This was in today's "Dear Abby" column in the paper:
DEAR ABBY: I am a 55-year-old female who competes in triathlons for fun, fitness and health. I consulted my doctor because I was having foot pain. When I told him I was a runner and was preparing for a marathon race, his response was, "At your age, you could hardly call it a race."
I was shocked. I repeated the insulting comment to my husband, who has never supported me in this nor attended my races. He replied, "Well, you don't actually consider yourself an athlete, do you?"
I am so offended that I want to dismiss both my doctor and my husband. I just finished a race with 5,000 women. Every one of them was fabulous and serious, no matter how old or what they looked like. It was the spirit of the sport that mattered. At what age does one stop being an athlete? -- OLDER ATHLETE, EUGENE, ORE.
This raised some interesting questions in my mind about support, encouragement, or the lack thereof. I don't want to discuss the "athlete-yes-or-no" question. Instead, I'd like to know how people out there deal with non-supportive spouses, friends, co-workers, doctors, etc.
My own experience includes being teased by my co-workers for "getting beat by a 70-year-old woman." (This was after a big meet where they viewed my results on the Internet.) This came from men who are at least 50 pounds overweight and can barely walk from their cars to their desks.
Parents
Former Member
Drives me crazy. Fortunately most people I know think of swimming as a sport. And anyone that thinks it isn't is usually convinced when they try to swim a few hundred yards (because usually they can't swim that much) I have 2 co-workers that were like yeah, whatever swimming, then they both tried it on their own. They asked me how many lengths I swim in a practice. I told them I wasn't going to do the math, but we swim 2-3 miles a pop. How many lenths is a mile? 66 in most pools. Oh, I swam 20 I figured it had to be at least one mile. Oh yeah, that's usually our warm-up. And we mix in fly, back, *** and do sprint work. Then usually they are impressed.
Oh the other hand another co-worker of mine told me before he knew I swam and ran that he thought swimming and distance running were the two most difficult and masochistic sports out there. (This from a former collegiate hockey player, high school foot player, and someone who has done numerous other sports)
Drives me crazy. Fortunately most people I know think of swimming as a sport. And anyone that thinks it isn't is usually convinced when they try to swim a few hundred yards (because usually they can't swim that much) I have 2 co-workers that were like yeah, whatever swimming, then they both tried it on their own. They asked me how many lengths I swim in a practice. I told them I wasn't going to do the math, but we swim 2-3 miles a pop. How many lenths is a mile? 66 in most pools. Oh, I swam 20 I figured it had to be at least one mile. Oh yeah, that's usually our warm-up. And we mix in fly, back, *** and do sprint work. Then usually they are impressed.
Oh the other hand another co-worker of mine told me before he knew I swam and ran that he thought swimming and distance running were the two most difficult and masochistic sports out there. (This from a former collegiate hockey player, high school foot player, and someone who has done numerous other sports)
