Triathletes in cyberspace

And now for something completely different – a column about triathlons. And specifically about Trigeeks.

First, some background. This is the desert season for pundits – a stretch of weeks wherein little moves and thus few targets present themselves. This accounts for the overkill on Bernard Kerik. Of course, there is a war going on across the globe, and elections are approaching in Iraq, but it is also the season of journalistic lethargy, and hardly anyone wants to work that hard at a story.

When the new year rolls around, we columnists will collectively shake off the holidays and get serious about figuring out what private accounts mean to Social Security, what can reasonably be done about border security, whether the charade in Washington state is a last gasp of Democratic Party cheating or a sign of things to come. In the meantime, we just want to get through these weeks, while keeping our readers if not informed, at least entertained.

Which brings me to triathlons.

I am not now, nor have I ever been, and it is extremely unlikely that I shall ever be a triathlete, as bicycling is involved. I can run a long way, and have managed to run 10 marathons and thousands of miles over the years. And I could regain swimming form from my lifeguard days of long ago. But bicycling involved coordination of a level entirely denied me by God and his gene pool. In 15 months, I will see the fine midpoint age of 50, but not if I begin biking. This is not an opinion. It is fact.

But I have known a fair number of triathletes, including one world champion in the 50+ category who, to achieve that title, was obliged to swim some distance in Cleveland harbor. I am thus certain that he and his kind are more than a little off. Nice. Fit. But off.

They are a bit inscrutable, this bunch, and even the Olympics' welcoming of their type to Athens didn't do much to clear up the mystery.

So I am welcoming TrigeekDreams to the blogosphere, and have been reading it daily since its recent appearance. TG's writing reminds me of the essays Dr. George Sheehan used to turn out in the '70s and '80s as the first running boom boomed. Nowadays, we are used to runners who learn how to write as opposed to writers who happen to run. With Sheehan, we had the latter, and perhaps triathletes now have the same with TrigeekDreams. The blog is certainly a window into a world I find interesting, if distant, and is also a hint of things to come.

There is a flyfishingblog on its way, and a stampnutblog and quailkillerblog, etc. Everything with enthusiasts will now have micropublishing behind it and the power of the Web to gather readers. It is a gold-rush era in the blogosphere, and folks are staking their claims. I am a political blogger, or poliblogger, and this bit of geography in the blogosphere is now settled and cabins built and crops laid out. Sure, there are plots here and there still available, but the fertile land is in other places, like Godblogs, sportsblogs, cityblogs, etc.

Which in this season of leisure for most Americans is why I am sending you to Trigeek's new Internet home. Go see the future. And sell your MSM stock in old media. Everything is changing.

But don't buy a bike if you don't have the balance required. We could lose a lot of great bloggers that way.