Well what a bloody roller-coaster.
I deleted yesterday's post because I didn't want to subject you to the flood of invective and vitriol which was the major Australian triathlon forum's response to my posting that there was now an Athena category and could they let anyone know who might be interested. There are no rockets falling on my house so I won't say it was a nightmare, but I have never witnessed, let alone been subjected to such a sustained attack. Nasty nasty nasty, and utterly, viciously prejudiced against larger women. I was particularly upset when this tirade spilled over to coolrunnings.
However, this morning I have
- been out on my bike and not got a flat.
- received nine encouraging emails and private messages from both forums (THANKS to you all, you are GREAT)
- spoken to the EOC and withdrawn my complaint as the inequity about which I was concerned has been redressed.
-had a long conversation with the CEO of Supersprint during which all the misunderstandings which had led to this unpleasantness (mostly created by the threatening attitude of the EOC officer, sadly) were cleared up. I was encouraged to compete as an Athena and promised every support.
- contacted Transitions and had my membership removed. Those people are not what triathlon, and sport in general, are about.
Now back to my thesis. If I work hard I might be able to hand the bastard in early and do the sprint tri next Sunday.
18 comments:
Yikes. I'm really sorry I missed that post. WHAT could you have possibly said???? I must know. ;-)
I missed all the 'excitement' yesterday, but I'm glad you got things cleaned up to your satisfaction on your end.
*HUGS*
Just between me and you I competed in 2 triathlons as an Athena this year. But dont let the catergory fool you . The ones I compete in were for 150 lbs and over. I did see a 6'4 inch women rather slim looking to me but because of he tall nature she fit the 150 lb category. But it doesnt matter . The goal is to finish not to place in the top . If you do its just icing on the cake! :)
LBTEPA,
If my comment was one that you took offense at, then I apologise for causing that offense.
I still do not believe that there should be a seperate category for Athenas. This is not sexist, as I also don't believe there should be a category for Clydesdales either. However, if they must have these categories, then the entry criteria should be the same. At my weight, I'd easily qualify for Athena, but not Clydesdale. That is not equality.
With the exception of the elites, I believe that triathlon is an individual sport where you compete against the course itself. It's important to do the best you can. If you improve on your previous effort then that is a win in my book, regardless of the people around you and the time you take.
As the last person to finish in all but 2 of my triathlons, I know what it's like to finish last. I have been cheered and supported all the way to the finish line every single time.
With my lack of ability, I may never win an event. But I'm not competing to win at the moment, I'm competing to improve myself. After all, that's why I got into triathlon and I'm sure it's why you got interested as well.
Super Slow Bloke
Well,well, because I'm a bloglines subscriber I did have access to your erased post and all those comments on transitions and Cool running.
The arguments, anger, confusion etc...are alll the same in the Southern hemisphere as they are in the Northern it just sounds like there is greater acceptance up here.
Hang in there!
Way to go! Question, when I e-mail you, are they coming through?
Most people up here seem to be really accepting of us larger ladies in triathlon - I think most triathletes are happy to see anyone participating and being fit. And if they aren't, and they're rude, well, we'll just sit on them. :-S
I find transitions to be massively intimidating- which is why my inaugural post was in your defence- I cant imagine that I will bother posting there ever again- such a shame when it could be a fantastic source of information. Hang in there and get that thesis done quick smart so that I can catch up with you at the coolrunning get together.
Sounds like a very productive day. Sometimes the online community can act like a pack of sharks. When they sense a weakness, they go into a frenzy. Don't let that discourage, even from Transitions. It is just the nature of humanity. Keep to the higher ground :-)
I'm sorry to hear that there is a bastion of snobbery in triathlon. I've seen it in running a plenty but to date triathlon seemed to be a sport that always encouraged the aspiring athlete regardless of size, shape or speed.
And to Kevin I must ask - do you think there should only be unisex age groups based on weight and age? For your argument to make sense we need to abolish all gender based divisions. That makes no sense at all unless you want to ensure that men almost always win their division.
Congratulations on making an important change LBTEPA - well done! Have a cookie on me :-)
Enough said ....
Now finish the thesis done so you can come drinking with the CR crew..... :-)
take care
Eat Em
(sometime tri-hard)
21st Century Mom, you appear to have misunderstood what I was trying to say.
I don’t believe there should be weight categories for male or female athletes. Both Athena and Clydesdale divisions should be scrapped. However, if we must have them, then you still have Athena and Clydesdale, but the weight to qualify should be the same for both. Why have the Clydesdale qualifying weight 20-25kg higher than Athena? If we are after equality, shouldn’t the qualifying weight be the same? I was not suggesting one weight class with male & female competitors racing each other.
(Seriously, IF it is needed, then it shoudl be based on BMI not purely weight anyway)
I have a serious hypothetical question that I’d like LBTEPA to answer:
Race 1: You compete in your age group and do much better than expected, but still place toward the back of your category.
Race 2: You compete as Athena and have a shocking race, 15 minutes slower than race 1, yet win as the only Athena.
Which is the better performance? Would you prefer, the faster time or the race win?
As a beginner, where I place in comparison to others is irrelevant. What I focus on is how well I go as an individual.
I sincerely hope that you go out there and do a time that you are happy with. After that, go and try to beat that time in your next triathlon. After all, that’s what I believe the sport is all about.
oh foolrunning dot com dot au. it's so heavily loaded with wanks, that the goodies are hard to find. they're very anti-anyonestarting out (the wankers, not the site). everyone, please get in shape, but not if you're overweight.
or perhaps they just are poor mathematicians. if you come in at #20 in a race of 100, you're not as up there as coming in at #20 in a race of 1000 or 5000. and here i am assuming most beginning runners would be in the 'average' to 'slow' range and be behind #20.
the problem i have with those forums is that many on it think that people who aren't elite runners shouldn't be out there in their races, yet they write poorly and dare to publish on forums. where is the equality on that? if i commented with the snarkiness on a forum about apostrophe abuse and homonym errors, they'd call me a wank. and they'd be right. yet what do they do?
i used to copy CR posts to practice editing. i personally love the mistakes like 'your not good enough to run' or 'your to fat'. sure, i'm too slow to be allowed to grace the races, but they can write like that?!
flea turds.
so many people in oz trying to control how the races are run.
oh, i forgot to add that a high school classmate of mine does triathlons now. when he started training, he weighed 320 pounds (145 kg). he's now at 168 pounds (76 kg).
his story here.
perhaps this is a threat?
Here is the edited version of the previous comment. :-)
You may have read on my blog that I'm going to do my first triathlon next year. It wouldn't even have crossed my mind if I hadn't read your post about the lack of Athena category. This probably sounds silly, but it hadn't even occurred to me that larger people like me competed in triathlons.
Anyway, even though some people seem to have a problem with us larger and slower creatures competing, I'm really looking forward to my first tri. FIT and TACT are certainly encouraging Canberra women to participate in triathlon. I'm glad I decided to give tri a go before I saw some of the responses to your post on transitions.
Thanks for making me realise that triathlon was an option for me.
You're a star! You tackled the beast and came out the other end as the winner!! Whooop hoop, and sticking my tongue out to all that nasty people.
Your fighting spirit and eagerness to work hard are admirable and any one who differ is plain damn jealous!!
Go girl!!
You. Are. My. Hero.
I too read the first post, and THEN the rantings on the forums.
I think Ihatetoast should go to the forums and correct every single error. In her inimitable way. She'd probably end up with a job offer.
Those people are nutters. If you lived here, we probly wouldn't have made such a mess of Iraq.
:)
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