WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON TRIATHLETES?

I keep looking for those 10,000 dollar bikes and I've yet to see one that your local biker can go in and buy right off the shelf...

The top end bikes are mostly in the upper 2,000 and low 3,000...

My bike cost me 1500 dollars about 6 years ago.

Most triathlon races will run you right around 60 dollars in my State (not my area my whole state).

I would consider myself a subelite not necessarly an elite but I will finish in the top 10 in almost any triathlon I enter in my state and probably top 30-40 in race in the nation.

You do the math

My yearly expenses for Triathlons are around

$610-$700 a year

When I focues strictly on running (college scholarship) I would spend a little less but not much mainly because I would do twice as much races.

$500-$600 a year

You might want a $10,000 dollar bike but in no way do you need one. You can be a top triathlete without that expensive bike...

But knowing idiots like you will not listen to logic and you just want to bash people for staying healthy....

brown? wrote:

As a runner who has actually done triathlons id be interested to know how many of you actually have run one. Not just some fun run triathlon, but an actual Ironman or halve iron man. My guess is that all of you who are talking crap wouldn’t finish.

7 IMs and a billion other tri's and du's.

Agreed on the bike cost. These guys talking about $10,000 rides haven't been to any races, I guess. You can easily get a nearly pro-level bike for $2200 from Felt and others, and you can definitely get a full-on, trick ride for $3000.

I used to love tearing people up on my Cannondale 2.8 (a $600 frame in 1997) with 105 components and heavy Mavic CXP 30 wheels.

500 dollars for a wetsuit is a little silly. My tri-specific suit was only 150$ and that bad boy is nice. My 6/4 oneil wetsuit for winter surfing in MAINE was only 400$. The fact of the matter is that for the most part you dont need a wetsuit unless you are swimming in the north. To do a tri you need a solid bike. I have done very well on a bike that cost me 150$ ( i used it at USA Sprint Tri nationals) and did well. ITs all about how hard you train...period.

We're all posuers when you get down to brass tacks. Unless you are making a monumental sacrifice of time, money, social life, etc. and you can honestly say that you are expending all of your energies on chasing the dream, then you are an AG posuer. I cannot hate on people for simply doing something they enjoy. If they want to buy a $2000 bike and a $200 wetsuit, then good for them. Those items helped spur the economy and provided income for someone. They could be spending that cash on hooch and cigarettes and passing the cost onto you in the form of bigger healthcare costs, right? Worse, they could have saved the $2K on that shiny new Trek and used it as a down payment on a new Chevy Tahoe that gets a whopping 12 MPG whilst fouling the air we breathe and making military adventurism for oil "acceptable" policy.

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. For every dorky triathlete, I can find an equally dorky runner or cyclist or street baller or company softball player or...

I have been privileged to know quite a few elites and running legends in my day and I have never known them to rag on the age groupers that make their paychecks possible. If the truly elite are so humble, then why must the multitudes of "B" and "C" grade running talent be so petty and insecure? Grow up, sack up, and tell the next triathlete you run across, "Thanks for choosing a healthy lifestyle! Have a good season."

Trirunner wrote:

The top end bikes are mostly in the upper 2,000 and low 3,000...

My bike cost me 1500 dollars about 6 years ago.

Most triathlon races will run you right around 60 dollars in my State (not my area my whole state).

I would consider myself a subelite not necessarly an elite but I will finish in the top 10 in almost any triathlon I enter in my state and probably top 30-40 in race in the nation.

You do the math

My yearly expenses for Triathlons are around

$610-$700 a year

When I focues strictly on running (college scholarship) I would spend a little less but not much mainly because I would do twice as much races.

$500-$600 a year

But knowing idiots like you will not listen to logic and you just want to bash people for staying healthy....

first of all the comparison on the cost between tri's and road racing is so inaccurate - and you know it. No way it cost a runner $500-$600 a year in equipment and entry fees.

and we weren't discussing staying healthy - I can do that for as little as $50 a year if I want to. I don't recall bashing healthy people.

and by the way, a 2-3k bike keeps a LOT of people out of the tri pool of participants!

