Newsletter ep. 97: gossip, gossip, gossip

If We Were Riding’ is a weekly triathlon-ish newsletter written by Kelly O’Mara and produced by Live Feisty Media. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every Wednesday morning. You can also read past issues. This episode is from July 24, 2019.

____________________________

OK, I was kind of kidding about the subject line, but it’s true you all are a bunch of gossips who are mostly just here for the gossip. (I see what you click on.) Hopefully, we satisfy everyone this week with some quick bits.

1. Most importantly, the podcast will be back on Friday and we’ll update you on everything Sara’s been doing in her box.

2. The next most important thing: I will be at Santa Rosa 70.3 this weekend, with MY MOM. We’ll be getting up there midday Friday. And if you say ‘hi,’ I can almost guarantee my mom will cheer for you on race day. I also may give her my Insta stories to run. We’ll see.

3. Last thing I wanted to tell you all: I won a race this weekend. Hallejulah! The historic Donner Lake Triathlon. Only, there are no photos because as soon as I walked from the finish line over to my bag, while I was still sitting in my wet kit, I got a call from the CHP officers: My husband was being taken to the ER after a dog bolted out of someone’s car and into his bike. Local races, man, they are what they are. We’ll call it a win-loss for the team.

Now, on to what else we’d be talking about if we were riding…

__________________________

What would you do to make the Olympics?

(Photo: Wagner Araujo/ITU)

This is Emma Jackson. This weekend she won the WTS race in Edmonton. She’s been competing for 14 years and it was her first ever WTS win. It’s also been five years since her last podium, with the last few years being injury-plagued. This weekend Jonny Brownlee got his first win in two years too. (Seems like the Brownlees always come into form just as it starts to matter.) That’s a long time to keep believing you’ll come back around or to believe you’ll ever win your first one at all.

How much would you put up with? How much would you believe through the injuries and the odds and the shit?

I was thinking about this partially because we’re exactly a year away from the Olympics—as the NBC Insta videos let us all know. And so this is when everyone sort of starts to pay attention, like ‘oh yeah, aren’t people trying to qualify for that and stuff.’ But for the athletes, obviously, it doesn’t start today or next summer. It started years ago. What’s the saying? ‘It’s what you do in the dark that puts you into the light.’ When no one cares and no one’s paying attention, and their friends and family are wondering if they maybe shouldn’t just move on already (because some number of athletes probably should move on, won’t make it, won’t come together), that’s when it matters.

I thought about this too because Katie Zaferes skipped the WTS Edmonton race to prepare for the upcoming Tokyo test event, which will be the first time U.S. athletes can qualify for the Olympic team. (A number of countries are using it as a qualifier. If you want to know how someone qualifies for the team—and, yes, it is complicated—Triathlete Mag did a sum up.)

Katie skipped the Edmonton race to prep and, so, she decided to head to Flagstaff for a training block. Which meant she missed tickets she had to ‘Hamilton’ in San Francisco. If you don’t know, those are not cheap or necessarily easy tickets to get. I can also tell you I would have made a different decision. Because I had tickets to the exact same show earlier this year (even though I’d already seen it). And when I realized Taiwan 70.3 conflicted, I decided to go to the show and do a different race instead. Clearly, this is why I’m not going to be an Olympian.

What would you do? What’s worth it?

Are triathletes getting soft?

If somehow you live in a heat-free bubble, you might have missed the news that it was hot on the East Coast this weekend. And that the New York City Triathlon was cancelled because of heat.

There was a lot of speculation and a lot of Facebook chatter around the decision. How hot is too hot? Sure, there was humidity, but shouldn’t athletes be able to decide for themselves and manage themselves? It is, after all, an optional event anyway.

The next wave of speculation and chatter had to do with automatic rules around insurance and emergency responders, which can and often do require events to be cancelled if the heat/humidity is over a certain point. (It is fair to say American rules differ from European ones.) But, honestly, Triathlete Mag came through again with the best explanation: When the mayor says you need to cancel, you can’t really ignore him and expect to put on a race next year. Actual temperatures be damned.

I don’t know if triathlon/triathletes are getting softer or smarter or both. I also don’t know if it was really really hot in New York or just, you know, July. We’re about to have our eighth day over 100 degrees here, so some East Coaster is going to have to tell me: How bad was it really?

But it’s not like this question’s going to go away anyway. It’s not going to disappear if we all just hope real hard. All kinds of races and events and games are only getting hotter. So. Heat acclimate. And also fix climate change.

