Post-Ironman transistions and altruism explained as an evolutionary adaptive behavior

I like helping people a lot. I discovered this after I finished the Hawaiian Ironman World Championships and tore my Achilles tendon while training to qualify for next year's race. During this time in my life, each day was designated as either a training day or as a rest day or "lost day" when I couldn't train due to work or other un-avoidable commitments. Basically, it was a life that was mostly about my triathlon training and my sales goals and outdoor industry social life surrounding my job at Diamondback Bicycles.

When the micro-tears on my right Achilles tendon threatened to turn into a permanent rip straight through the tendon that would require surgery and months of re-hab, I had to finally stop running and cycling. No more training rides or runs with my triathlon friends. I dropped out of Ironman Canada and focused on swimming Masters five days a week. I did that until I blew out my right shoulder. Then I had to stop swimming, too. It was a rough time for a while to not being able to do much of anything and missing my triathlon friends during the social road rides, trail runs and Masters swim workouts.

Soon after, I got pregnant with our first child who was born a big, blue-eyed and bald headed little boy. As a new mom I discovered the joy and reward of giving myself to helping another. Two and half years later our daughter was born and by then, I was in full-mommydom and basically never saw our old triathlon friends much at all. The tires on my Baby Jogger wore out before my road bike tires that I had bought brand new just before the first baby. Months turned into years between triathlons and I realized that I needed more than a daily workout or a race to feel alive and accomplished. And, I would rather spend hours with my kids than sitting on a bike seat far from home on a 50-mile training ride feeling guilty and rushed. For the next decade I stopped doing long triathlons and focused on an annual Sprint Triathlon or marathon race that I only had to train once a day for. One by one, my old triathlon friends were replaced by new parent friends that I met through our kids. I missed triathlon but going back to the level that I was at wasn't possible with two little kids and a full-time job.

As the kids got older, they needed me less and things just got plain easier all around. In June 2005 I stopped working full-time and started volunteering more to exercise my altruistic care-taking muscles that I developed being a parent.

In 2005, husband and I started a non-profit organization to help survivors* of natural disasters the week after we returned from living through the Andaman Sea tsunami disaster with our kids during a family vacation in Thailand in December 2004. My husband gave our foundation a big name that reflected his big plans for it: Kirwin International Relief Foundation, or "KIRF" for short. But, it's really just us two volunteering our time, writing grant proposals and infusing it with any cash we have left over from paying the bills. I like to think of KIRF as our way of doing something really rewarding with our lives and a way to excercise our altruistic muscles that needed to be worked out by the both of us since neither of us works in a classical "helping profession." We fund sustainable and culturally appropriate projects that help people regain their economic self-sufficiency and we also purchase supplies that people tell us that they need after a disaster. The need I discovered for cultural competency when doing field work, of building rapport with the locals and the many inefficiencies and mistakes made by larger non-profits inspired me to pursue a masters degree in cultural anthropology at CSUN.

Since January 2005, we've helped out in seven countries: Thailand, India, Burma, Cambodia, Peru, Mexico, Tanzania and the United States. Most of our projects cost a few thousand dollars. In countries like Thailand, the exchange rate amplifies our buying power exponentially. For example, $10,000 in funds to purchase supplies in Thailand in January 2005 was like having $70,000 here in the United States. With about that much, we funded the rebuilding of a co-operative fish farm, and purchased dry goods, food supplies, school supplies and two fishing boats for three coastal villages that got destroyed by the tsunami flooding in Thailand as part of our tsunami relief work.

I've had people tell me, "Oh, you are going to heaven." assuming that was my motivation. And, I've had others, mostly Thais, insist that we help others to gain merit (for good karma). Which isn't really true–for me anyway. And, I've been asked more times than I can remember, "Why did you come to help us?" or "Why did you start your foundation?"

Honestly, I really didn't (and to a certain extent, still don't–sorry!) have a single or simple answer. When pushed for an answer I would often tell them that it's our way of giving back since our lives were sparred during the tsunami disaster. But the real answer is that it just feels normal. and, it's extremely rewarding and can even be lot's of fun–albeit exhausting with 15-hour days of work while in the field and fundraising is always an un-fun challenge.

