I met up with my clubmates at 6.45am this morning and we were all admiring Toms Garmin Edge 800. It didn't matter that the rest of us had 310xt's on our handlebars, we all had gadget envy. Triathletes ( or the ones I know ) all love their gadgets, and even if they don't, they rely on it for every aspect of their hobby, they just might not realize it.
When I first started running over 25 years ago the hobby was very very different. There was one running magazine, Athletics Weekly, this was the runners bible. Inside you'd find adverts for all the races that you could enter. Also it was the place to buy your running shoes, there were very few specialist running shops and certainly none in my home town. You had to pick your shoes from the adverts for shops in the big cities. You had to ring up and order them and hopefully they would arrive in about 3 weeks. There wasn't much choice other than Nike or New Balance.
Now if want to enter a race we can search for them online and enter at the touch of a button, or we can order running shoes from anywhere in the world without so much as picking up a magazine. But the internet has made triathlon easier or should I say given triathletes greater advantages than before. OK we still have to put the training in but you can get training schedules, advice on injuries, talk to fellow athletes, and wade your way through more advice on nutrition, physiology and fitness than any library can hold ! You can even send tweets to Macca and Chrissie about training and have a hope of getting a reply. In fact I'd go so far as to say that the biggest single factor in growing the sport of Triathlon is the Internet.
These days virtual clubs exist, you need never meet your fellow club mates but you can belong to the same group. As a member of an actual triathlon club you may think I think thats sad but it isn't, its still bringing people together with a common interest. If it wasn't for the internet I'd have never met some great friends through the runners world website : Fat Face, Dave, Viking, Min, Loon etc... There is still a place for local clubs and most of us belong to one.
The internet has also widened where we race, it was almost unheard of 25 years ago when my Uncle ran the New York marathon and then later the Paris marathon. Nowadays both events would seem passe to most, with the internet we can enter races any where in the world including the Amazon, the Sahara and Antarctica. I have already raced twice in Florida and in Germany because I've found and entered races online. Next summer I'll be racing a Di triathlon in Spain. Triathlon has boomed world wide because of the net, more people can enter more races, anywhere, the classic example of this is any Ironman race. You have to enter online and they sell out in minutes, years ago only a few knew they existed.
Booking accommodation, flights etc....all are now easy to do, basically everything is more convenient due to the internet.
Injuries are being treated through technology, 10 minutes of video analysis with a computer and a treadmill and my running problem was diagnosed. I couldn't run but after that and given the correct insoles to wear I've not been injured ( touch wood ) and am running strong. Years ago such a problem would have been missed.
I could also mention, Heart rate monitors, gps systems, bike computers, mp3 players.....all technological advances that make our training more informed and comfortable. We can now download and analyze our training runs and rides and get just about any data we want. Gone are the days of running a route and then driving round it in the car to see how far you went, now you just look at your wrist, or in the case of the Nike ipod+ lance armstrongs voice comes through your ear phones to tell you !! No need to go home and get maps out to work it all out on the kitchen table, just bring your online maps up and it'll also give you profiles and elevations. This is the age of Geeky endurance and I love it, I'm a self confessed gadget freak. Does it make me faster? I think it does, I love seeing my mile splits and then trying to beat it in the next mile, watching the speed on my bike and trying to maintain it.......data can be a great motivator.
So Technology gets my vote, I think its made our hobby more convenient and accessible. There will not be one person that reads this ( on the internet....enough said ) that hasn't benefited from it whether that be online shopping and race entering or training data being recorded. Even Blogs can help keep people motivated, writing mine has ben one of my biggest motivators - keep training to have something to write about etc....
Purists will say you should just get out there and run, leave all the crap behind, and yes that's great sometimes, but you can't escape technology.....see that drifit t-shirt you're wearing or those Nike Pegasus, all designed on computer and probably bought on one as well. And don't get me started on our bikes......the stuff of science fiction when I was kid.
Wonder what we'll see in the next 20 years?
Andy Holgate is the bestselling author of “Can’t Swim, Can’t Ride, Can’t Run: From Common Man to Ironman.” He lives in England, competes in triathlon and enjoys life to the full with his family.
He has his own blog HERE and his book is available from all good bookshops including Amazon HERE.
Follow on twitter @everymantri or view latest videos on YouTube.