Thus, imagine my surprise when I received this email a few days ago:

Hi Rebecca,

My name is Sebastian, I’m 24 yrs old and I am a beginner triathlete who started his first (training)season with a little bit too much enthousiasm. This resulted in my first injury ever of which I am still recovering – grrrr – and which is keeping me from doing any running at all. Technically speaking that makes me a duathlete in stead of a triathlete. (Although I am not sure that swimming combined with biking is officially recognized as duathlon.)

But hey, that’s why it’s great to read about your triathlon experiences! It helps me convincing myself that – even with a slow start – eventually I will be able to do a sprint triathlon! And maybe later a 70.3 Ironman! And maybe thereafter … Ok, you’re right, stop dreaming, I’ll just start with the sprint triathlon …

Please keep writing your blog, it’s really funny and I’ll keep you posted when I finally get started!

Regards,

Sebastian Fischer
Antwerp, Belgium

Holy balls! Sebastian marks a series of firsts for Mediocre Athlete:

1. First reader who we don’t personally know
2. First international reader
3. First person to read our blog and actually get inspired by it (seriously, that’s pretty mind boggling)

Thanks for being a fan of the blog, Sebastian! We know you’ll kick ass this season–if Jason and I can do it and survive, you sure as hell can, too. Also, we’re pretty sure that you can count swimming and biking as a duathlon. We categorize stuff as being duathlons all the time; hell, just this weekend we did a duathlon consisting of “eat a breakfast burrito” and “watch football games.” I’m happy to report that both of us finished with strong times. :D