A Simple Minded Triathlete

"Doing anything special this weekend?" my coworker asked me on Friday. Half listening and half engaged in my work I gave my usual response, which truthfully, he should have memorized by now: "Swimming, biking and running."

"Doesn't that ever get boring?"

It was a pretty good question really. I'm sure it sounds horribly unappealing to anyone that isn't fully immersed in this multisport lifestyle. So, why does this arguably boring lifestyle appeal to me? Maybe we're all wired a bit different, so is there something in my head that makes living a good chunk of my life alone in my thoughts whilst swimming, biking, and running just work for me?

I don't wanna get too deep here, but yeah, maybe. I think about how simplistic it is when it's just you and your body pushing yourself to go forward. It just seems so perfect when you can narrow your focus to the feet moving forward, the sound of your breath, checking off how the heart feels, how the lungs feel, are the legs getting tired. It's all internal and nothing outside competes for your attention.

As simple as it is, there are simpler ways to live and often I find them appealing too. Sometimes I wonder if I could have made it as a monk. Giving everything up for a simpler life just sounds inviting! When I was a kid growing up in South Korea, my dad used to take me to a place called Jesus Abbey in the Taebaek Mountains in Kangwondo. It's a Christian community where people visit to engage in prayer or seek peace and solace in the name of the Lord surrounded by those beautiful mountains.

Kimchi pots in the foreground, Jesus Abbey always seemed to have a mystical appearance to it.

As a kid, I had little appreciation for the spiritual aspect of Jesus Abbey. But I'm just as mesmerized now, in my head, as I was then by the natural beauty that surrounded the place, the simple pleasures of exploring nature, the obligatory prayer sessions, a modest meal, and a mat on the ahndal heated floor to sleep on.

The stone buildings were built into the side of the mountain, with a lovely thatched roof.

I'd love to go back some day, and I often drift in thought to the idea of living out a simpler life along the grounds of the Abbey. Or, I could stick with this triathlon thing, which by comparison, seems like a pretty elaborate lifestyle. I guess, like anything else, it's all relative but perhaps if you have a place in your mind where the simplest things seem that they could offer a lifetime of enjoyment........well, maybe that's why you're into this triathlon thing as well.

That, or you like beating people and then rubbing their nose in it. S'good stuff too!