Lunatics

The great Dutch triathlete Rob Barel, who at 42 just competed in the Olympics, was asked what he would miss most about competition when he retires. What he said, in the November issue of Triathlete magazine, stayed with me for a long time, ping-ponging around the nooks and crannies of my brain.

"That atmosphere of people in a small sport who come together and all of a sudden they know what they’re doing, they know each other, they know the situation, they feel at home, and, when they go back to their places, they blend into the environment and nobody knows what they are doing. It’s like a little religious sect that gathers in its own place. It’s such a small sport that it’s very hard to find other people who have the same passion, the same feeling for the sport. It makes every race kind of a celebration of strange lunatics."

A celebration of strange lunatics. That really stuck with me. It seemed so true. How many times have you stood in a transition area, getting ready to race, and suddenly thought, "Wow. Look at all of these people. They do what I do, too—and what my neighbors and co-workers think is insane.

"These are My People." ("Well, maybe not that one guy over there, spraying himself with butter-flavored Pam, but most everybody else…yeah, My People.")

It’s a happy coincidence that while I was ruminating on all of this, I received an email from my friend Mauro Mongarli. Mauro lives in Italy, and I had written to him a while ago asking him to keep his eyes peeled for athletes in his part of the world who could be part of the age-group section of triathlonlive.

Mauro had sent me a submission:

Name: Dino Petri
Age: Eternal
Hometown: Ferrara, Italy
Years as a triathlete: Being eternal...
PRs: His wetsuit is so ridiculous and out of every rule that marshals always let him race. He once forced a baker to close before the term because he bought all the bread before a race. In Nice, he has been caught by a fisherman and swam several minutes staying perfectly on the spot.
Best finishes/results: He probably raced a number of times near infinity. As [a race] organizer, he once put the swim leg in spa, with almost boiling water. He once did three laps of a bike leg he was supposed to do twice, to enjoy the landscape.
Pre-triathlon sports background: Runner
Day job: Retired
Favorite race: Every race!
Favorite workout: Surely swimming in a pool with no lanes, following pool's perimeter.
Training tip: Stop work, feed daughters (triathletes, of course). The rest is training.

"Dino is a true legend in Italian triathlon. When he appears in the transition area, you're glad you didn't choose another race that day. The events he organizes always have a deep impact on people's souls. … He has no limits."

Aha, I thought, a true lunatic—in the absolute best sense of the word! Stuck on a fisherman’s hook, swimming in place, in the blue Mediterranean. Organizing outlandish events. Living life without limits. Clearing a bakery of its bread. This was a man after my own heart.

I had to know more, so I emailed Mauro. I wanted to know about these events Dino organizes and was told about the Petriathlon, "sometimes a relay with enormous distances [500K] in the foggy Padana Valley." Dino is also the president of the Club dei Brutti (Club of the Ugly) for the Ferrara region. (Yes, there is a Club of the Ugly. It isn’t entirely what you think, and if you want to learn more, you can here.)

"His club activities always include cultural items, revealing not-so-known aspects of Italian history and characters," Mauro wrote. Once he’s home from his adventures, Dino stops for a bite to eat then goes back to training, or back to work finding sponsors and goodies for his races. Triathlon has existed in Italy since 1984, Mauro said, and Dino was there. He’s probably approaching his 60s.

"Believe me, I didn't exaggerate anything, talking about Dino!" I believed him.

But it got me to thinking some more, and that is always dangerous. Just ask my friends. Worse, ask my husband. As I told my esteemed publisher, "Never tell a lunatic to run with it."

I started thinking about the lunatics I know. There are a few here on the Monterey Bay. I’m proud to say they’re some of the neatest people you’d ever want to meet, even if they are certifiable by other people’s standards. Then I started thinking about the lunatics I’d only heard of, who are part of regional triathlon lore, whose stories are told from transition area to transition area, training ride to training ride.

You probably know some of them, and that is where you come in. I’d like you to tell me about your best and brightest lunatics—and once a month, or maybe more, we’re going to celebrate them here: The folks who are the lifeblood of our sport, who live the life with open hearts—the people for whom swim, bike and run are as important as eat, breathe and sleep. The people for whom a race might be just an excuse to get out there with friends and mix it up. The people who don’t take much seriously except their love of Sport.

You know who they are, and I want to hear about them. I want to thank Rob Barel for igniting that ping-pong game in my head. And I want to go to Italy for the Petriathlon. Anybody in with me?

TO LUNATIC SUBMISSION FORM
TO JOHN GAILSON, LUNATIC
TO LANTERNE ROUGE HOME