But, the truth is, it seems like the right thing to do. I hesitate to give that answer because I don't want to imply that everyone has an obligation to help others by volunteering as a humanitarian. That's judgmental, self-centric and as ludicrous as saying everyone has an obligation to have children, etc. And, that's not how I feel anyway.

So, in my Evolutionary Anthropology course last semester I was delighted to be assigned a book that explained altruism from an evolutionary perspective: Unto Others: the Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior by Elliot Sober and David S. Wilson.

From an evolutionary standpoint, altruism can be explained as an adaptation that helps to promote survival. But, to promote the survival of whom? Certainly not the individual altruist according to this definition: “a person unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others (Dictionary 2009).” This is true in our case at least, in that our "KIRF work" has cost us personally in time, money, and, even, this is difficult to say, but precious time away from our family and loved ones.

An altruistic act is one that gives others a reproductive advantage while putting the altruist at a reproductive disadvantage (Campbell 2/18/09). Yep, that's us. By why do we do this?

According to scientists such as W. G. Hamilton, and many of the scientific community until the recently, altruism was best explained as an extension of individual selection and called “kin selection” (Moore 2001:58). Kin selection is an evolutionary adaptation to promote one’s genetic code by sacrificing oneself in order to help one’s kin (Sober 1998:58). Known as the “father of modern kin selection theory,” Hamilton was one of the first to promote kin selection as more in line with the new individual and genetically based evolutionary model called the Neo-Darwinian or Modern Synthesis Theory of Evolution (Moore 2001:166). The Modern Synthesis Theory combined Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection with heritability of traits and genetic research in the Twenties and Thirties. Richard Dawkins elaborated on kin selection and called it the “selfish gene theory” that claimed that we are “controlled by our genes whose only interest is to replicate themselves (Moore 2001:87).” However, kin selection, based on the modern syntheses’ gene-centric and individualistic theory of inheritance, does not explain the evolutionary adaptive altruistic behavior of non-genetically related (non-kin) individuals.

Group selection is the better theory in predicting altruistic behavior in humans and non-human primates according to Elliot Sober and David S. Wilson in Unto Others: the Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior. Group selection is “when an allele (or gene) increases in frequency if it bestows an advantage to the group, regardless of its impact on the individual (Campbell 2/25/09).” In other words, Charles Darwin had it right when he explained that a group of altruists would be reproductively more successful than a group of non-altruists. He didn’t specify that they had to be kin (Sober 1998:5). A population increases faster with more altruists according to John Maynard Smith with his Haystack model in 1964 (Sober 1998:68).

On the psychology side of research, studies done by Daniel Batson have shown that the key to altruism is not self-interest (genetic or otherwise) but is empathy. His research has shown that most people have an innate willingness to help a stranger when they feel empathetic about them (Richardson 2005:217).

And, back to the biologists, altruistic behavior is not limited to humans. Biologists have documented several examples of group selection with the presence of altruists increasing group fitness in non-humans. For example, the brain worm (or liver fluke) relies on the altruistic and suicidal behavior of several individuals in a population to promote its survival as a group (Sober 1998: 27). An experiment with guppies shows that even non-human creatures such as fish choose to associate with altruists. In the experiment, it showed that even guppies preferred the company of altruists of their own species who risked sacrificing themselves through dangerous predator inspection behavior. (Sober: 1998:140).” With that in mind, and the greater ability of humans to detect altruistic behavior through cultural transmissions and communication, (compared to guppies), helping others seems normal and biologically natural.

So, according to science, altruism is an evolutionary adaptive behavior that increases the fitness of groups in both humans and non-humans and it's trigger is empathy.

That seems to make sense to me. I can't tell you how many times, after helping a brave family by giving them some mundane items that I bought for them for their temporary shelter, after an earthquake or hurricane leveled their family home and turned their lives upside down, that I've had to fight back tears at their courage. And, I feel unworthy of their gratitude for the little that we could give. If there's one thing that I know for sure (to paraphrase her Oprah Winfrey), is that doing disaster relief is living with lot's of empathy. Too much at times It would be actually, easier to do my job helping others if I had less of it, from an emotional perspective. Just a few months ago, during Inauguration Week in Washington, DC, we helped out a transitional living facility (a fancy name for homeless shelter for little kids and their mothers) by purchasing and delivering play and educational supplies for the Homeless Children's Playtime Project (HCPP). After playing with the shelter's young residents one night, how I badly I wanted to do more for these kids who are being cheated out of so much in life. That part of being altruistic and feeling empathy is not easy at all. Yes, I cried.

