Funny Story

[Tri Girl]

Ok- funny to me anyhow. It's about the assumptions people make- reminds me of the story of Running Mommy (Denise) at the last tri she did (are you going to walk the 5K sweetie?).

Last weekend my DH and I did a Formula 1 Duathlon (2m run, 10m bike, 2m run, 10m bike, 2m run) as a team. We did it as a team because we've never done anything as a team (event wise) and thought it would be fun. Another married couple in our tri club also did it as a team. I ran, he biked. It was fun.
At the awards ceremony after the race, the RD (and good friend) was passing out awards for teams and said "Now all the teams (6 in all) come up for some applause. I said jokingly "Yes, clap for us because we only did part of the race." People laughed- it was funny.
Then- as I'm walking away a lady says to the person next to her, "That's cute, you gotta start somewhere." I didn't say anything and kept on walking by. Little does she know that I've done an IM and ran 4 marathons, my DH has run 5 marathons pretty fast and the other team from our tri club had a 4 time IM finisher and a very fast marathoner as the runner. Funny! I told the other team what she said, and they rolled their eyes and laughed. They said "just because we're a team doesn't mean we CAN'T do the distance- we just chose not to."
If only that lady knew she was in the presence of pretty decent athletes- not first time competitors. I know I probably look like a first timer (short and stocky), but my DH and the other team are very trim and athletic folks. Reminded me to not make assumptions about people and their athletic abilities (although I was reminded of that on the runs when a 72 year old man- and member of our tri club- passed me on all 3 runs- makes me feel really good about myself ).

People are too funny...