I Can't Stand the Pretentious of Triathletes

LarsL9 wrote:

Tri D Bags wrote:

And a 2:34 marathon for a man is not impressive, that's not even sub-sub-elite for a real runner.

Talk about pretentious.

It's a fact that a 2:34 marathon is not impressive, not even if it's in a triathlon. For triathletes to act like it is the world record is what is pretentious and disrespectful of the real runners from East Africa.

Tri D Bags wrote:

LarsL9 wrote:

Talk about pretentious.

It's a fact that a 2:34 marathon is not impressive, not even if it's in a triathlon. For triathletes to act like it is the world record is what is pretentious and disrespectful of the real runners from East Africa.

3/10

Do you know what a Savings Account is? Kenyans can easily save up enough money to buy the best running gear, it is impossible to do that for triathlon especially with all the additional gear and facility rental fees and time needed for triathlon slogging that prevents you from working a real job.

So let's see you put a Kenyan on a fixed gear beach cruiser in a triathlon and see what kind of cussing he directs your way.

Who needs to swim when I can just sail across the lake and ride an e-bike so I can be comfortable and dry for the marathon? Triathlons are just obtuse and estoeric.

Facility fees? You can’t swim in a natural body of water anymore? That’s news to me.

You keep trying to invent barriers of entry that aren’t even there. Do you really think that little of East Africans to believe that they couldn’t figure out how to get into triathlon if they wanted to?

Over 85 countries were represented at a triathlon I did. Your excuses are bogus.

Here’s the damn problem: no standard courses. They don’t really understand how bad they suck. Running I have a quote that’s sorta a ripoff from Simmons: ‘Compared to good runners, we’re ALL pieces of $hit.’ I’m a 40+ guy who can run around 15 for 5k. That’s incredibly fast in Corportation fat guys shoving donuts and f*cking Halloween candy in their mouths at every opportunity world. But it’s slower pace that Kipchoge can fun for 42k. I’m under no illusions of sitting atop some pyramid. Tri-twats just train and train then fly on a damn plane with their damn bikes and race some mismeasured course and finish ‘top 15 in their age group!’. They need to develop a healthy sense of shame and self loathing like we runners have. And put on some damn socks.

tri4funsies wrote:

Facility fees? You can’t swim in a natural body of water anymore? That’s news to me.

You keep trying to invent barriers of entry that aren’t even there. Do you really think that little of East Africans to believe that they couldn’t figure out how to get into triathlon if they wanted to?

Over 85 countries were represented at a triathlon I did. Your excuses are bogus.

You ever tried swimming in a natural body of water in Africa? Good way to get eaten or parasites. I didn't invent predators and worms, God did.

Face it, triathlon is popular with rich white folk because it costs a lot more than what most East Africans can pay. It is a lot easier to get a high age group placing in a triathlon than a marathon.

Only 85 countries in triathlon? Did you fail geography and not know there are 195 countries in the world? That's 110 countries that cannot compete in triathlon because it's a rich, white sport that requires upper class wealth to participate.

Yo, even pros like Morgy Pearson act like know it alls when it comes to gear.

Triathletes are like ultra runners who don't compete with the East Africans over the same distance and courses because they know they suck. Except ultra runners don't get M-Dot tattoos when they finish.

semi_pro wrote:

My favorite triathlete joke:

Q: How can you tell someone does iron mans?

A: Wait for them to tell you.

I've heard that joke told about marathoners, vegans, cross-fitters, and a hundred other things. The correct punchline is "don't worry, they'll tell you"

It's a competition between ultra runners and triathletes for who is more pretentious and obnoxious. Triathlons cost more money so they are usually worse. Both are filled with middle aged people with too much spare time and money but bot enough talent. I'm way more impressed by someone who can bang out a fast 5k or 10k than endurance grunts hiding their mediocrity in high volume.

I also lurk on slowtwitch from time to time. The ratio of helpful, knowledgeable contributors to pretentious a-holes is much higher on Slowtwitch than it is here, with a lot fewer outright trolls there. It's not close. Plus it's about 70% actual triathlon talk there while letsrun is about 12% actual running talk.

There are helpful and pretentious people both places, but come on. Someone on letsrun insulting slowtwitch is like when I was a big fan of an SEC football team and for every SEC game the message boards were full of "(the other state) fans all live in trailer parks and marry their sisters". Can't we just stop the "I know you are but what am I" stereotype swapping?