But, it feels natural and so good to make a difference, too– even if its a little. At least, I know I did something. And, those that I helped know that I believe that they are worth helping. It's not a lot but it's good enough because I did my best.

Now, even science recognizes the worth of helping others, or altruism, and calls it "group selection"– an evolutionary adaptation that improves a specie's fitness.

I find that re-assuring and cool.

Resources

Campbell, Christine
2009 Human Behavior: Evolutionary Perspective, Unpublished lectures for Anthropology 423, Spring, California State University, Northridge, CA

Dictionary.com
2009 “Altruist”, Dictionary.com, retrieved on May 14, 2009, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/altruist

Moore, David S.
2001 The Dependent Gene, New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company

Richardson, Peter J. and Robert Boyd
2005 Not By Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Sober, Elliot and David Sloan Wilson
1998 Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.




*I hate the term "victims" because it doesn't recognize their often heroic efforts to prevail under truly horrific physical and emotional traumas; it's undignified.

Why stress makes us sick and physiological and psychological stress-responses explained

According to Robert M. Sapolsky, “stress can make us sick (p.3).” His book, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, explains what happens to humans and animals when they get stressed out from a physiological and evolutionary perspective that is both easy to read and scientifically rigorous. Why don’t zebras get ulcers? 

They don’t because they are adapted to what normally stresses them out: physical stressors such as getting chased by a lion or adapting to suboptimal calorie intake when they can’t find adequate forage. Unlike humans, they don’t routinely suffer from psychological and social stressors. Unfortunately for humans, we do suffer from psychological and social stressors, but, like the zebras, our stress-response is adapted to respond to only physical stressors. If zebras had to go to go war or worry about subprime mortgages, get a divorce, handle elder care and seek more job security (psychological and social stressors), they would probably develop ulcers, too. In this book Sapolsky combines the latest scientific research with humor and practical information, too.

Stress-responses are the body’s way of mobilizing energy using the endocrine system in order to cope with a perceived threat according to Sapolsky, a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University and a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant. 

There are three types of stressful threats: acute physical crises (like crashing on your road bike [happend to me] or breaking one's fifth metacarpal while sparring in taekwando [happened to hubby]), chronic physical challenges (like making do with rice and water everyday for months like the Dalit kids my mother-in-law helps with her KIRF India foundation in rural Bihar, India or living the dulce vita as an upper-middle class gal on a starvation diet of cocktails and coffee drinks--and not dying) and psychological and social disruptions (stuff that runs the gamut from school or work stress, marital discord, elderly parent care, to being on constant alert as a soldier in Iraq or Afganistan...) (Sapolsky 2004:4). 

It is the last type of stress, psychological stress, that most people in industrialized societies like ours suffer from when they feel stressed. Unfortunately, our bodies have adapted to survive best when confronted with the first two physical types of stressers. This is why stress makes us sick. Chronic forms of psychological stress such as PTSD are a contributing factor to many of our modern ailments such as alcoholism, insomnia, heart disease, diabetes and depressed immune systems.

Symptoms of dealing with chronic psychological stressors are similar to the symptoms of dealing with chronic physical stressors. They include: elevated heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rates, a depressed immune system, a depressed sexual drive as well as a decrease in the rates of digestion, growth and tissue repair (Sapolski 2004:11). 

During chronic low-level periods of stress (like Finals Week or going through a home re-model that went south), sensitivity to pain is enhanced, insomnia is common and, sadly, for some, one’s appetite increases with a greater surplus of energy stored in one’s fat stores rather than spending it on good things like boosting one’s immune system. It really isn’t fair.

