Nation’s Triathlon, Sun. Sept. 7, 2014, 7 am

[PotomacCyclist]

The swim was canceled, so it became a bike/run race instead. (But not a duathlon, which is run/bike/run.)

As the race was winding down, the road closures were still in place for a couple hours longer. For those who weren’t in the race, and for those who were, it was a fantastic time to take a leisurely ride along the western part of the Mall. For some reason, the monuments seemed to be more spectacular today. It was only later on that I realized what the difference was — no cars. Or almost no cars. Just people walking, running and riding. When I stopped on the small Tidal Basin bridge, I could stand there, off the sidewalk and take photos of the Jefferson Memorial without fear of getting run over by a large tour bus or a speeding car driver. It was very relaxing (or as relaxing as it could be, after finishing the bike/run race).

Even at West Potomac Park, where the transition area and post-race tents were located, it was more relaxing to sit among the trees and see the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument without the constant buzz of high-speed car traffic nearby. This was the case, even with all the athletes and spectators there.

Like most people here, I’ve ridden or run past the memorials many times. But it’s a rare occasion when I can see them without the threat of getting hit by a driver while walking in a crosswalk or riding responsibly on the road. The air is also cleaner, without the massive cloud of gasoline combustion exhaust, which is very noticeable during rush hour in downtown D.C. Even cyclists who don’t like racing or triathlons can enjoy this.

Hopefully this doesn’t sound too elitist, but another difference today was that the Mall was filled with people who are active and who bike a lot. Sometimes it can be depressing to see many of the usual visitors who scarf down a lot of junk food (during their visit and on an everyday basis) and who appear to lead very sedentary lives, when they aren’t visiting and walking around the Mall. Most of the triathletes here today are not extraordinarily fast. I know that I’m not that fast. But all those thousands of people make an effort to include regular exercise in their lives. It’s kind of nice to see.

[hozn]

@PotomacCyclist 93950 wrote:

Hopefully this doesn’t sound too elitist, but another difference today was that the Mall was filled with people who are active and who bike a lot. Sometimes it can be depressing to see many of the usual visitors who scarf down a lot of junk food (during their visit and on an everyday basis) and who appear to lead very sedentary lives, when they aren’t visiting and walking around the Mall. Most of the triathletes here today are not extraordinarily fast. I know that I’m not that fast. But all those thousands of people make an effort to include regular exercise in their lives. It’s kind of nice to see.

I don’t think it’s the junk food on the mall that’s making the tourists from the midwest overweight. I do think this sounds a little elitist, given that this is how a significant swath of our country looks. Unfortunate, perhaps, but true. Sorry.

Rather than suggest that the tourists make our city look ugly, another way to look at it is these folks that lead lives more sedentary than you (or their doctors) might prefer, have gotten off the couch to travel across the country to learn more about their country’s history, government, etc. I have had the luxury of living in places that are popular destinations for different kinds of tourists and and frankly I find the tourists here to be an inspiration.

I would much rather see the mall filled with fat children than triathletes any day. Of course, I’d also like to see people adopt healthier lifestyles, but the idea of importing a bunch of fit people to make a place beautiful does come off sounding pretty … well … offensive.

[PotomacCyclist]

I’m not saying that the junk food on the Mall causes the health problems, just that it’s an indicator of the usual diets. I don’t think that’s a wild assumption. I see some horrendous diets among people at work: daily afternoon snack consisting of cans of sodas and a huge slice of chocolate cake (with the result of a person who is seriously at risk of various health ailments, as well as excess weight of more than 100 lbs., I think), pasta and potato chips along with extra-large containers of soda, and so on. About 13 percent of all adults in the U.S. now have diabetes. A third are obese, and thousands of children now have Type II diabetes when that was unheard of 30 years ago, and so on.

You should note that the Nation’s Triathlon tends to attract a lot of beginners/first-timers, so I’m not talking about the elite level of triathlete. That’s why I didn’t think I was being that elitist, because in the triathlon world, the Nation’s Triathlon would not be considered an elite race. I saw many paratriathletes, including several amputees and double amputees. They are out there being active, more active than millions of people who have legs. The blind triathlete competed again, with the assistance of a guide/partner. That’s always cool to see.

