Through the Looking Glass...

One of my favorite stories when I was younger was Alice in Wonderland.  I have fond memories of being read to by my mother every night before bed and hearing the escapades of Alice, the Mad Hatter, and the Cheshire Cat.  I remember particularly enjoying Lewis Carroll's sequel, Through the Looking Glass, because of its delightful idea that things were just the opposite than expected.

The more I think about it, the more I'm sure that this concept still fascinates me.  The world of endurance training is a little like looking into a mirror: everything seems a little backwards.  Actions that seem ordinary to us are perceived by those on the other side of the mirror as abnormal, strange, and even downright insane.  That 8-miler this morning? To us, it's as normal as popping the toast in the toaster or turning on the coffeemaker.  It's just what we do.  After all, who wouldn't want to end the week with a 40-mile ride?  But to those on the other side of the looking glass, it's as foreign as the letters on your t-shirt seem when you're looking in the mirror.  What kind of people, they ask, enjoy 2-hour runs in the rain?  Who on earth would consider a 3-hour cycling trip up and down hills "enjoyable"?  Why would anybody get up at 5:00 AM on a Saturday to put their body through hours of torture and duress?  How, they ask, can you do this?

I've only been a triathlete for a year, but I've been an endurance athlete (a runner) for much longer.  Thus, I've grown accustomed to and have been hearing the arguments and expressions of disbelief from non-endurance athletes for some time now.  However, it's only when I'm injured (like now) that I get the rare opportunity to "go through the looking glass" and see what life is like on the other side.  Humorously, what I observe is just as alien and confusing to me as what the "normal" population sees when peering through the glass at us.  It starts to drive me crazy around day 5 of sitting on the couch watching TV.  Why, I wonder, is nothing good ever on? What kind of people enjoy sitting at home, or in the movies, or at the beach, or frankly just SITTING, anywhere?  Why is it that every time I look down I'm shaking my knee, or twitching my foot, or just moving in general?  How, I ask, can they do this?

If "normal" is determined by the number of people who agree on a particular school of thought, then we endurance athletes are certainly a minority, and an abnormal one at that.  But if "normal" is a completely arbitrary designation--and I would argue that it is--then who's to say that we're the strange ones?  I, for one, think we've got the right idea.  Come on, take a baby step down the rabbit hole, through the looking glass, just to see what our world is like.  No? You'd rather stay home and watch "Oprah"?  Suit yourself...if you change your mind, I'll be out slaying the Jabberwocky.