Triathlon Observations: The People

The Grand Rapids Triathlon was held this past weekend, and I volunteered to work at an aid station. The station happened to be at the transition area where everything is happening; I couldn’t have picked a better spot. People lined up to head to the river for the swim, coming back from the swim to get on their bike, then parking their bike and finishing up with the run portion of the triathlon. It was fascinating to watch as they finished one portion of the event and had to change modes to do the other.

There were three different triathlons going on at the same time, made possible by advancements in chip timing. The computer knows where everyone is all the time. Here are the events and distance for each:

Sprint: 600 meter swim, 20K Bike, 5K Run
Olympic: 1500 meter swim, 40K Bike, 10K Run
Half-Ironman: 1.2 mile swim, 56 Mile Bike, 13.1 Mile Run

People of all ages and sizes competed. I think that’s the operative word: compete. Even though it was most likely a personal goal to see whether they could finish or not, trying to finish in a specific time, or maybe even trying to win their age-group, the willingness to complete and put forth such a tremendous effort is something to be admired.

But should everyone have been out there swimming, biking, and running? I’ll talk about that on Thursday.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet