Why I don't race anymore, and how I feed my competitive hunger

Races and other endurance events have become outrageously expensive in the last few years. It wasn't like they weren't always expensive but in the past those prices were a little easier to ignore. It was just me after all, and my only goal in life was to go to the Olympics and be the greatest cyclist ever.

My priorities have changed just a little as I've gotten married and started a family. Having two beautiful girls makes you realize what is really important and what is extra. Sure I'd be thrilled to stand a top an Olympic podium but it's not a priority. I thoroughly enjoy watching the Olympics almost every night with my family and sharing that experience together.

Having kids doesn't mean your not competitive, it just means you are less likely to understand the value in paying someone $100 to ride a public route and get a T-shirt. I can ride or run those routes for free on any other day and a nice T-shirt can be had for far less. Every time I see this level of entry fee I start to think of all the upgrades I could do to our bikes, or the things I could add to our fitness quiver. For perspective that is a new pair of running shoes for Celisse, or a Mavic 821 tubeless rim, or a pretty pricey helmet. These are all retail prices mind you. An internet, or back of the bike shop savvy used shopper could end up with much more. I just don't know how I can justify sacrificing long term tools for a 2 hour race.

Even $10 to $15 dollar races require serious consideration. For the family man athlete you must consider just how many pounds of bananas you are sacrificing at this local event. I recently saw bananas as low as 50 cents a pound! Going to that race could literally be costing you 15-30 pounds of mid priced produce! That's not counting if you have to drive to an event. There is still value in these events of course and I usually try to participate in my local runs because they help support things I care about. I even put on a $15 event in 2012, The Clay Springs Christmas Run. These races can be a ton of fun, but I consider each and everyone of them individually these days.

I'm still fiercely competitive though. I love to just get out and ride without the pressure of competition but I can't help myself when it comes to competing. To this day I have passed every random cyclists I ever came upon on the road and have never been passed myself. On a few occasions I even started a ride simply to catch a rider I saw going down the highway. Most of the time I rely on a couple of wonderful websites to keep me happy. The first is dailymile.com where I track all of my total mileage from running, hiking, biking and kayaking. Today I saw that one of my friends was one mile ahead of me in the yearly mileage standings so I made an extra ride just to beat them. Strava.com is the next site I use. I have my 5 year old Garmin GPS to track my speed, distance, and location as I ride along. People create segments on all the significant portions of riding areas and I love to compete for the fastest time. Having the fastest time on the local hill is much cooler to me than winning a race once.

I'm not a total loner. I love to ride with groups and exercise with other people I just prefer that it isn't sanctioned and charged. Plus riding with friends in a social setting is much more fun than riding with them in a competitive one.

Am I saying you shouldn't race? No, racing is fun and it does help to improve the sport, but so does buying
new parts. Regardless of how you look at it I'm simply sharing how I've come to see it. You may not have realized some of these things before. Maybe you were like me and didn't think you could afford good parts because you spent all your money on racing. I'll still do a big race from time to time I'm sure, but you won't see me justifying it very often. I'm pretty happy to just be able to ride everyday and continue to improve my own talent.