Beginner Triathlete - Scott Tinley's Writings articles

Part Three: What's Reality Got to Do with Anything Old?

And you thought triathlon was just a sport that requires swimming, cycling, and running.

Why it’s so hard for us to talk about losing at a simple game? Sports are supposed to be about building positive character, supposed to be about fairness, equality, and striving for excellence.

The attitude of Wildflower

Traveling as an athlete is better than traveling as a tourist or on business or even just wandering around with a backpack and a holey sleeping bag. An athlete is given wide birth.

If you ask beginning triathletes what they fear most, a standard response usually includes some reference to mass swim starts and bike crashes.

We often forget the Other, that person or persons living behind the doors of our individual hubris, that secreted cheerleader who polishes our medals but never wins one of their own.

There is a serious, devoted athlete, committed to the task of triathlon. He is happy because his heart rate is low, his blood lactate is low and his chances in this year’s Kona lottery is high.

Our response to injuries are perhaps more telling of our personalities than our plans to heal them. It’s not so much a case of denial as it is disbelief. We are multisport athletes. We don't get hurt.

Of the many ironies inherent to youth participation in multisport, the fact that it’s tougher for them than it is for adults might be the most suggestive.

As endurance athletes, by definition we must go to our borders to find our center. There is meaning in suffering, we tell ourselves, but not in stupidity.

Tinley's take on the motives behind Lance Armstrong's return to triathlon and what it will mean for the sport

Sport and religion both celebrate group values and offer excitement. Sport and religion are grounded in disciplined practice, a devotion to a cause, and a belief in the unseen. And both require faith.

Triathlon style is no longer defined in the Nuevo replication of wool cycling jerseys and neon footwear. The style of swim/bike/run is a look and feel and way of being in the multisport world.

Rediscover your sport on your time. Don't just make it through another year. Make it through another life.