According to the latest research, stress makes “two-thirds of people hyperphagic (eating more) and the rest hypophagic”, according to Sapolsky (Sapolsky 2004:72). This is because different types of stress-responses affect the appetite differently. This distinction is important when it comes to my post-race bingeing research I mentioned in my previous posting.

When you are experienced acute stress, there are large amounts of appetite suppressant CRH and almost no glucocorticoids in your bloodstream (during the first moments of acute physical or psychological stress) and your appetite is suppressed. It is when the acute phase of the stress episode is over that the CRH in the bloodstream returns to normal. However, elevated glucocorticoid levels remain in the bloodstream for a while or are secreted by your endocrine system in response to “frequent intermittent stressors” such as psychological stresses and this increases appetite. 

Not only do people after an acutely stressful event eat more, they crave sweets according to the research of Elissa Epel of UCSF (Sapolsky 2004:76). And, what has a more pure form of sugars than alcoholic beverages? Stress can induce one to want to drink more than usual.

Saplosky emphasizes this point when he writes, “Glucocorticoids not only increase appetite but, as an additional means to recover from the stress-response, also increase the storage of that ingested food (Sapolsky 2004:76).” There you have it: Stress makes you fat.

Now, if you're thinking "That's me!" when it comes to craving sweets when stressed, I'm with you 100%. When it comes to chronic low-grade stresses, or that happy period of period of time after an extremely  stressful incident, you practically have to lock me out of my kitchen to keep me out of the cookies, corn chips and gin and tonic. I'm so predictable. But so are so many of my fellow humans at Dargin's on a Friday or at the Pierpont Racquet Club (a health club mind you) buying pitchers of beer for each other after a stressful week working and working out.  

Personal Example: 

Two weeks ago, during Finals Week, the more I stressed, the more I craved sweets and the more I ate them. And, the more fat that seemed to be stored in my body as my Lucky jeans got tighter and tighter the more I stressed about that, too. On my last day of finals,  after a week of staying up late studying and stressing  AND not fitting in my favorite jeans, I got more stressed out, thereby releasing more of those nasty appetite enhancing glococorticoides in my body. Next thing I knew, I was famished for that bag of Mission Corn Chips in the kitchen and another fresh cinnamon roll from Saturday’s farmers’ market. For a week, around and around the stress cycle went pushing me closer and closer to the adult-onset (type-2, non-insulin-dependent) diabetic lifestyle: over-eating, physical inactivity and chronic stress (Sapolsky 2004:66).

Fortunately, Finals week was only a week. I'm happy to report that my jeans are fitting a little bit better and I've worked out every day since my last final. Thank goodness.

:) A

References

Sapolsky, Rober M. 

2004 Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, Third Edition, New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, LLC. 

Correlation between pre-race training & post-race binginging

Is there a correlation between a structured pre-race training and dietary regime and a post-race binge? Or, in anthro parlance, is a post-race binge a type of a rite of rebellion that is simler in function to the temporary reversals of normally restrained social behavior by observant Catholic participants celebrating life after Lent at Mardi Gras and or urban office workers going native at Burning Man? 

Or, are post-race binges mostly bio-cultural responses to, and releases from, the chronic pressure experienced trying to fit in a structured and daily regime of workouts, employment reponsibilities, family and other pressures combined with a restrictive sports nutrition diet? Basically living each day with a chronic low-level psychological and physical stress up to race day. Are the post-race carbo and beer cravings due, in part, to a physiological stress response(elevated glucocorticoid levels)* after the end of a temporary period of acute physical and psychological stress felt during racing? 

Or are both of these factors, structured life style and a release of stress, involved in post-race binging? If  you are really stressed before race start and feel pressure (to PR, qualify for Boston or IM or Olympic Trials, etc.), will those factors and increased amount of stress BEFORE the race predict an increased amount of partying AFTER the race? (I'm thinking of Michael Phelps getting caught partying with abandon by the media a few months ago. I mean after years of living like an Olympic monk, can you blame him for letting his guard down and doing stupid things--especially at his age?)

I'm doing two research surveys, one for triathletes and the other for runners, to determine if there are any correlations between pre-race behavior and self-report stress response symptoms and post-race "going Carnival" (binging) behavior. 

