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| Proud to be a Skratch Labs taste agent. |
Good, consistent training means putting in hours in the saddle on the bike, as well as running and swimming. Bike emphasis is key in part because the cycling section is proportionally the longest part of triathlons at every distance.
The highlight of my cycle training the past two months has been finding some fantastic friends willing to go out on group rides on the weekend. Most of us didn't have a lot or any experience riding in a group, and it has been a fun and sometimes funny experience. Plus, there have been pancakes at the local diner afterward. You can't beat that.
The downside of my cycle training has been the amount of abuse by motorists I've suffered, especially when riding solo. I've been yelled at, had drivers swerve toward me, been sucked into the wind tunnels behind huge trucks that don't slow down at all. Two weeks ago some guys threw a half eaten Entenmann's chocolate doughnut at me from their car; it hit my helmet, spraying crumbs into my hair as it bounced off.
Today two men in the white pickup truck drove up as I was biking, slowed, leaned out their window and yelled "Nice clothes, FAT ASS!" then sped away. I am no stranger to jibes about my weight, and I put in a few extra miles just for them, because the longer me and my pork belly are out there, the more we can irritate the haters. Moreover, I am proud to wear the kit of Skratch Labs, a sports nutrition company that would select a curvy, middle aged, lesbian mom to represent them two years in a row.
Want to tick off a misogynist jerk this Mothers' Day? I have a suggestion: go to the Skratch (skratchlabs.com) website and check out their products, or go to their Facebook page and just hash tag #HKtris4me in the comments. Let them know their choice of representative is one that supports people who might otherwise be uninterested in athletics.
Here are some of the many groups I represent every time I get on my bike, or put on my running shoes, or stuff myself into a swimsuit. I tri for:
- -Moms
- -Curvy women (and men, for that matter)
- -People who've been afraid they'd get judged if they put on exercise clothes and went outside
- -People who embraced athletics late in life
- -All those who have endlessly struggled with their weight
- -Teachers
- -Students
- -People who work at community colleges
- -The LGBT community
- -Plant lovers/plant killers
- -Anyone who hasn't done the laundry this weekend
- -People who are convinced they are lazy
- -Cat owners
- -People with school debt they haven't paid off
- -Women who had trouble making new friends in their 30's
- -Swimmers
- -Anyone who has jumped off a raft on a lake in the summer
- -Anyone who has jumped off the back of a boat at the start of a triathlon
- -Adults who have jumped in a pool and swam like a mermaid instead of doing dignified laps
- -Cyclists
- -People who have fallen off their bikes
- -Runners
- -Slow runners
- -Very slow runners
- -Triathletes
- -People who care about social justice
- -Weirdos
- -Journalists
- -Writers
- -Users of the semicolon
- -People who have been made fun of
- -All those who have set ambitious goals and failed
- -Anyone who has ever wrestled with the crocodile of depression
- -Anyone who has ever been unable to sooth a colicky baby
- -People who have suffered through ugly breakups
- -People who have found "the one" after finding all the ones who were NOT the one
- -People who took a "gap year" before it was cool
- -Boarding school graduates
- -People who have routinely leaned on their siblings for comfort
- -Knitters
- -Anyone who used to speak another language, but has since forgotten all the vocabulary and verb tenses
- -Bad cooks
- -Book lovers
- -Those who can recite all the words to Clue, a Monty Python movie, Top Gun, Back to the Future or The Princess Bride
- -Anyone one who has gone to bed tired and woken up tired
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