Pretty much any event that invovles a lot of endurance has had my attention since the day after my final football game in college. Even during my football career I was at least fairly interested in endurance events. The allure of exploring limits and the possibility of failure has always been alluring to me, even though the reason may not be something that I’ll be able to succinctly explain.

While running has been my primary outlet for tackling feats of endurance, triathlons and cycling/mountain bikings have always occupied at least a portion of that interest. However, I have yet to fully explore those avenues, and there’s a pretty simple reason for that: simplicity.

I love the lack of gear that most of my running requires. When running, a majority of my jaunts simply require that I toss on some clothes and shoes and head out the door. Unless I’m going for about 2 hours or longer, I don’t tend to grab gels or a water bottle. But even on longer outings that require I take my CamelBak and a decent supply of gels/fuel, the amount of gear that I use seems fairly minimal.

However, I’ve generally viewed biking (and triathlons, since biking is a pretty major part of the sport), as something for which a great deal of gear is needed. Special shorts, helmet, gloves, cycling jersey, helmet, clip-in shoes…and then there’s all those “computers” that you read about in triathlon magazines to help measure your power and about 10 jillion other things. These have all become associated with any competitive biking for me because it’s what is most often presented from the major races and events in the world of biking. And, trust me here ‘cuz I’ve looked it up, that stuff is expensive. Just to get a decent triathlon or road bike you’re looking at spending at least $1,000…bummer for the cash-strapped like me.

But, this morning I came across an article on slowtitch.com about Cory Foulk, who has changed my perception of what it takes to take part in an event like an Ironman triathlon. This guy rode a beach cruiser bike (think banana seat and plastic, not rubber, tires) for the Kona event once. I’ve ridden one of these bikes that he rode while in Florida for a family reunion, and it was tremendously uncomfortable for five miles at at time - Cory Foulk rode one for over 120 miles.

After reading this, my perception was completely turned around on what it takes to participate in an event like an Ironman or ultra man. Fancy equipment, though seemingly the norm, is not needed.

I recently picked up a mountain bike after having spent a bit of time debating whether or not I wanted to wait a while (probably a good long while) until I could afford to pick up a good road or triathlon bike. I’m pretty happy about the decision I made - it lets me get onto trails and I don’t worry about something happening to the tires on less than smoothe roads when commuting.

The one disappointment I had when picking up the mountain bike rather than something more road-suited was that I wouldn’t be able to use it if I decided I wanted to do a triathlon, becasue everyone who does triathlons has road bikes at least, right? Well, apparently not. And I intend to be one of those guys exiting the swim and hopping onto a mountain bike for the road bike ride as soon as I can find a triathlon which I can afford/have the time to make it to. I’ve always wanted to do one and now I’ve got a bike and have built up a pretty swimming base during my layoff from running that I can hopefully at least keep decently. I’m no longer going to let the fact that I don’t have the right bike keep me from having the experience.