I’m not super competitive by any means. If I was, I sure wouldn’t be in this triathlon world. There’s no way I can devote hours a day to training right now, although that does sound fantastic. Wish I could! A podium finish is not in my sight, that’s not my focus. I’m usually in the learning-mindset with all this tri stuff – just enjoying the journey, love the personal challenge, being outside, the freedom of riding the bike, making strides in the pool, etc. Sometimes I don’t even check my times because it’s not that important to me.
However….every dog has their day. A couple of weeks ago I did my 4th tri for the season as a team. I did the swim, my coworker did the bike, and I did the run. I didn’t know until I got there, but a former colleague was also there. Surprise! They seemed to know that I would be there. Turned out I was about 10 people in front of this person in line for the pool swim. Interesting.
I knew we had a pretty similar pace. This person had the advantage because they were able to watch me swim, estimate my pace, and then figure out what was needed to beat me. Like I said, I wasn’t in the kick-someone’s-ass pace mode, I was just in the let’s-be-strong and have fun mode. There’s quite a difference. Knowing that we had a similar pace I figured I’d check our times. Ended up that I was 3 seconds slower in the pool that day than this person was.
3 DAMN SECONDS! Had I realized it was only 3 seconds, I would have nailed that person!! This is such an achievement for me to be (even a little bit) competitive at swimming. I could barley swim a few laps when I started. Even one length was pretty challenging. So to be a potential place of real competition with someone else the same age as me – whaaaat!? And by the way, let’s just say that this person totally deserved a good ass kickin’ from me. No details needed, just trust me on that one.
I’m seriously considering signing up for another event just to kick this person’s ass in the pool! If we don’t end up in the same place this season, it’s ON for next season and they don’t even know it. This is kinda’ like the version of hearing “you can’t do that”. Let’s go!
CHANDRA GREEN 