Newsletter ep. 125: goodbye!

This week we’re saying goodbye. At least you and me are. For now. Sara will still be doing some kind of Live Feisty newsletter and if you’re subscribed to IWWR (which you probably are), then you’ll get an email with whatever the new plan is. Don’t worry! She’ll also be “auditioning” for new podcast co-hosts. We’ll do a goodbye clip show this Friday too of some of our favorite past episodes.

In the meantime, thank you all for everything the last 2.5 years. It’s been a ride.

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How far we’ve come, how far we have to go

This photo — there’s a whole series — is from June 2017, when I came to Victoria and it was weirdly cold and we took a bunch of pictures in anticipation of an announcement that we weren’t even sure yet what it would be…

In my mind, even when Sara and I were texting each other name ideas — there was a long unfortunate string around “the third transition” “the transition zone,” etc — I always sort of knew what I wanted this newsletter to be. I wanted it to be a reflection of the actual conversations that we actually were having throughout the sport. I wanted it to be a place too for all the things in my head, if for no other reason than it’s cheaper than a therapist.

Making it really be what I wanted was harder. And we still never got to everything I wanted to do.

I have a lot of ideas still, a lot of thoughts. I have a lot of plans for what I want triathlon to be, what I want to do at Triathlete now. Really doing and being those things will be harder.

Just between you and me, I’m not sure I’m capable of it all. I’m not sure I can do it. Just as we’re not always sure, when we stand on the start line, if we can do what stands in front of us. We’re not usually perfectly prepared or totally ready. We might fail. We might fall short. But we might not. And we might find different kinds of success in a race we never expected.

Maybe that’s why this piece from Lindsay Crouse resonated so deeply. I’m guessing that’s why it resonated so much with athletes (especially female athletes). Because sometimes when we chase impossible athletic goals we realize they aren’t impossible after all. We realize how much we are capable of both in sport and out.

Guys, I write the newsletter half for myself and half for you. I don’t know what I’ll do now without being forced to organize everything in my head each week, to figure out what I’m thinking.

And right now, I’m thinking: I hope I’ve learned everything triathlon has taught me, everything you’ve taught me, everything the race course has taught me, because it’s time to use those lessons.

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One of the big things I’m not sure about yet is what I’m going to do with my many tabs and notes and links I have each week. So for now, I’m going to just drop a whole ton here and hope that tides you over for a bit:

• The PTO issued another open letter saying they’d like to buy Ironman. So, if that strategy works, let me know, because I have some open letters to issue. (Endurance Business)
   
• Speaking of. The PTO got some mainstream coverage, though I found this British framing hilariously inaccurate. (Forbes/The Times)
   
• If you’re just desperate for triathlon gossip, then you definitely should be following Jan’s Twitter. He is guaranteed to always get into it. (Twitter)
   
• These triathletes ended up in a Super Bowl ad. See, all that promised mainstream coverage, it’s *totally* happening. (Triathlete)
   
• Obviously, the only news anyone is really talking about are the rules that came down on THE SHOES. Sports Illustrated did a decent job explaining them; the New York Times did a terrible job. What happens now? And if you’re just looking for open & honest runner thoughts: I give you Des. (Twitter/Sports Illustrated/New York Times/Outside)
   
• This girl ran a 2:42:55 (chip time) but won’t get to go to the Olympics Trials because her gun time was 12 minutes slower. Look, I’m all for gun time not chip time because a race is a race, but clearly she also should not have been forced into the 1:50 half-marathon pace corral. Since corrals are by time (not gender) and you have to go by gun time for standards, are women unfairly up against an extra hurdle here? (Citius Mag)
   
• Shockingly, Salazar is getting a temporary SafeSport ban. So. (New York Times)
   
• The NCAA is changing some of its regulations, which I find interesting, but others don’t. (USA Today)
   
• Americans are spending less time outside. (Outside)
   
• Counter-argument to a story I shared a few weeks ago: If we really care about the environment, is it time to let tourism and travel die? (New Republic)
   
• Are you good enough at paperwork to be poor? As someone who just actually went through the process of applying for disability (for the husband) and turning in lots of different paperwork and being rejected and appealing and calling doctors and tracking appointments, no, you are not good enough at this stuff to actually count on it if you really really needed it. (New York Times)
   
• What if you’re too fat for winter? (NY Mag)

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Peace out everybody! It’s been real. You can still email or message or yell at me. See you at the races.

‘If We Were Riding’ is a weekly triathlon-ish newsletter written by Kelly O’Mara and produced by Live Feisty Media. You can also read past issues. This episode is from Feb. 5, 2020.