The main thing I enjoy about a Triathlon is the competition. I enjoy getting to race day and toeing the line for another start. I anticipate the sound of the gun firing and those first strokes in the swim. I also get a little anxious and have to control my heart rate. People enter the triathlon challenge for different reasons. Some enter the sport for health aspects such as weight loss. Some enter the sport because of the camaraderie that occurs with other competitors and training partners. Some enter a triathlon because of a challenge from a co-worker. But for me, the main reason I do a triathlon is the competition.

How I got to a triathlon is an interesting story. I had been losing weight and gaining muscle by using P90X. I had enjoyed just exercising and seeing my old self rejuvenated back into fitness and strength. Then one day, I hurt my shoulder. I figured I’d just rest my shoulder for a week and everything would be better. Little did he know that a week turned into a month and he really was still in pain and weakness. A friend of mine challenged me to go out and run a 5K on Thanksgiving. I agreed to do it and paid my first entrance fee. I spent about 3 weeks preparing for that 5K. I got up early and went to the race. Initially, I just enjoyed being around all the people who were trying to achieve the same goal that I wanted to achieve. So the gun went off to start with. I ran at a good pace, but I knew I could go faster. The biggest result of that first race was a feeling I hadn’t had in a long time. The feeling of pure and raw competition. From that moment I knew that for all the reasons others had to compete, mine would be the competition. I had a friend in town who fueled that competitive urge by saying that he had been doing triathlons for a while. I accompanied him on some training runs and tried to discover the beginnings of this sport. In fact, we attended a triathlon together and I beat him, putting him ahead in the race. I knew I had to continue this quest for competition.

I am a naturally competitive person. I like to win and I hate to lose. I can also see that just showing up on race day will not give me the maximum opportunity to be able to compete. Therefore, training days are not heavy work for me, because of that competitive spirit that always burns that if I do well in training, I have the opportunity to do very well in the race. In fact, in my first two triathlons, I made a commitment during the race that my training would be better so that I could be at the top of the leaderboard and not in the middle of the pack.

Most of the time I’ve been to a triathlon, my friends and family have said something like “I hope you win.” He always replied: “I’m not going to win, I’m just going to compete.” That statement has been true until this year. This year I plan to not only go and compete in the middle of the group, but win my age group. This year, my competitive drive has to be more than just a feeling on training days, it will have to push me through the pain of the race to achieve some of the goals I have set for myself. That drive burns me and I plan on letting it out like a beast on race day.

People can have many reasons to do triathlon, but for me the C is Competition!