I'm doing this research of the cultures of runners and triathletes as part of my MA thesis as a graduate student of anthropology at CSUN. Links to the surveys will be posted soon at this blog. 

If you are a runner or a triathlete please feel free to comment on this research with your own thoughts and experiences.

Thanks!

:) A

* see my next posting for an explanation of physiological and psychological stress-responses

Less is More: My "Organic Top 21" list and positive media

In the spirit of "less is more" Ode Magazine (the magazine for intelligent optimists) came out with It's "Organic Top 20" list today. I would like to add Patagonia to that list for having the courage to invest in organic cotton clothing two decades ago when organic cotton was much more expensive, hard to source and before green went mainstream. They really went out on a limb then.

[Full disclosure: I used to work for Patagonia. The view from the inside convinced me that their commitment to the environment is pretty legit.]

Sorry if this posting sounds like an ad. It's just that it's hard to find POSITIVE and USEFUL news lately and I wanted to post something that was both.

Speaking of the increased amount of negativity and irrelevancy flowing out from the media lately, I believe it's depressing our moods (and my 401k--and personal income, too I might add). Getting bombarded several times a day with negativity is just not healthy or helpful. It's times like these when I need more energy, more creativity, more connections in my life to help my clients with my web business, support our non-profit, be a good moma and still make a difference. Our country needs more inspiration, more collective resolve and spirit--not less--in order to fix our economy, environment, and increase our personal happiness quotient.

So, less is more...

Recently, I canceled our local daily newspaper, said "no" to cable (again) and have limited my own doses of NPR to thoughtful and interesting programs such as "Fresh Air", "On Point" and "This American Life".

For the past month, I've been getting my news from these generally positive and useful sources:

•People: I've gone old school and have taken up more active listening and sharing news with friends and fellow business owners & shop keepers around town

•Coffee Connection (aka "John's Coffee Shop" in Ojai): It's remarkable how much useful and locally interesting news I get from just chatting with people while standing at the counter
•Facebook.com: I get daily postings about people I know and care about

•Twitter.com: I get (sometimes) hourly postings from runners, social entrepreneurs and triathletes that keep me energized and inspired to do more
• Newspapers (okay, I admit that newspapers are a definite exception to my positive rule): Wall Street Journal for the helpful articles for small businesses and the occasional Sunday edition of the New York Times or Los Angeles Times for their in depth features on global and societal issues and trends

•Magazines: Ode, National Geographic, The Sun Magazine ("The Science of Happiness" article is great this month), Runner's World (online), Marathon and Beyond, Vegetarian Times, Craft:, and a bunch of anthropology journals I get through my AAA membership (Ethos, Cultural Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, American Anthropology).

•Emails and texts flying back and forth from friends, business associates, professors, artists, professional athletes, journalists, anthropologists, lawyers, plumbers, my kids and their friends.

And, since I've made these changes, I feel that I've essentially regained control of my information and outlook. I'm keeping informed about things that I want to know about. And, less informed of what someone else believes is important for me to be told and to believe. I'm less pissed off. I'm more content with what I have. I'm less anxious about stuff like swine flu, failing banks, global warming and threats to social security. And, I am participating in discourses that are more helpful and meaningful to me personally. Discourses that could lead to increased good. Since these changes...

I've been happier.

Less stressed.

Richer.

"You become what you think about all day long."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

:) A

Photos from ultra race in book" Born to Run" by Chris McDougall

I just finished the book Born to Run by Chris McDougall. I've already adjusted my training to incorporate some of the features he mentioned in his book that helped him regain the joy of running injury-free. You can check out my daily training updates at twitter.com/multisportmama

I found some magical and inspiring photos taken by one of the inaugural runners of the Copper Canyon Ultra and talented ultra runner himself Luis Escobar. His beautiful and respectfully taken photos of the Tarahumara and gringo ultra runners are at AllWeDoIsRun.com.

In 2006 Caballo Blanco (aka Micah True) put on a friendly match race with some Tarahumara and some of the most talented ultra marathoners in the world including Scott Jurek. Check out Caballo Blanco's web site for more info about his inspiring and wonderful Copper Canyon Run and Ultra Marathon Race.