Blondie - the costs are fairly accurate for runners if not on the low side. Assuming a runner averages 70 miles per week, gets 500 miles of wear from each pair of trainers, buys one pair of flats, and hits 15 road races a year:

3500 miles of training

7 pairs of trainers @ $85 per = $595

1 pair of racing flats = $80

15 local race entries @ $20 per = $300

So you've already got $975 of annual costs. That's not including apparel, club dues, coaching fees, travel costs, or "big bucks" events like marathons. I imagine the average runner puts out about $1500 in total year just to compete close to home. I'd double that if you are flying to an event or two and needing a hotel room. Most good AG runners don't get anything more than a 10% discount at their local running shop. If you are doing better on the schwag front, good for you.

Tri is more expensive to be sure but what is the beef with that? Taking a cruise is more costly than camping but if you can afford it and it makes you happy...

Why the hate?

Most triathletes are gay people...

Portland Runner . wrote:

Blondie - the costs are fairly accurate for runners if not on the low side. Assuming a runner averages 70 miles per week, gets 500 miles of wear from each pair of trainers, buys one pair of flats, and hits 15 road races a year:

3500 miles of training

7 pairs of trainers @ $85 per = $595

1 pair of racing flats = $80

15 local race entries @ $20 per = $300

Why the hate?

I've run for years and have never spent this kind of money a year for shoes and races - and never spent even close to $1500 a year. never paid more than $60 for shoes either.

and I don't hate triathletes, I personally am not ready to declare this a sport that tends to serve the fitness needs of the average male and female in this country, nor would I call it highly competitive for that very reason.

It's my own bias - surrounded by triathletes always tooting their horn about "how long I was out there" crap and "I did the iron man crap", and "i was on my bike for 2 hours" blah blah - and well, so what, who gives a crap because you did an event for 5 hours. big deal. They should try running a 15 minute 5k.

Suri Cruise wrote:

Face facts, socioeconomics dictates why this is a white dominated sport. Ain't no ghetto boy dropping 5 g's on a tri bike, or joining an elitist swimming club!!

And what exactly is your point?

Are you saying that uppity whites don't care about the same sports that kids in the ghetto do? If so, then why do so many uppity whites go to NFL and NBA games?

Or are you saying that uppity whites participate in triathlons because they're trying to avoid ghetto kids? If so, then where are all the ghetto kids in the local 10K and marathons?

What exactly is your point?

Reinhold Messner wrote:

Most triathletes are gay people...

...and most Italian mountaineers abandon their brothers to die in the Himalaya so they can seek personal glory.

I don't think he is saying any of those things, just that once you add cost barriers to sports, then you eliminate sectors of people. If it costs a significant amount to get into triathlons, then you will automatically eliminate a sector of people.

How many people in Ethiopia do triathlons? Russians? Haitians? Mexicans?

It is really irrelevant - people should do what they like to do for their health and fitness and personal achievements, but when you come around and tell me how highly competitive the sport of triathloning is, or how about the luge or perhaps mountain biking(?), I would question how "competitive" it really is.

that's all we are saying, that's it. We are saying it cannot be that competitive from a national or global standpoint.

first of all the comparison on the cost between tri's and road racing is so inaccurate - and you know it. No way it cost a runner $500-$600 a year in equipment and entry fees.

and we weren't discussing staying healthy - I can do that for as little as $50 a year if I want to. I don't recall bashing healthy people.

and by the way, a 2-3k bike keeps a LOT of people out of the tri pool of participants![/quote]

See there is your problem you think short term I think long term.

The price that I gave out was the bike I bought averaged out over a six year period.

If you really want to get technigual the chart of my acual expenses would be more like this over a 6 year period (estamate only)

1st year: $2000

2nd Year: $300 (race entry and shoes)

3rd Year: $300 (race entry and shoes)

4th Year: $300 (race entry and shoes)

5th Year: $300 (race entry and shoes)

6th Year: $300 (race entry and shoes)

Except for the first year I'm acually paying less than what I used to pay when I was running all the time.

When I ran year round I had to buy a new pair of shoes every month to two months and I would race about twice as much from 5k up to marathon.

Swtiching to Triathlons once you get past the intial fee of buying a bike saved me money. I'm not everyone but I'm not no middle of the packer either. On the run I'll beat most of the elits I just get so far behind on the swim and bike.

YOU DON'T NEED A 3000 DOLLAR BIKE TO BE GOOD.

But of course you have probably never tried a triathlon you are just sprouting an opinion that has little bases in fact. Keep on hating both running and tris have their share of idiots.

My post from another Tri-Geek thread...

As a former competitor in both disciplines, I was first a collegiate distance runner and then converted over to triathlons; my experiences have convinced me that while both sports clearly have merit in their own particular idiom they are disparate enough to make comparisons essentially useless.