The reason why sedentary lifestyles get to me a bit (aside from the fact that I used to be inactive myself) is that the rates of nearly complete inactivity correspond quite closely to overall obesity rates. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. And the problem is that it really does affect everyone, in multiple ways: quality of life, resistance to public spending on infrastructure that encourages active lifestyles (bike lanes, etc.), less thought about safety needs for non-motorized vehicles/pedestrians on/near roadways, occasional hostility to non-motorized users of public roads, and greatly increased healthcare spending (which everyone has to pay, through higher taxes and/or higher private insurance premiums). That amounts to an estimated bill of $200 billion a year, in avoidable healthcare expenses. Not a small amount. Each taxpayer could be paying as much as a thousand or two thousand dollars annually to cover these avoidable costs, whether or not they eat a healthy diet and exercise. It’s estimated that a person’s annual healthcare costs double once they become obese. In the vast majority of cases, the cause is a combination of nutrition choices and inactivity.

When a child develops diabetes, life expectancy can drop by as much as a decade or more. Even worse is that quality of life becomes greatly decreased over that shortened life span, unless nutrition and activity levels can be adjusted. That’s why it upsets me a bit, knowing that most of this is avoidable with good nutrition and regular exercise. It doesn’t have to be this way. Thirty years ago, it wasn’t this way. Colorado (and D.C.) usually show up at or near the top of most lists of healthiest states/jurisdictions in the U.S. But Colorado’s obesity rate is still over 20 percent. Thirty years ago, every single state in the U.S. had an obesity rate BELOW 20-21 percent. So the Colorado of 2013/2014 would come in last if compared to all the states from the 1970s/early 1980s. Not good.

[hozn]

I doubt anyone would disagree that obesity rates in this country are higher than they should be — and that this affects all of us. I certainly don’t disagree. I am merely taking issue with your implication that overweight tourists make the city (or specifically “the monuments”, I guess) less spectacular than filling the mall with triathletes; that is the part that comes off sounding pretty elitist.

@PotomacCyclist 93950 wrote:

For some reason, the monuments seemed to be more spectacular today. It was only later on that I realized what the difference was — no cars. [… snip … ] another difference today was that the Mall was filled with people who are active and who bike a lot.

[mstone]

@hozn 93960 wrote:

I doubt anyone would disagree that obesity rates in this country are higher than they should be — and that this affects all of us. I certainly don’t disagree. I am merely taking issue with your implication that overweight tourists make the city (or specifically “the monuments”, I guess) less spectacular than filling the mall with triathletes; that is the part that comes off sounding pretty elitist.

and also makes people tune out the health nut

[PotomacCyclist]

@hozn 93960 wrote:

I doubt anyone would disagree that obesity rates in this country are higher than they should be — and that this affects all of us. I certainly don’t disagree. I am merely taking issue with your implication that overweight tourists make the city (or specifically “the monuments”, I guess) less spectacular than filling the mall with triathletes; that is the part that comes off sounding pretty elitist.

OK, I could have phrased part of it better, especially since the thread is about the triathlon. I guess what I was focusing on was activity in general, whether or not it has anything to do with racing. (And for many people at the race, it was more about participation than true racing.) I wasn’t attempting to connect the spectacular view of the monuments with the presence or absence of tourists. I’m trying to explain my thoughts here better. It’s more like a day when being active (and biking) isn’t seen as something strange and weird, or even lawless. Perhaps it was not fair to single out tourists necessarily, because there are many local residents who are quite skeptical of activity in general. I receive many skeptical comments about cycling throughout the year from locals (though many are also neutral and supportive of cycling and active lifestyles). Maybe I get a little defensive about it from time to time, having to justify the fact that cyclists are out there on public roads. (I’ve had people, whom I don’t consider enemies, come right out and say that if I or other cyclists don’t get out of the way on a public road, they will just run me over. This is said without intentional malice. It’s just more of a general assumption that someone in a car can just go wherever they want, whether anyone is in front of them or not.)

***
As for “tuning out the health nut,” well, given the source, I won’t comment on that negative statement (in a long line of negative statements on the forum), except that I will say that yes, all the items I brought up in the previous post do matter, and it is not about being a “health nut.” I’m not sure why it’s considered undesirable to be focused on general health and public healthcare spending anyway. If I’m forced to help contribute to the enormous national health bill, then it is my business.

