How I didn't do my first triathlon

This is a reflection on why I registered for a triathlon race, and why I decided not to do it. I wrote it as my own justification of the decision. There might be someone who feels similarly and this helps them realize they are not alone.

In June I signed up for a triathlon sprint distance race (750m swim/20km bike/5km run). It’s called TriXábia (Xábia is a Valencian name for Jávea, a town where I live). I found it to be an easy way to try triathlon. The start of the race is a 3-5 minutes on bike from my place. The logistics would be easy and the distance manageable even if I didn’t train much.

I did cycling gran fondos in 2017 (Czechia) and in 2022 (Spain) and then a stage of Volta Marina 2023 (DNF). Since then I resisted registering for events. I felt like I don’t need anything like it. I was happy just training for myself, without a specific goal.

This year I joined a community of runners and triathletes through a local plant-based cafe’s running club. I’ve been unemployed and have had some room to think about what’s next. The community, atmosphere and ever present runners, cyclists and swimmers in Javea affected me. I considered running triathlon training camps as a business. This is typical of me - I start to enjoy a topic and then soon think of ways how to build a project or business around it.

A big motivator to sign up for TriXábia was that maybe I should do a triathlon if I want to sell camps to triathletes. One doesn’t have to practice an activity that is a subject of their business, but it helps.

I spent a few months, with varying intensity, to create a training camps business. But then looking at my prognosis spreadsheet andthe atmosphere at home filled with uncertainty, I abandonded the idea.

With that, my interest in triathlon disappeared. A familiar pattern.

But a more important factor was that signing up for the race wasn’t true to myself. There’s a lot of people excited about joining sportive events (which is awesome!), but in me it doesn’t trigger strong emotions. There are people who love being at the starting line at a specific date and time, but I find it limiting. It’s strange but I don’t like the notion of someone deciding where and when I should be and what I should do. Free-spirited or asocial, it’s hard to say.

I’m also affected by belief that almost all events these days exist to create commercial benefit or brand awareness for the organizer. I’m not saying it’s TriXábia’s case. That’s is a true grassroots event. It’s a paradox because causing this “I’m being sold something” feeling is what I would be guilty of contributing to if I ran the training camps business or organized an event.

At the beginning of this post I said I wanted to try a triathlon. A tryathlon, some would say. What’s the desired outcome of trying something out? I’d say there’s a tendency to get to like what we are trying. To get hooked. It’s not common to hear “I will try this sport just to confirm it’s not for me”. Getting hooked on something means doing it more. That means spending more time, energy and money doing it. None of which I’m willing to give at this stage of life. So why expose myself to the temptation?

I’m also a father of a 2-year old, without grandparents and family around to help. I understand the parents need to do their hobbies to recharge and be great parents. But I always find it unfair when I hear “daddy/husband went for a half-day ride (and will be tired the 2nd half) because he deserves it and needs to get out”. I want to minimize the time away from home. I do the minimum I need to in order to stay healthy physically and mentally. I’d feel selfish if I did more than that. I’m not saying it is selfish, just that I would feel that way.

Some other smaller reasons why I’m not doing my first triathlon. The list serves as my further justification of the decision:

• My bike’s drivetrain accumulated rust. Overall the bike needs work and investment that I’m not willing to make right now.
• I’m not sure what to wear and I’m lazy dealing with the logistics (gear, nutrition, all the good practices…)
• During training I felt my right knee and hip weren’t right. I think it’s a result of a few weeks doing only endurance (running, cycling) and no strength.
• Linked to the previous point - what’s the sense of training for and doing triathlon if in the process my health gets worse?