I guess I'll butt in here too, even though I haven't read the whole thing (just bits here and there).

And have to say, I feel that this discussion is pretty interesting, and probably deserves its own thread.

Anyway, I would be pissed too, about the unofficial Ironmen. If it were me I wouldn't accept the medal. Maybe I would. Maybe I would keep it around, kind of as a motivator. I certainly wouldn't tell people I finished an Ironman. I wouldn't have, after all.

And as for disrespecting other athletes by not being prepared enough? Well, perhaps in a race that is a more serious distance. But a sprint. Now, i'm certainly not saying a sprint is easy. It's not, I did 2 this year. But there are a whole variety of people competing in a sprint, from those who are really racing, and putting up competitive times, to those who are just doing it for a lark, to those who have trained and trained just to finish.

Many times, sprint events are very beginner-friendly, so why would you worry that you're disrespecting the training of other athletes? I mean, most of those athletes are probably in your shoes, signed up, maybe didn't train enough but are hoping to do well.

A friend of mine signed up for my first tri with me. She got on the bike maybe 3 times before the race, and she doesn't ride a bike. Her bike was an old 10spd someone had bought for her, the tires blew out every time she rode it. She had no idea how to care for her bike, she only wore a helmet because we told her she needed to get one. She didn't swim at all before the race. She was a lifeguard in h.s., about 10 years ago. She ran maybe once or twice.

I wanted to beat her, because I was taking my training seriously and she was just doing it for fun. I really really wanted to beat her. But guess what? She smoked me, in and out of the water. She beat me out of the water by about 6 minutes, managed to come within 1mph of me on the bike (me with my fancy bike and clipless pedals and her with her dodgy old bike), and then proceeded to fly by me on the run and finish a good 2 minutes ahead of me.

Was that disrespectful of her to me? Heck no, she had a good race. It burned me like hell, but you know what? I'm used to getting smoked by people and can deal with someone jumping off the couch and beating me in a race.

When I did those two races, there were plenty of people there that probably hadn't put in the training I had. They didn't have fancy bikes, they were very slow swimmers, but I didn't hold that against them. They were there like I was to have fun and do their best to beat their personal goals. They weren't being disrespectful to me by being there at all. Nor, I hope, was I being disrespectful to the people that finished on the podium and flew by me at 21mph on the bike. There's all sorts of levels.

If you wait until you're 'good enough' you just might never compete, because there will always be someone better than you.


K.