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Sports

Why I Compete

A local triathlete explains what drives him to train for and compete in challenging tests of endurance.

My alarm goes off about 6 a.m. on race morning and there I lie, mulling the prospect of jumping into the chilly San Francisco Bay waters with a frisky phalanx of my peers.

I've done the competition, the Treasure Island triathlon, several times in my 10 years doing such races in the Bay Area and I typically register late, waiting to see if I remain injury-free, healthy and with a clear calendar. (This race used to be held in November; it's now in July.)

But in 2008 I did something I'd never done before: I put off deciding whether or not to register until the morning of the race.

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This particular race is a "sprint" distance triathlon: 750-meter swim, 20k bike and 5k run. It's about half as long as an Olympic distance triathlon, which itself is about a quarter of the well-known Ironman distance, which includes a full-length marathon run.

Sprint triathlons take a little more than an hour to complete -- quite doable on the minimal training I get having a full-time job and being a husband and father of two young boys.

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Feeling somewhat tired, under-trained and running late, I was that close to deciding to bag it and remain in bed like 99.99 percent of Bay area denizens who opt for the conventional Sunday morning routine.

But a more powerful feeling swept me out of bed and jolted me into race prep mode: an urge to break loose of the ropes of conventionality binding me to bed, to embrace life and give my body one last go before the end of the year. Besides, the weather was fine, I was basically healthy and had a clear schedule. I had zero valid excuses to justify a skip.

So I grabbed a minimal breakfast, threw my gear into the car, and zipped over the Bay bridge, registering on site (in a very slow moving line). I had 15 minutes to set up my biking and running gear, don my wetsuit, and jump into the 58-degree water, with just under two minutes before they blew the air horn.

It was all very frantic compared with my typical planned-out race day, but I think this helped me achieve a breakthrough in my approach to the swim, in which I shaved two or three minutes off my expected time. Turned out I actually "podiumed" in this race, finishing third in my age group, further validating my decision to forgo additional bed time.

That Treasure Island 2008 experience sums up why I like to compete, and why I regularly choose to subject myself to somewhat uncomfortable physical challenges and tests of endurance. In an age of 24/7 news streams, untamable email in-boxes, todo lists, and attention deficit-inducing Twitter/Facebook feeds, physical challenges such as triathlons provide a real-world venue demanding sharp, sustained focus.

Preparing for and participating in these events, regardless of the outcome, has never failed to give me opportunities for the deeper self-awareness and personal growth that comes automatically when you choose to momentarily abandon your comfort zone.

There are other benefits as well. Doing different races in new venues is a great excuse to explore the world. There is also some pleasant familiarity in repeating the same course year after year, comparing your present self with your past performances.

Social opportunities abound, with weekly group workouts organized by triathlon clubs such as the GGTC, SF Tri club and triathlon training groups at local gyms such as the downtown Berkeley YMCA. Even without these groups, athletes training for the same races have a tendency to bump into each other.

Many of the challenges I face outside sports have undefined boundaries and unclear paths to success. Being a part of a larger group of like-minded individuals, all devoted to a single cause of completing the exact same race course, provides a sense of unity and a well-defined, tangible goal that is unlike anything else in my life.

As my fellow triathlete friend and Albany resident Andrew Sullivan once noted, "These experiences bring you back into your life with a level of clarity and focus that is hard to achieve elsewhere." And that is why I compete.

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