Masters Swimmers Acting Like Triathletes

Well, I reject the premise of the question about triathlon "nuts." At the few triathlons I have attended, I saw a LOT of participants -- even a majority -- who were simply content to finish and are not hypercompetitive about it. (Though I will admit that most of them -- even the slow ones -- had nicer bikes than me.) There is a subset of triathletes who train for Iron Man events, and they do have to put a lot of training time in. But they are a small minority of triathletes as a whole. And the ones I know are no more self-indulgent than most people. My wife once participated in a group called "tri-moms" where the emphasis was to get mothers physically active by giving them a goal: ie, gather beginner triathletes, teach them some skills and train together towards a sprint tri. What's wrong with this kind of thing? And yes, my wife recently ran into one of them who now competes in IM triathlons, and she somehow hasn't abandoned her kids in the process. Good for her, I say. As far as whether USMS members are becoming more obsessed with performance and competition, I don't really know. I don't see it at all in the local swimmers in my area, the vast majority of whom do not compete at all. Nationally, I have been in a pretty competitive age group, an age where some former swimmers seem to be rediscovering their love of competitive swimming and are old enough where their children are more independent and jobs are more secure. I don't know if this represents a trend or if it has always been that way, but even if it does, so what? +1 Geek, be happy that someone on this board is defending you (and twice in one post) by saying you don't suck. As for me, I don't see anyone coming to my defense re: f'in beech. :D You are divine. Soar above it. (Jim T. will be here quick as he can to defend the Nereid of his drems.) Chris, As a whole, there still doesn't seem to be that many ex swimmers that went to nationals in their day participating in USMS..... particularly top level performers. There's a few, but not that many and interesting when you consider their strong level of enthusiasm and dedication decades ago. I doubt this level of enthusiasm displayed by more and more USMS hard core participants is what former elite swimmers are looking to match. A few come back and swim moderately hard.... but you'll have to agree most stay away permanently, which is..... unfortunate. Might I throw out the notion that some former national finalists actually stay away from USMS because of the hard core participants in their age groups as they don't care to deal with the obession and comparison factor. Most would rather swim for fun and health and not deal with absurdity of comparing so called "best times" in your old age. I don't agree with anything you've said. Beclouded thought bubbles. Happy swimming to the swimmers! And the tris! :)

Well, I reject the premise of the question about triathlon "nuts." At the few triathlons I have attended, I saw a LOT of participants -- even a majority -- who were simply content to finish and are not hypercompetitive about it. (Though I will admit that most of them -- even the slow ones -- had nicer bikes than me.) There is a subset of triathletes who train for Iron Man events, and they do have to put a lot of training time in. But they are a small minority of triathletes as a whole. And the ones I know are no more self-indulgent than most people. My wife once participated in a group called "tri-moms" where the emphasis was to get mothers physically active by giving them a goal: ie, gather beginner triathletes, teach them some skills and train together towards a sprint tri. What's wrong with this kind of thing? And yes, my wife recently ran into one of them who now competes in IM triathlons, and she somehow hasn't abandoned her kids in the process. Good for her, I say. As far as whether USMS members are becoming more obsessed with performance and competition, I don't really know. I don't see it at all in the local swimmers in my area, the vast majority of whom do not compete at all. Nationally, I have been in a pretty competitive age group, an age where some former swimmers seem to be rediscovering their love of competitive swimming and are old enough where their children are more independent and jobs are more secure. I don't know if this represents a trend or if it has always been that way, but even if it does, so what? +1 Geek, be happy that someone on this board is defending you (and twice in one post) by saying you don't suck. As for me, I don't see anyone coming to my defense re: f'in beech. :D You are divine. Soar above it. (Jim T. will be here quick as he can to defend the Nereid of his drems.) Chris, As a whole, there still doesn't seem to be that many ex swimmers that went to nationals in their day participating in USMS..... particularly top level performers. There's a few, but not that many and interesting when you consider their strong level of enthusiasm and dedication decades ago. I doubt this level of enthusiasm displayed by more and more USMS hard core participants is what former elite swimmers are looking to match. A few come back and swim moderately hard.... but you'll have to agree most stay away permanently, which is..... unfortunate. Might I throw out the notion that some former national finalists actually stay away from USMS because of the hard core participants in their age groups as they don't care to deal with the obession and comparison factor. Most would rather swim for fun and health and not deal with absurdity of comparing so called "best times" in your old age. I don't agree with anything you've said. Beclouded thought bubbles. Happy swimming to the swimmers! And the tris! :)