this is an n=1 example but my wife has essentially told me she doesn't care to be faster as she is trying to do a sprint triathlon. things like triathlon and running races, or charity rides in cycling, are mainly about completing (or participation events, like rubiksoval says above), and I don't know if a lot of people (men and women, I don't know if it's really a gender thing) care to be faster or beat other people. I haven't raced in two years but I still train with the goal of getting faster (or, mainly as of late, get back to the 265w ftp I had in October from the 230w I have now). I think people are wired differently with different motivations, and obviously I'm clueless about solutions, as I can't even convince my spouse to adopt a training plan lol