Yesterday I had a conversation in the locker room with a guy I know. I found it entertaining, humorous and quite telling about what the general public knows about Ironman. This guy is probably in his 30's and in good shape, but probably not involved in endurance events. I don't know if he's ever run any races or competed in any type of triathlon event, but my guess is probably not based on our conversation.
From past experience I have discovered most people know very little about triathlon and fewer people know the various distance of triathlons or even that different lengths exist. I get that and whenever someone starts asking me questions about the sport I usually try to bring it down to that level assuming they don't know much. However, I assume most people know triathlon is about swimming, biking and running.
The guy in the locker room definitely knows I am a runner, but I'm not sure if he knows of my triathlon experience. In the locker room he says, "You got any marathons coming up". I respond, "Only one and that will be in Ironman." He looks at me confused and I could tell he didn't know that Ironman contained a marathon so I say, "Yup....26.2 miles or running after the swim and bike". He responds by saying, "So Ironman is a Triathlon?" and I respond affirmative. He then asks how long the bike portion is and I tell him it is 112 miles. He looks despondant and asks, "So you ride that on a mountain bike?". "Nope, it's usually ridden on a road or triathlon bike" I say. He looks around, scratches his head and says, "Where do you ride 112 miles?" to which I indicate it is done out on the hilly rural roads west of Madison. He looks shocked and says, "MAN....so you do that all out on the street?".
At that point I am not really sure where he thought I would be riding 112 miles, but my best guess was that he thought it might have been on trails on a mountain bike. Anyway, he concludes our conversation by asking me how much time do I have between each sport. I basically summed it up by saying, this is a race, so you want to get to the next sport as fast as possible keeping in mind that you have to finish all three sports within the 17 hour limit if you want the designation of being an Ironman.
I am not sure if all of that sunk in with him, but I was glad I could help educate him just a little bit and hopefully he learned that Ironman is serious business. It isn't just another race.....It is IRONMAN and it is a designation that is bestowed on those who put in a ton of time, effort, sweat, planning and hard back-breaking work. I'm pretty sure he had no idea of the amount of work that is needed to complete an Ironman, but most people don't, and I am okay with that!
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