Tuesday, February 21, 2012

the kind of pro I wanted to be

Magic ice cream koi fish, part 2 is in the works. It was originally part 1 (of 1) until I got the dual nostalgia-anxiety attack with the TBB blog scare. It lead me to go through some of my old blog posts, and I am fascinated. Some I haven't read since I even wrote them (back in 2009, 2010), and now that I can step back and read it as an outsider, I think "WOW. Who is this girl?"

Am I tooting my own horn? Perhaps. I never really understood how my blog gained so much readership (thousands of visitors from 68 countries and territories), it was just me, blogging about various adventures and boring normal stuff I did. I figured I was just extra fascinating when you threw in the pro triathlete factor into the mix.

I think it broke down to this: I was funny (hilarious, even), wrote well (Captain of the Grammar Police), had lots of fun pictures, and updated often. The 4 keys to being a successful blogger. I was also heartbreakingly honest and open about many things in my life, including dating prospects. Even if nobody read my posts, I would quite enjoy reading them again and again later on.

Before I was a pro triathlete, I raced age group for 10 years, and feverently followed my favorite athletes' blogs. It's no secret most of them were crap writers, boring, and barely blogged. I had many ideas on the kind of pro triathlete I wanted to be--someone with an awesome blog, who only supported cool sponsors I believed in, and was happy to chat with age groupers and take photo and autograph requests (if I ever got that famous...and I did). I would never DNF just because I was having a bad day.

Those were the morals and principles that guided me and kept me grounded as a pro triathlete, and they were formulated from my own experiences as an age grouper. You know, the aforementioned crappy pro blogs out there, and the pro triathletes I idolized who were either really nice to me (a random age grouper) or kinda bitchy (no names mentioned here). I thought, if I was a pro, and had a bad race, and an age grouper told me "congrats" or "good job," I would at least smile and say "hey thanks" instead of just glaring at them and not saying anything.

Anyway, back to the blog. You can say I am inspired of that triathlon Wongstar of yesteryear to start blogging more again. I don't really go to cool new places these days, and most photos are of the crazy rambunctious Christmas puppy on my camera phone (which has this horrible 2-second delay). I also don't have the luxury of doing nothing but training and blogging all day, every day--it amazes me that there was a time in my life when that's all I did. But I do find that I still have a lot to say and have always found writing to be a therapeutic way of getting my thoughts out and sorted. I think the direction of this blog has tended towards more long rambly thoughts, less pictures. I'm also feeling less funny, but maybe the hilarity will come back later.

I guess I was feeling "deleted" yesterday, because hardly anyone ever comments on my blog. It's the attention whore in me. And I mean, comments had always been disabled on my teamTBB blog, so I don't know why it bothers me now. And I'm terrible at leaving comments on the many other blogs that I read, or even responding to the few comments you loyal readers leave here. Yes, I'm a hypocrite at times. We can't all be perfect, and I don't want to be.

6 comments:

  1. i still read them! your sense of humor always makes me smile. cheers from chicago to you, the man, and the adorable puppy- b. snare

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    1. Awww thanks B! I need to visit Chicago and catch up again soon. Not just an airport layover either! Many smiles to you :D

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  2. hahahaha geez! i didn't have time to comment on the previous post but here's your comment for this one. :P

    it's funny i think about it and i have never idolized pros as much as you or a lot of the other triathletes I know (who will not be named). i'm like, eh, whatever, they're faster than me, but they're still people. unfortunately i don't think some of them realize that and think a pro card gives them the right to be rude and bitchy (cough former roommmate cough).

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    1. Hooray my threaded comments are working! I was way more impressionable my first years as a collegiate trigeek. By the time I got on TBB I wasn't allowed to idolize anyone, if I expected to compete against them. But yeah *cough pro hos cough*

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  3. Hi there, first comment for me. I found you on ST a few months ago (retirement thread) and I quickly added Wongstar to my small list of blogs I follow. I get excited when I see a new post, like when I was a kid and a new comic book came out. But this is free and I relate to you. (did not really relate to superman)

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    1. Steve! Hello! And welcome :) amazing, I didn't expect to garner new fans post-triathlon. Thanks for the comment and glad that people still get excited when I post. That's good encouragement to keep writing :)

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