TRAINING DOCTOR’S ORDERS
Team triathlon
The often-overlooked benefits of our sport
Jordan D. Metzl, MD
Four of us decided to make the
drive from New York to the
Timberman 70. 3 triathlon in
New Hampshire in August. We left
New York on Friday afternoon at 3
p.m. As is often the case in the summer,
the traffic was heavy. As we slowly
crawled along the highway (and I mean
slowly), the conversation turned to the
upcoming race: Were there many hills?
Was it going to rain on race day? Were
we prepared? Did we have the right
nutrition plan?
The miles wore on and afternoon turned
to evening and night. We kept talking. We
played the world-famous “Metzl name
game”—a ridiculous way to pass time by
guessing the names of famous people from
their initials. We talked about our plans
for the upcoming year; we talked about
our hopes for the future and, once in a
while, the conversation drifted back to
triathlon. By the time we finally got to
New Hampshire, eight hours later, we
were psyched to be there. But we had
learned more about each other in those
eight hours than we had in the previous
several months.
The triathlon crowd is really a pleasure
to be around. Triathletes tend to be healthy
and driven to succeed but not fanatical,
successful in life and in sport and able to
multitask in many areas of their lives. I’d
rather spend eight hours in a car with three
other triathletes than with three of just
about anything else.
As I looked around the expo the day
before the Timberman, I realized how
team-oriented the sport is becoming. Yes,
team-oriented. Okay, perhaps not in the
same way as football or basketball, but it
was clear from looking around the expo
that many who had made the trek to New
