fuck Ironman

Posted on by Matt Ruscigno 4 Comments

World Triathlon Corporation, who put on Ironman(tm), the events I refuse to go to because they are insanely expensive- $550 for a one-day race- and pride themselves on exclusivity just started a program to get early entry in races that costs $1000 a year. A thousand dollars just to register early. Some have called it the Country Club program.

Is anyone surprised? I’m not. This is capitalism at it’s ugliest- exploiting those with more resources to line your own pockets- at the expense of those with less. And because they are so big it makes it harder for smaller race organizers to put on events. If they kept doing what they do- taking money from rich people to make themselves richer I wouldn’t care as much. I still wouldn’t go to their fucking races, but I wouldn’t be as mad about it. But it affects any of us who want to do a long-course swim, bike, run because there are fewer and fewer alternatives. And those of us without thousands of extra dollars.

I put off doing an ‘iron-distance’ because of the association with Ironman-trademark and I’m wondering if I ever want to do one again. There need to be more events like Vineman .

This video nails it. Thanks Treystone!

http://www.xtranormal.com/site_media/players/jwplayer.swfhttp://www.xtranormal.com/site_media/players/embedded-xnl-stats.swf

Death and Dancing

Posted on by Matt Ruscigno 1 Comment

My Google Reader is poppin this morning. First this post with a chart outlining that the number one killer of children is motor vehicles. Number one. Think about that. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tells us that in 2007 over 41,000 total people were killed by automobiles. What makes it all the more tragic is that we take this as ‘normal’. Well, life is dangerous and we have to drive, right? No, we don’t have to. We’ve just spent the previous 60 years giving space and priority to moving automobiles as fast as possible. This has to change. And it is. Slowly.

Folks do what they can. For some in Oakland it’s this dance for their friend who was killed in a car at this corner.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQRRnAhmB58&fs=1&hl=en_US]

Here’s a little news story about it and the Turf website.

What’s your dance? Get out there and do it.

Idleness and dissipation breed apathy

Posted on by Matt Ruscigno 2 Comments

24 hours of Boggs today! 11am to 11am. With new bike, awesome. Without
any crew or friends racing, less awesome. It was a great course last
year and suuposedly there's even more single track. As my first 24hr
race last year I got 4th out of 8 single speed, but something like 9th
out of 45 overall. I like the time and the looped course rarely feels
repetitive, but it's hard mentally to push when there's no 'end'. It
got me at Cool 24 this year when I stopped cause I was cold (haha) and
fell asleep…

Maybe I'll shoot for a distance to keep me going? 200 miles? A double
century on my mountain bike would be a first.

I'll try to update the Swarm! Twitter occasionally. Also, a prize if
you can name the album the title of this post is from. Hint: I had the
t-shirt in high school.