(One side note about the NYC Triathlon: They had, evidently, already cut the pro prize purse, despite historically being a really big and competitive race that was part of the once-great Lifetime series. Yet, they added small amounts of prize money for top age groupers. *all kinds of side eye* Isn’t that not even permitted under USAT rules?)

__________________________

• Not that I often recommend articles on Slowtwitch, but Sarah True did a fairly in-depth interview about her complete meltdown with 700m to go at IM Frankfurt. What is really interesting is how adamantly she says the data and data points didn’t suggest anything was physically wrong, but rather her brain simply checked out. I would really love to know more about those data points and if I need to be paying attention to different ones before my brain leaves me. Though I also 100% respect her argument that people on the internet should keep their opinions to themselves when they don’t know all of the facts (and I enjoy her taking to the Twitch to air that argument, hah). (Slowtwitch)
• Emma Bates, a pro runner who won CIM, posted she was upset with herself for not confronting a cyclist who catcalled her during a run. But in-the-moment confrontation is always tough and lacking in nuance. How do you deal with this? (Twitter)
• Apparently, it’s not just what you say to yourself during a race, but also *how* you say that makes a difference. I’ve been trying to figure out how to implement these practical scientific recommendations, and I’m still a little stumped. (Outside)
• USA Triathlon put on their Legacy Triathlon this past weekend, which I think was a big deal because it was the first race the governing body has put on themselves. I think. They also announced Age Group Nationals will return to Milwaukee for 2020-21. (Instagram/USAT)
• It appears Ironman is no longer offering race insurance, at least for North American races. I’m assuming their partnership with Allianz is over, but I couldn’t find any additional information? (Ironman)
• USA Track & Field Nationals are this weekend. And, even though a lot of people hate on track meets, I’m actually sort of excited. Hopefully, I can watch some while at Santa Rosa. Fast Women has a super comprehensive breakdown of all the women’s races and the TV schedule links. (Fast Women)
• Speaking of qualification for stuff, the track PanAm Games qualification is officially a mess and going to arbitration. Which I’m sure bodes well for everyone’s performances. (LetsRun)
• The U.S. Marathon Olympic Trials also got official “gold label” status. Which sounds dumb but is actually important because it guarantees that the top three finishers will be able to go to the Olympics. Under the new track Olympic crazy rules, you either have to hit a stupid high standard or be a certain place in rankings or come in top five at a “gold label” event. Boom, now the conundrum for American athletes is solved. Sorta. A little late for all those working in the dark. Whatever. (USATF)
• Being a Tour commentator is its own endurance event. (SB Nation)
• Disgraced former cyclist (Gold medalist? etc) Vinokurov went 4:09 at Astana 70.3. So, you know, different outcomes for different dopers. (Facebook)
• What is it like to be the only boy at Oiselle? (Oiselle)
• Alex Morgan is launching a female athlete content venture thing. No, there aren’t more details. (Bloomberg)
• Worldwide, the Women’s World Cup drew some of the biggest numbers it has to date. A bit of a breakdown. (SportsPro Media)
• How about you just crowdsource the equal prize money for your own win? (Surfer)
• BOPers at the London Marathon were harassed and heckled. And will now get free entry to next year’s race. (Runner’s World)
• The more I keep thinking about it, the more I’m not sure air conditioning needs to exist. (If you’re healthy and not elderly or sick or disabled.) We just need to design and build and live better. (New York Times)
• New studies find that mountain lions leave an area if they even hear human voices—which has rippling effects down the food chain. Go humans! (San Francisco Chronicle)
• And, OK, yes, the story about the Dutch dropping their children off in the middle of the forest may be a bit apocryphal, but still, some people are doing it and that shit is nuts. (New York Times)

________________________________

Comments & thoughts

– Are pros just ordinary people? Maybe. If you don’t think so, maybe you just need to hang out with Sara and me more.

– Most of you all are on vacation right now, so enjoy your hot weeks.

– Plus, a shoutout to Feisty intern Ellen Pennock. In between managing our Feisty-ness, she also races as an elite ITU athlete, finished second at the Canadian National Championships earlier this month AND took 9th at the ITU America Cup in Quebec. In case you were feeling like a slacker.

– Sara also would like me to tell you all: Last chance for early bird registration for Outspoken: Women in Triathlon Summit. Don’t miss it.