Trash

You’re used to me writing funny stories about my own trials and tribulations—stories that I hope might resonate with you or at least make you laugh.

This is not that sort of column. I’m a little ticked.

It seems that there’s this race on the East Coast, the Chesapeake Triathlon. It would have been three years old, only it’s not going to happen this year.

Why?

Trash. Bad behavior. Angry residents.

This was how it read on the Triathlantic website a week or so ago:

"Two years ago, the townspeople around Betterton complained about the amount of trash thrown on their lawns, that their driveways and side streets were blocked, and that people were changing in their cars in front of their houses, all this done by athletes participating in the Chesapeake Triathlon."

To get a permit for the 1999 race, race director Brad Jaeger had to agree that athletes would be informed about the rules of participation both in the race application and the race packet. He did this, even including a line in the waiver that said athletes signing the document agreed with the rules in the race application.

Do I need to tell you what happened in the 1999 race? Yep. More trash, parking problems, bad behavior. Again, I quote from the website: "Amazingly, the residents also took many pictures of athletes blocking driveways, throwing trash and picnicking on their lawns."

Seventeen athletes were identified through those photos, Jaeger said. They have been banned from future Triathlantic races.

"Attorneys for Triathlantic sent letters to the offending athletes identified in the photos along with copies of their signed waivers and pictures of the athletes breaching the signed waiver," he said. "All 17 athletes have been banned from future Triathlantic events and any other events organized by groups that work cooperatively in the mid-Atlantic region, as was stated in the race application."

Now, obviously I don’t know all the intricacies of this situation, but it got me thinking about an issue that doesn’t get talked about too much in triathlon—our responsibilities as athletes and competitors.

You all know, I hope, about your responsibility to play by the rules of competition as laid down by both a race director and USA Triathlon, if the race you’re in is sanctioned by that entity. You know about and follow the rules of fair play. You’d never elbow another competitor out of the way, or try to gain an unfair advantage by cheating, right?

But do you know about the subtleties of being a competitor in someone else’s backyard?

I ruminated on this all last week, then thought I’d make an effort to pay attention to competitors’ behavior at a race I participated in on Sunday. Right along the beach. An ocean swim, a rolling bike course that takes you up to redwoods and drops you back down to the ocean, a spectacular run that includes about two and a half miles of beach running. It’s just stunning, a wonderful race I hope to come back to year after year.

Unfortunately, though, I didn’t have to wait long in my hunt for examples. There we were, about five miles or so into the bike ride, climbing up through pastureland, old orchards, and lush redwood forest. I looked up as a gal up ahead tossed her gel wrapper on the ground. Right there among the redwoods! Who does she think is going to come back and get it?

I am normally a mild-mannered competitor. I like to think I mind my Ps and Qs. But this so angered me that I yelled, "Hey, pick that up!" (Funny, huh? Like she was going to stop, come back and actually pick it up.) No response.

There are lots of things that we triathletes often find charming in training—spitting, blowing our noses, changing our clothes by the side of the road. We make jokes about it. Heck, adidas built an entire ad campaign—"Runners. Yeah, we’re different."—around it. A lot of times the normal course of business for triathletes involves stuff that is so intensely personal that, in any other circumstance, you’d probably do it behind closed doors. Because we often, instead, find ourselves doing these sorts of things in public at 25 mph, we find it hilarious.

But guess what? If somebody showed up in your neighborhood on Sunday morning and did these things while half-dressed and blocking your driveway, how would you feel? How about if that person tossed their energy bar wrapper on your lawn along with an empty water bottle?

It probably wouldn’t be so charming.

I have to say that my mother, when she was raising me, never preached "The Golden Rule." She didn’t say, "This is The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." She did something better—she lived it and, by example, taught it to me. I wouldn’t want somebody blocking my driveway, so I ain’t going to block yours. I’m going to stuff that empty gel wrapper into my bento box or down my sports bra. I’m not going to throw it at the base of some gorgeous old tree for some hapless race volunteer (hopefully) to find hours later. I respect the tree, and the volunteer, too much.

Before you think I’ve gone all preachy on you, please consider this: If we can’t police our own ranks, somebody else will step in and do it for us. Neighborhoods and communities won’t want to host a triathlon, even if we do bring in thousands of dollars for hotels, restaurants and so on. Cheering neighbors will turn into angry residents who might, accidentally on purpose, dump a box of tacks on the road the night before a race. You could even get banned, as you can see.

It’s especially tough on smaller, grass-roots sorts of races that might not have deep sponsorship commitments. Most of the time these folks are doing it for just one reason: They love the sport and want to be able to give you, and their friends, a place to race once a year. Believe me when I tell you that organizing a race is harder than it looks, is fun only in spurts and requires a lot of love and a deep commitment to the sport to carry out. No doubt there are some bad, disorganized RDs out there, but many really want to do the right thing by everybody.

So here are a few suggestions from me to you. I offer them free of charge, and I’m not sorry if I sound like your mother.

—Clean up after yourself. Don’t leave gel wrappers, or half-eaten energy bars, in your wake if you can help it.
—Be aware that not everyone in the world a) knows what a triathlon is and why it is happening on their street; b) cares that you are in a race; and c) appreciates the inherent humor and catharsis of a well-executed spit.
—Respect your surroundings. If you are racing in a wilderness area, do what you would do if you were hiking or camping: Leave only footprints, take only memories.
—Respect the race organization and volunteers. They’ll think you’re piggy if you make a huge mess. Or if you’re rude.
—Obey the rules of the road. If the bike course is open to traffic, do your best to stay to the right, watch for cars and show some respect for the law of the land, your fellow competitors and the community you’re in.

If we can do these things consistently, we’ll have plenty of races to go to on the weekends. If we don’t, well, I don’t need to tell you how sad an empty summer calendar would look.

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