Anyway, after Day #1 of my new "Team Tarahumara" inspired training: I feel great! No PF pain today after spending quality time with my kids on Mother's Day by towing them around on their skateboards with me jogging in some old (12 years old?) flat Nike trail runners (instead of my new $135 NB 1223s). I ended up returning the NBs and bought some Brooks Cascadia at our local running shop Inside Track. I don't have the tendon/muscle strength yet to go barefoot or wear the Vibram FiveFinger barefoot running sole protectors worn by Barefoot Ted in the Born to Run book. Not yet...

Have fun running
Love comes first
Less is More

:)A



Photos

Great cycling jersey for an EMT, Nurse, Physician, Paramedic...

These jerseys are by a company called Blackbottoms Cyclewear in Colorado. They look pretty cool for a medical professional and seem pretty high visibility for safety on the road, too. If you login to your Twitter account at TwitPic and leave a comment (if you like them or not) they may give you a pair of socks.
:) A

Post-Race Binging: a Rite of Rebellion & a Celebration

Q: "Does post-race binging signify something of a celebratory episode or is it a form of rebellion to stricture?"

A: I think the post-race binging (I call it "going carnival") is a rebellion and a celebration. It's healthy relief from the daily habitas and structure of sports nutrition, training and racing and a celebratory episode of social solidarity or communitas (see Victor Turner's “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage,” 1964). The post-race binge is a special time when the normal rules of being a triathlete don't apply. Instead of their usual low-fat, high-carb healthy foods, it's often anything and everything--served with beer.

It's kind of like sharing a few beers after work with friends on a Friday or gorging on Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings plus desert. It's a stress relief, a celebrabratory ritual and it is a marker of in-group behavior and solidarity. The comensality (who you share your meal with) is significant socially and symbolically. With whom does said triathlete post race binge? Probably other triathletes--others in their group.

Would there be post race binging without the triathlete habitus? (see Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction, 1984) I don't think so. Triathlon's embodied culture dictates that one's fitness and physique must be actively "maintained" through a strict regime of multiple daily workouts and special foods consumed at specific times and in specific quantities. Triathlete jargon reflects their structure: instead of meals, they "re-fuel", instead of going out to Italian food, they "up their carb intake" or "carbo load" before a race. Triathletes don't drink when training, they "hydrate" and so on. What they eat is dictated down to the calorie and proportion of macronutrients (rather than eating local or organic). Their diet is limited to quickly metabolized and easily digestible foods before and during working out or racing.

Instead of the typical American-English meal structure of "meat + 2sides"(the main course is a meat and the sides are a starch and a vegetable-- see Mary Douglas' "Deciphering a Meal, 1975) the structure is more like "carbs + 2macronutrients" (main course is a carbohydrate such as pasta or rice with two macronutrients, generally a protein + fat according to Monique Ryan's "Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes, 2007) The routine of eating is different also. Instead of three meals a day, it's more like three snacks and one large meal at night (according to my triathlete survey, Fall'08).

Don't even get me started on the clothing of triathletes. Why is okay for a triathlete to run around in public naked except for a swimsuit and running shoes? If a triathlete races on a mountain bike wearing cargo shorts, flip-flops and a t-shirt, is he or she really racing? Special foods, special training, special clothing, and special equipment all comprise the habitus of the typical triathlete we see in the magazines and at the races.

The stricture is the catalyst for the rebellion. The rebellion, by it's ritual & communitas, re-inforces the stricture--the triathlete habitus.

Without the intense daily structure of multiple workouts and dietary restictions on what, when and how much one can eat, there's no need for the post-race release. Test it with a research project: "Post celebratory race rituals in non-training triathletes who eat taco bell, drink beer and live la vida loca" See if there are any.

:)A

Triathlon: draft of paper "From Resistance to Elitist" or something like that

About the evolution of triathlon: from resistance to elitist...

The first triathlons were casual ad hoc races among lifeguards and teachers in San Diego. Not exactly an elitist sport! And, definitely not mainstream or conventional.

