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[11:22 AM | 0 comments ]

It takes a certain amount of insanity to be a long course triathlete. Everyone of us is crazy; there's no doubt about it. However, there's two brands of craziness. There are the unapologetically crazy, then there are the shamefully crazy.

First, the shamefully crazy behave exactly as their name implies: they are embarrassed to be crazy. In regards to training, the shamefully crazy often talk about putting in "work" - which is their training time - before they can go off and enjoy non-triathlon activities. It's as if they are ashamed to enjoy riding a bike and floating in a pool, as if training is some punishment to endure before life pleasures can be enjoyed. This is a front these shamefully crazy trainees put up, for secretly, they love their training. In order to attempt to conform to our societal standards, the shamefully crazy hides their insane love for multisport, and attempts to "fit multisport into a normal life". A shamefully crazy trainee might talk about how they don't like wearing spandex on the bike, but everyone does it, so they just go along with the crowd. "I don't like to shave for races, but I just do it to fit in," they might say. The shamefully crazy half-ass their commitment to multisport by trying to maintain their connection to a so called 'normal' life.

Then, there's the unapologetically crazy. They might look something like this: They wear an all-white spandex cycling outfit, unapologetically. There is no talk of multisport fitting into a normal life. Mutlisport is the life, and it's a proudly crazy one. When it comes to how much to train in a week, the unapologetically crazy think about how much multisport would kill them, then back off maybe 1%. When together with eachother, the unapologetically crazy use the word "training" in atleast 50% of their sentences. They're crazy, they'll tell you they're crazy, and they love being crazy.

Needless to say, I am unapologetically crazy. I hang out exclusively with people who are also unapologetically crazy. Odds are, if you don't fit into the unapologetically crazy category, I don't like you.

Crazy people make sense to me; it's the 'normal' people who I don't understand. It's seems to me that normal people, and even shamefully crazy people, are always trying to hide something or conform to some false indentity. Give me a unabashedly crazy person anyday. Most beautifully, the unapologetically crazy pass no judgment on others, for in accepting their own craziness, they open themselves to accepting craziness in others.

Shakespeare said it best,

"This above all: to thine own self be true"