So that being said, I've notice that tri-hack-a-letes (not good at swimming, not good at running, not good at cycling, but put them all together and your not bad - adventure racers are in this category also) with non running backgrounds seem to think that they "know" what it is to be a competitive distance runner. They don't and it's not likely they ever will. Generally speaking they know what it is to be a one of those penguins (no offense to the joggers out there since I'm one now). We current and former runners know this and maybe that is the reason for the abuse. It’s not to say that tri-hack-a-letes are bad, they’re just not us.

The real question is; are they deserving of our abuse? - Probably so, but in a kissing cousin sort of way.

I've been swimming since I was 3. Met my husband at an athletics camp...running. I ran in high school and became quite avid for running in recent years. I race a decent amount...however, tri is a better fit for me. I am 5'4", 120lbs. I'm not going to be nearly as competitive at running (I was a hurdler) as I have the chance to be at tri. In fact, my 10k, 1/2 marathon, and marathon times have significantly improved since starting tris. I love running... love it. But I love swimming and cycling too. For me, it is a better fit. My husband on the other hand, well, he was a 4x All-American at Arkansas and on 5 Nat'l Champ teams for track and xc. Clearly, he's more successful at that!!

triathlete=fat/lazy/ "athlete" who sux at 3 sports

Legally blonde-

It never ceases to amaze me how immature people get over this subject. And who cares if you can do a 15 minute 5k?????? That might make you a faster runner, but it that's it- Doesn't make you make you any better than me in my eyes as a person. Is that what bothers you? do you think triathletes think they are better than you b/c they train and compete in 3 sports? I'm a triathlete, know lots of triathletes and none of us feel this way. We are just out there participating in a sport we love- just like you. Maybe it's just me, but I don't make generalizations about any 'group' of people b/c it would be unfair. There are holier than though jackasses in every sport- but it isn't the sport that makes them the jackass- it's in thier makeup as a person.

This topic is so overdone and always leads to unnecessary bashing/hating for no reason other than a bunch of runners (who obviously think WAY too highly of themselves) trying to make themselves feel better for whatever reason.... Why do you worry so much about other people? ie- what they enjoy or how they train, especially if it's a healthy lifestyle? Why does it kill you to hear some triathlete tells you he just biked 5 hours.....? I can imagine if that bothers you, the rest of the world must royally piss you off in your day to day routine.....

On the subject of money, duh-Tris are more expensive- But, like other triathletes before me have said, you can get a decent bike for under $1k- a very good one between $1,500 and 3k. You'd be a fool or loaded to spend 10k on a bike. My wetsuit was $150- bought it 5 years ago and it works fine. You've spent more money in 6 months on running shoes than that. Who gives a shit if it's not a poor man's sport. Neither is auto racing or golf, yet there isnt' a need to bash/hate them? what gives, really. You say you don't 'hate' triathletes. You may be fooling yourself b/c you think that might be too strong of a word, but everytime you respond , you make it clear that you strongly dislike triathletes.

Tell you what is amazing.

It is amazing that so many of you are so INSECURE. I and others are allowed to have an opinion about triathlons and triathletes. If we mention that it may not be as competitive or the cost eliminates a number from trying it or competing at it then we are: haters, trashers, immature, whatever!

Other than a few people making snide remarks for the hell of it, I was not one - I was giving an opinion. Do you know what an opinion is?

Do I think the triathlon is a sport? - no. Do I think they are as great of athletes as say the best runners in the world? - no. If that to you means that I hate you and I trash you, then you need a maturity check.

and ask yourself why you give a shit about what anyone thinks of your sport. geez. get a grip.

We must both give a shit to a degree cause I'm responding to your response. I'm not insecure- I'm just playing along with you retards. Bored at work.

And no- you are not allowed to have a different opinion than me.

Merry Christmas.

tstuck wrote:

Why do you worry so much about other people? ie- what they enjoy or how they train, especially if it's a healthy lifestyle? Why does it kill you to hear some triathlete tells you he just biked 5 hours.....? I can imagine if that bothers you, the rest of the world must royally piss you off in your day to day routine.....

.

since you are making assumptions, here's one for you.

I think it pisses you off that we don't give a rat's ass about your 5 hour bike ride, and that we think and believe you are participating and bragging about 2nd rate efforts. I assume you are feeling very second class citizenship like. Personally, I don't spend much time thinking, reading or hobnobbing with 'triathletes'.