eb314

I'm just wondering why Lance decides to do marathons now, instead of the obvious competition if he wants to run...Triathlons! Wasn't he a Tri champ as a junior? He could incorporate running into his obvious strength, cycling. And who cares about swimming, everyone's about the same on that anyway. Wouldn't he be sweet at Tri's? I just don't get it.

Mike V

Lance who?

MV

Namenda

I hear he'll be running the Boston Marathon this year. I may have to go watch.

eb314

Lance Burton, duh.

teterider

Hopkinton will be mobbed in April now that he's running the real marathon. If its a nice day it will be the largest crowd ever.

Keith99

Why on earth would Lance want to do tris? He would be expected to do well, to win, to be the man. If he still wanted that he would stick to cycling.

merlinextraligh

Nail, head.

Skewer

Maybe he still will at some point in the future. Ned Overend, former World Champion Cross County Mountain biker, won the World Xterra championships a couple of times in his late 40s. And I think it was just two years ago, with Ned at age 50, that Tyler Hamilton was the only rider to beat him in the Mt. Washington Hill Climb road race. Ned also won the Colorado road championships in 2004 at age 49? Seems like he won more races in Colorado last summer, but I have forgotten what they were. Lance still has plenty of time to make his mark elsewhere if he is so inclined. I heard he plans to enter an Ultra Cycling event this season, but hasn't decided which one yet.

Garfield Cat

My guess is that Lance is involved with his Foundation for cancer. The Boston Marathon was somehow connected to the Foundation.

cslone

Everyone's the same on swimming?

Have you ever actually been to or race a triathlon? That's as ridiculous as saying everyone's the same on the bike or run.

merlinextraligh

Actually more rediculous. Swimming is the most technical of the 3 disciplines. You can be an aerobic animal, but if your technique sucks, you'll lose massive amounts of time swimming.

AlexTaylor

Boy, you should see me swim!!

Cue comments such as "is he waving or drowning?"

H2Row

Maybe he doesn't want to compete? And be expected to do well?

jcbenten

Rumor is that Mr. Lance will be doing the IronMan in Hawaii next year. I think the Marathon running is to get training for the longer distances in the run. The triathlons he used to do had 10K runs (I think). Marathon distances are a whole new animal.

thplmn72

His x wife regulary writes a column in runners world and he probably wants to a. compete against her or b. keep a connection to her.

kudude

i was under the impression that most of the good amateur triathletes usually had a somewhat serious swimming background.

Marathons are probably fun. He gets to compete, but isn't expected to win.

Campag4life

Because old war horses don't die, they just fade away...and, if you have a heart with stroke volume the size of a horse, you can't sit still.

What else is he going to do with his time? Self promotion and staying in shape is what he is about...win/win...he ain't gonna win.

rooftest

They don't dope test the marathoners. (at least not those who aren't trying to win.)

eb314

Calm down calm down, I was comically dismissing it so that people wouldn't bring up that he can't swim, since he can swim and is a very good swimmer.

mrt10x

Isnt the old axiom "you cant win a triathlon in the swim but you can lose one there" ??

cslone

Alright.

itri-45

I suspect that he'll do the Ironman in the near future but first he wants to see if he could do a marathon in a competitive manner. He was a short course tri champ and thus never ran the marathon distance before. French cyclist Laurent Jalabert ran several marathons for a couple of years after his retirement before attempting the Ironman this year.

daytonian

...and part of that swimming is being kicked in the head, and dealing with it.

RFC

It's a little like Eric Heiden (sp?) who took up cycling after proving he was the world's top speed skater in the Olympics. Makes sense to me. Once you have been on top in a sport for a long period of time, better to pick a new one than to sully your image and place in history.

StanSeven

Exactly. That's probably one, if the the hardest things for new triathletes to deal with. There's nothing like getting kicked in your stomach either as you are taking a breath or air and gulping water either. Or being litearly run over by one or more swimmers.