Why I Do Triathlons

Someone asked me last week why I would possibly put myself through all of this and by "all of this" she meant triathlon.

At first when she asked me, I thought about the pain that I sometimes feel when I do it and the distances I do and thought, honestly? I don't know why.

And then as I began to mentally prepare for the 70.3 that cometh next weekend, I realized, that I do know why I do them, it began by my own stubbornness but then turned into something that wasn't about triathlon at all.

But rather about my life.

For years and years I've lived within my own boundaries. My own confines. My own limitations. My own head.

I've listened to people when they told me what I can and cannot do. I've listened to the limitations that society sometimes gives a "woman" or a "teenager" or a "20-something" or a "mother" and a "mother of two" and with each title that changed, the limitations have changed but I have very often lived within them. And if I didn't live within them, I lived with them in my back pocket or in my subconscious and lived cautiously outside of them, never wandering quite far, just far enough to be comfortable but not far enough to be a rebel.

Then, one day, when I began to run, it made me feel free.

As much as it hurt, it gave me a finish line and with each finish line I crossed, it freed me some more.

Then when someone questioned me when I thought about trying a triathlon, it was one of the first times ever I chose not to live within those confines and I chose to live stubbornly OUT LOUD outside those confines.

And with each bike ride and with each swim and with each run and with each milestone I had reached in going further than I ever had, I began to break down those confines altogether. Every last one. Every one of them up until that very day and every one of them ever since.

And every time I pushed the boundaries, the air smelled fresher, the sun shone brighter and my eyes began to open as my life became fuller. I began to sing louder and roll down the windows and let the wind blow through my hair.

Because, all of a sudden, it wasn't about triathlon.

It was about the boundaries.

Someone told me I couldn't or I shouldn't.

And I was stubborn and I did.

It's really that simple.

You see, for me, triathlon became a metaphor for my life.

Because triathlon allows you to break your own boundaries, push your own limits, and when you experience those things you begin to live your life fuller and free-er than you have ever in your life imagined.

But the best part is that something that once seemed so impossible suddenly became possible and that feeling doesn't remain within the confines of triathlon, it empowers you within your outside life and allows you to say things like, "Yes, I deserve this." and "Yes, I can do that." and "No, you cannot tell me that I cannot, I will not hear of you telling me I cannot because yes I most certainly can (if you didn't hear me before)."

I suddenly have permission to live.

Triathlon gave me that.

Then something even more amazing happened, that feeling began to spread like a wonderful contagious disease, it goes from person to person to your children and your family and then all of a sudden they begin to believe you too that there are no limitations and then they begin to live outside their own boundaries and then you begin to set people around you free and even that is freeing! For everyone involved!

You see, there are no limitations!

And triathlon is my way of telling myself so!

There may be a day when I cannot do triathlons, but that will be ok (well, not really...)

But it will be ok because triathlon already shared with me its greatest gift.

The gift of living.

I live now.

Triathlon may just be a sport, but for me it was a vehicle and it may not be everyone's vehicle but in this life, it was mine.

And that's why I do them.