[PotomacCyclist]

On a more positive note (I hope):

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/07/scott-rigsby-triathalon/15250017/

“Record-setting double amputee inspires triathletes”

[hozn]

I think we all understand each other. Yes, I certainly support the mission of encouraging healthy habits, and obviously I want more people to ride bicycles, since that has a similar way of affecting everyone (but in this case for the good). You obviously have devoted countless posts (of great length, no less!) to discussing and encouraging athleticism. I certainly appreciate that; I’m sure we all do. I just think it’s worth being respectful of the fact that those monuments are for everyone and if any one group could claim greater ownership, it is probably those out of town folks coming to visit them. That’s my take on it, anyway. I do think it’s fantastic that DC is home to so many sporting events like this, though; that certainly feels like it is setting the right sort of example about health/fitness to those that do visit the city.

[americancyclo]

@PotomacCyclist 93950 wrote:

For some reason, the monuments seemed to be more spectacular today. It was only later on that I realized what the difference was — no cars. Or almost no cars. Just people walking, running and riding. When I stopped on the small Tidal Basin bridge, I could stand there, off the sidewalk and take photos of the Jefferson Memorial without fear of getting run over by a large tour bus or a speeding car driver. It was very relaxing.

Even at West Potomac Park, where the transition area and post-race tents were located, it was more relaxing to sit among the trees and see the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument without the constant buzz of high-speed car traffic nearby. This was the case, even with all the athletes and spectators there.

Like most people here, I’ve ridden or run past the memorials many times. But it’s a rare occasion when I can see them without the threat of getting hit by a driver while walking in a crosswalk or riding responsibly on the road. The air is also cleaner, without the massive cloud of gasoline combustion exhaust, which is very noticeable during rush hour in downtown D.C. Even cyclists who don’t like racing or triathlons can enjoy this.

I liked this part. Also, sounds like a cyclovia or open streets event. Maybe we need more events to take advantage of these road closings.

[PotomacCyclist]

@hozn 93976 wrote:

I think we all understand each other. Yes, I certainly support the mission of encouraging healthy habits, and obviously I want more people to ride bicycles, since that has a similar way of affecting everyone (but in this case for the good). You obviously have devoted countless posts (of great length, no less!) to discussing and encouraging athleticism. I certainly appreciate that; I’m sure we all do. I just think it’s worth being respectful of the fact that those monuments are for everyone and if any one group could claim greater ownership, it is probably those out of town folks coming to visit them. That’s my take on it, anyway. I do think it’s fantastic that DC is home to so many sporting events like this, though; that certainly feels like it is setting the right sort of example about health/fitness to those that do visit the city.

I agree. I should also point out that the triathlon only takes over the western part of the Mall on 1.5 days a year (including the bike check-in on Saturday). So there’s no risk of closing off access to the monuments most of the time.

As for the other events, the Army Ten-Miler and Marine Corps Marathon are coming up in October. I won’t be running either of them this year. (I’m not signed up, plus I really need to take a break, from running and cycling, for a while. I went into the triathlon semi-injured. I barely did any running or cycling over the past month because of quad issues. Thus, I had no time expectations whatsoever. I knew I would be much slower than usual, and I would have to walk/run on the run leg. I took planned walk breaks, but my legs still gave out a few times at other points, forcing me to walk even more. I have to admit that my ego took a bit of a bruising there. Not because I’m fast, but it just doesn’t feel right to be walking so much of the course when I’ve always run it in the past.)

Anyway, I appreciate the respectful discussion about the earlier posts.

[PotomacCyclist]

@americancyclo 93977 wrote:

I liked this part. Also, sounds like a cyclovia or open streets event. Maybe we need more events to take advantage of these road closings.

It was similar to Independence Day, when a lot of the streets near the Washington Monument were closed off to car traffic for most of the day. I’ve also read that some cyclists take advantage of the road closures for the Marine Corps Marathon and ride on part of the course, well before the race starts. I don’t think that’s encouraged and I’ve never done it. (No way that I’m waking up at 4 am on a weekend if I don’t have to.) But it might be possible to ride after the race ends and before the roads re-open. That might be a better option. No risk of interfering with any runners. Then if they reopen the main roads, you can just move off to safer roads at that point.

[dasgeh]

@americancyclo 93977 wrote:

I liked this part. Also, sounds like a cyclovia or open streets event. Maybe we need more events to take advantage of these road closings.

WHY DON’T WE HAVE A TRUE OPEN STREETS EVENT? Seriously, it wouldn’t be hard. Just market the 4th as Open Streets DC (ok, hysterically ironic).

In Arlington, just close Clarendon to cars, make Wilson 2-ways for cars, and we all win!

[Author]

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