The sport of triathlon has evolved from a sport subculture that resisted convention, elitism, and commercialization of other organized sports such as track'n'field, cycling, marathon running and, of course, the team sports such as football, basketball, etc. into a a rigid institution with specific norms, rules, socioeconomic barriers to entry, jargon, embodied and material culture, values, etc. There are legions of sponsored professional triathletes. It's an Olympic sport. For the amateur triathlete, doing the long distance races is now prestigious. It is no longer an obsessive fitness hobby (well, it is to some people...). It's taken seriously. It's symbolic of your status. It shows that you have the time and resources to spend hours each day devoted to training and racing--basically leisure--rather than working for pay. Triathlete Magazine's online media kit for prospective advertisers emphasize the affluence of it's readership who spends on average thousands each year on race products.

Rules, rules, and more rules
The sport seems more structured now than when I began racing in the late Eighties. In the Eighties the sport of triathlon was still fringe enough that the rules weren't codified yet (some races no drafting, some races drafting) and TriFed, the governing body wasn't created yet. In the equipment arena, there was a lot of experimentation going on in the technology. Aerobars were just starting to be mass-produced and were still evolving, bike geometry was still based on conventional road bikes, disk wheels, carbonfiber in bikes, tri-suits for running and swim wetsuits for swimming were just coming out. There were not any triathlon stores yet so the only way to find this stuff was by going to the races and buying the gear straight from the guy (or gal) who just put here lifesavings into developing it was was still selling it out of the back of their car.

Triathletes themselves were radical for this time. They valued fitnes, innovation and being outdoors over making money in a office. The sport itself was a form of rebellion against the "dress-for-success-greed-is-good" ethos that permiated our work culture and the traditional euro-based road racing bike culture of those times.

When I share with a younger triathlete (who is contemplating an expensive new piece of equipment that she "needs" for the Carpinteria Sprint Triathlon) that I had my best races riding my old $600 steel "sticker bike" in San Diego (sans "fit kit" and tri-geometry-- but lot's of surf stickers) she just shakes her head. When I share that I didn't own a swim wetsuit or bike jersey until I trained for Ironman and that for the long century rides I carried a baked potato in a fanny pack a la Dave Scott, my younger tri friends just laugh. It was a different sport then and a different time.

In the Eighties and early Nineties in San Diego, I remember racing for pies at the Sri Chimnoy events in La Jolla. Or, doing ad hoc mt. bike and run ride'n'ties with a bunch of friends on a mountainside, collecting stuffed animals in the bushes with a post-race recovery that included bunny cookies. And, the RD was dressed like the Easter Bunny. Then there were the Avia Scramble races that went on for a while. These were like doing a hash run but without the nicknames and beer. There were no course markings the runs included un-marked trails and splashing through the surf on the beach and srambling through over rocks and their chapparel. Triathlon seemed more playful and fun in those days. But, then I never had to make a living out of it either...

The habitus of modern triathletes has changed. The signaling has changed. It's not radical any more. It's more status orientated. It's embodied culture mimics the dominant culture of health and fitness that must be "maintained" through a regime of athletic training and special foods. It's become (in my opinion), understandably and predictably, conservative and institutionalized. This has been good for pros in the industry so they can support themselves while racing and many fortunes have been made developing and marketing the new gear. Sell the myth that it's youth-orientated, counter-culture and radical and make millions. Sound familiar? ("Pata...").

What has remained the same in triathlon
The phenomenal aspects are still there: the intensity and extreme physicallness of playing along the borderlines of one's physical and mental limits is a wonderful way to feel really alive and pure. The community of training buddies (bonded together by suffering together) is still there too.

Some of the commercialized aspects are good, too.

Some of the new technology really makes the sport more enjoyable. For example, my blueseventy wetsuit for open water swimming up here in chilly Ventura (w/my matching blueseventy neopreme cap and swim socks I'm never cold)is the bomb. I would get hypotherimia with out it in the cold water where I live. The Gu's and Powergels are handy for long runs and increase my endurance.

I am enjoying learning and experiencing this new more conservative culture of triathlon. The commercialization of it and the expense of the racing can be a drag. However, the core experience of being a triathlete is still the same. It's still about training and self-improvement. It's still about spending time with your friends. It's still about having fun in the sun.

okay....back to my anthropology research project (guess? Sport sub-cultures and cultures of triathlon and marathon running.)