling of being alive.
I read the piece following Kumaritashvili's death on the star.com:
Luger's death stirs gruesome memories
Ex-Canadian Olympian Chris Lori suffered horrific spill in 1987
February 13, 2010 Dave Feschuk
VANCOUVER–When Chris Lori watched the frame-by-frame video replay of the luge crash that killed 21-year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili of Georgia on Friday, he was one of the few people in the world who could say he'd experienced anything similar.
"The dream has got to be bigger than the pain. You're either going to live with that for the rest of your life, the fact that you backed down to challenge and backed down to fear and (gave up) your goals and your dreams," said Lori. "As sliders, only we know what it's like to stand on top of that mountain and look down that mountain. (Kumaritashvili's death) is a terrible shame, but we've all been there as sliders. We've all stood at the top of a mountain that we feared, and we've all got to go down that mountain."
In triathlons we don't stare down the mountain but we do have our run in's with danger especially on the road.I read all too often of triathletes losing their life on training rides .The latest sadly was a Canadian triathlete training in Canary Islands for IM Wisconsin later in the year.
During my week ride I heard of another cyclist hit by a vehicle on a hills ride and I ran into my friend Kurt , a lwayer today.He is training for IM New Zealand in 2 weeks and he nearly had a nasty crash with an inattentive driver pulling out into him.He was lucky and wasn't hurt.
It doesn't stop me despite a colleague who is a medical doctor telling me today that after a visit to the spinal ward at Shenton Park hospital (here in Perth) you wouldn't want to be on a bike or motorcycle.I disagree.I have been to the ward ,seen the broken bodies and I cycle but I try my best to stay safe.
I wouldn't want it any other way.
Everybody gets knocked down, how quick are you going to get up?
For EVERYONE OUT THERE HAVING A GO...Keep doing it.
Human Chain from NikeSportswear on Vimeo.
The NIKE Human Chain Commercial
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