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Health & Fitness

The Intimidation Factor of an Elite Athlete

Are you a runner, cyclist, triathlete? If you say no, you may be surprised that I will disagree! Being active takes on many roles and we need to embrace the athlete inside of us.

I have a sticker on my car telling the world I am a member of the USA Triathlon Organization.  The humor of the sticker and others like it make it look like I recently returned from Kona, Hawaii after competing in the Ironman Triathlon…but I didn’t and nor do I plan to…I like doing the everyday triathlons.  Like many other sports and activities, there are levels of involvement.  You can start as a beginner, you can compete as a hobby or you can be an elite athlete.  The only requirement is that you just DO IT!

Running is another activity that is intimidating.  We are surrounded by thousands of morning runners, marathons and races.  There are special stores just for runners, clubs, events…you name it – we have it!  The problem is that most of us don’t consider ourselves runners.  We vision being a runner as someone who tallies up 20+mile weeks, races on the weekends, wears a belt with energy ‘goo’ in it, etc…

The rest of us, we just “Go For A Run” – maybe 30 minutes, maybe 3 miles, maybe less, maybe more.  The point I want to make is that WE ARE ALL ATHLETES!  We are runners, bikers, triathletes, swimmers!  No matter if you run 2 miles or 20, We Run.  No matter if you race a sprint triathlon or an Ironman, We Race.  No matter if you ride your bike to work or from Georgia to Tennessee, We Bike.

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So the next time you see a running store or a bike store, go inside and see what its about!  The people are nice and they KNOW that we all are not extreme athletes, we just like to be active!

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