Tridudes Triathlon Blog

Is it cause cause realized you need to turn your lives around for one reason or another, did you get into triathlons cause a friend or family member was doing it and you thought it was pretty cool, were you hooked the first time you saw an IM on tv? What is your reason.

For me personally it is a very simple story. I did it cause my older brother was doing it. In 2002 whilst doing my compulsary service in England (yep, it's true, I skipped the German army) my brothers were both super active - one of 'em cycling, the other one running marathons - and me??? I was sitting on my butt smoking up to 40 cigarettes a day. (hand rolled at least - so I was doing my share of working out.)

I decided to quit smoking and started running instead and about three and half months later I ran my first marathon in a respectable 3:28. Boy did my legs suffer after the race and it certainly took me almost a year to do it again.

After playing around with marathons for a while it was again my bigger brother who inspired me to do a triathlon. I happened to have a road bike I bought sometime around 2003 and he asked me to start in a sprint distance race he was going to race for fun.

Dude, I am telling you. My first triathlon. Let's not talk about the swim in my super thick beginner wetsuit (don't think 2009 super thick. I am talking 2003 knights armor super thick) but at least it had a zipper all the way on the side and was easy to get off :-) I guess my bike leg wasn't all that bad and the running most certainly was painful without ever having done a brick. Hell, back then I didn't even know what that was.

The thing that truly inspired me to stick with triathlon though was the atmosphere and camaraderie. Just after finishing the sprint distance, the Olympic starters got out of the water whilst we were picking up our bikes and the guy right next to my brother had obviously inflated his tire a little too much and it exploded in the heat. Without even having a second thought, my brother handed this total stranger a darn 1000 Dollar Zipp rear wheel and said 'enjoy the race. See you later'. The stranger did indeed return the wheel after the race. No idea how he placed and I honestly don't care - but that was the all inspiring moment for me.

Ever since I am loving and living the sport. Next stop: get our oldest brother to do a triathlon as well :-)

We would love to hear your story folks.

Thanks for reading and rock on.

Till