There are differences and a different breed of pretentiousness there. Some of the first threads I saw when I started there were on what to expect when you pay someone $300 to tell you how high to put your seat and what if you could only have one set of $1500 wheels. And yes, there are a lot of adult-onset athletes who think they have a PhD in triathloning.

But coming from letsrun where we all run sub 2:10 marathons when we're not too busy banging supermodels on our yachts and anyone over 130 lbs or running over a 14 minute 5k is a fat hobbyjogger...

Come on, man, can't we all just get along.

Lol

Im sure this guy is fun at parties.

Triing times wrote:

There are differences and a different breed of pretentiousness there. Some of the first threads I saw when I started there were on what to expect when you pay someone $300 to tell you how high to put your seat and what if you could only have one set of $1500 wheels. And yes, there are a lot of adult-onset athletes who think they have a PhD in triathloning.

But coming from letsrun where we all run sub 2:10 marathons when we're not too busy banging supermodels on our yachts and anyone over 130 lbs or running over a 14 minute 5k is a fat hobbyjogger...

There's a big difference between the pretentious of SlowTwitch to LRC. Posters on LRC know it's a joke and don't believe any of what you wrote whereas the pretentious on SlowTwitch is very real and they are deadpan serious about it. Just look at the recent SlowTwitch threads about that $1000 led light they want you to use to disqualify people for "drafting" in triathlon. Utterly ridiculous both for that crap led light and for being offended that people are going to get close to you in a mass bike race! Who would have thunk there are other people put on the race course!

You want pretentious? Listen to them talk politics. Open minded discussions until someone disagrees.

Hi Ken.

What’s your obsession with East Africans? 85 counties at a triathlon is way more than has been represented at any marathon I’ve done. Do you really expect all countries to be represented at a race? My point is when I take part it a triathlon I see lots of different shades of skin color as well as hear lots of different languages being spoken.

So what you’re saying is that Africa has geographical challenges that would make people less likely to take up a sport that involves swimming? That makes more sense than your constant BS about them not being able to afford to participate. Probably why you don’t see many Alaskans who are good surfers….guess that just makes too much sense for you.

“According to the New York Times, the average ING New York City Marathon runner’s household income was $130,000. USA Triathlon reports the average triathlete’s household income is $126,000. A 2006 Runner’s World subscriber study indicated their average subscriber had a household income of $139,000 and an average household net worth of $943,000.”

It appears that marathoning is a rich person activity as well. Shall we cry about that as well? Maybe we should open up a class at each race for the impoverished? Would that work?

DarkSpeedWorks2 wrote:

You want pretentious? Listen to them talk politics. Open minded discussions until someone disagrees.

I don't know what "them" you're referring to, but that applies to every "them" everywhere.

What's with your obsession dismissing all the hardships of East Africans? The answers you seek can be found looking at the SlowTwitch front page versus the LetsRun front page. On the SlowTwitch homepage, I count 17 photos showing people and all of them are white people. Compare that to the LetsRun homepage where 60-70% of the photos are of East Africans or African Americans. Do you still want to deny that triathlon is a white sport that is exclusionary and has a racism problem? The fact that triathletes in general are pretentious is just a symptom reflective of much deeper and darker problems with those in triathlon.

Wow, did you just fall for the classic joke that runners are rich with hot model girlfriends? I'm sure none of us juiced the responses to those surveys......

Triing times wrote:

it's about 70% actual triathlon talk

Yeah well, they've got running, swimming and riding and all the equipment to talk about.

Gotta say though, I find the non-running intellectual banter a lot higher here.

7r3ruiohfesdh wrote:

I am a triathlete, and even I agree with this post. We are horribly pretentious.

Triathlon is dominated by middle aged people who have taken up the sport to lose weight and fill in their otherwise boring lives. Then they can bore other people (mostly other triathletes and their co-workers) about their Ironman training. Sometimes you get younger triathletes who have a claim of being reasonably serious athletes. This type generally gets married at 31.3 years of age to their female equivalent, immediately buys a medium size dog and then exactly 6 years after this, get a kid and then another. 1.5 years after this, the woman makes a return to triathlon, doing well for approximately 9 -18 months before retiring to ex-triathlete bliss and the occasional turkey trot victory.

N.B. The dog must be light brown or blond coloured pedigree one.

lol this is pretty spot on. The two girls in their 30's who I know who have done triathlons since their 20's are both almost exactly like that except got married a bit younger. But the one got married younger and then got divorced like a few years later and is knowing dating a different guy who is her equally fit counterpart. Both pairs have medium sized dogs. lol