The Joe Show

Discus Thrower

Originally uploaded by technicolor

I have been pondering this for a few days now, and thought that this would make a good blog post. You see, now that I am running, everyone is calling me a ‘runner’, problem is I just don’t think of myself as a runner. I mean, runners are insane, they get up run, eat, run, crap, and they run.  They run great distances in punishing conditions, and for some reason enjoy it. I don’t think of myself in that crowd.

I also have a screen name on just about every online service imaginable of mtnbkr1, short for mountain biker. I chose this screen name back in college when you had to have a 7 character name, including a number. I was riding my mountain bike quite extensively then, and rather than switch after graduation, I simply stuck with it. Thing is, I don’t consider myself a mountain biker either. (Mostly because I don’t ride very often anymore - something else I am going to change). I also have been competing in motorcycle road racing with the AFM (come find me riding the #424 machine!) although I don’t consider myself a road racer either.

When people refer to those terms - runner, mountain biker, road racer - they seem mutually exclusive. If you are one, you can’t be another. I rejected all of those labels mostly because while I am good at those things, I am no Michael Phelps or Dean Karnasis. I guess where I am going with this is that I came to realize that I am none of these things, yet all of these things and more.

I am an Athlete.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 11:54 pm and is filed under General. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.