Being a coach exposes me to the many reasons as to why people train and race. I have come to the conclusion that there are triathletes and there are people that just want a title. This is definitely true when it comes to Ironman. Many do not want to be a triathlete. They just want to be an Ironman and all they aim for is that finish line.

Now I do not want to sit here and pretend that I do this sport for the right reason and I am so much better. However remember that my goal is to be a coach and when an athlete is not willing to have total experience or even cares about it makes it hard to coach.

There is no doubt that for many the ultimate goal is to be an Ironman. A week does not go by without getting an email from a beginner that has never done a triathlon but signed up to do an Ironman next year. My first advice is always to try to do some shorter races and learn about the sport. Become a triathlete first. Our sport is unique that way. A total rookie can send an application to the Hawaii Ironman and get in without even knowing how to swim. Imagine if other sports did this. That would be wild. We are very unique that way.

But the downside is that the very driven and title oriented people miss out on the experience. Maybe I am a little too much “purpose” for people. I rememer that in college I liked to learn and I liked to see how things applied to real life or not. But in the back of the room there was always the kid who undoubtedly had to ask…. Do I need to know this for the test? I wanted to know that answer too but more importantly I wanted to learn.

When an athlete wants to experience the sport and learn along the way it makes life so much easier. Our sport is great. We can do run races, swim races, bike races, duathlons, aquathlons (swim/run) races and many triathlons of many distances. I can honestly say that I have tried them all. Some I like better than others but that is part of the experience of being a triathlete.

So think about this, challenge yourself. You will not believe how hard it is for me to get someone to go to a masters swim workout. I do not like masters all the time but for those that never do them it is perhaps the best thing to do and improve your swimming. So what if you are the slowest. Remember the goal is to improve for triathlon and not to be as fast as the former college swimmers in the fast lane.

Triathlon is a great sport and its variety is perhaps why I like it the most. You will never get bored. If all you cared about is the finish line or some title like Ironman then you are missing out. Yes you are an Ironman but are you a triathlete?