I've been asking myself this question lately and I don't know what the answer is. Coincidently, Angela at Oh She Glows posted about this this morning and got reading comments about other readers who do and don't consider themselves athletes.
What is an athlete? To me it is someone who plays a sport like soccer, basketball or football. OR someone who excels at sports like running, swimming and biking. Yes, I do run, swim and bike, but I don't feel as if I'm super great at them. I go out there and give it an A effort most of the time, but I'm still a novice at all of them. For this reason, I don't call myself an athlete, I'm a beginner.
Some people may consider me an athlete because I do these activities. AA says I'm an athlete cause I can run longer than him! LOL. I do want to think of myself as an athlete, but I feel I need to progress and become a better swimmer, runner and biker before I can openly say that I'm an athlete. Maybe I need to accomplish something, like a race, to get me to that point. Perhaps come June 26th (day of my 1st triathlon) I'll proudly call myself an athlete...we'll see!
Hi Megan,
ReplyDeleteI found your blog through Caitlin's comments from yesterday.
I found this post interesting because I also do not consider myself an athlete. I've done a couple marathons and a couple of half ironmans and other races here and there and I think I can pinpoint why I don't feel like an athlete...It's because I take the term "races" very lightly. I think because I haven't yet raced competitively, I feel like I'm not really an athlete. Maybe when I step things up I will reconsider how I refer to myself??
Julie (in Oregon)
Julie - Thanks for the comment. I think you're spot on about being able to call yourself an athlete once you start being competitive. Right now, I'm only doing races to finish and to see how far I can push myself, I'm not trying to beat the guy next to me.
ReplyDeleteYou still have to be proud of doing a couple half ironmans though! Way to go!