Well, I'm only starting to get into tri but I've been getting similar questions for years because of my marathoning and other racing. I like your first response, I do it because it's hard. But I could expand upon it a little bit....

A big portion of who you are is by the people you associate with and interact with. Being an amatuer athlete exposes you to an entire culture of people who push themselves daily, seek adventure and never settle for mediocraty. This is my biggest thrill, as much as I love racing myself, going to events you meet new people, crazy people, nuuuuts people, and it just pushes me further. To be faster than guy, have better form than that girl, to have as big a smile at the finishline as everyone else.

Or I could just spend my weekends bellied up to a bar with some (literal) crackheads pounding beers, adding to my spare tire, loaning some dirtbag money and watching MTV reruns....

It's more than the racing to me, it's the people I meet and joy you get from finishing race.

I played soccer for fifteen years and it was getting to be to hard on my body. Being a forward and going up against HUGE (Im 5'10", 152lbs) defensive players causes the body to break down pretty good. My competitive drive (I had a coach that said I played with 'reckless abandon' and he would pull me out of games because I wouldnt back down from bigger players.)

For me its about pushing myself to the limits, taking my competitive attitude to a scene where it is somewhat glorified and to meet a group of people who are just flat out geeked that they get to do this type of thing. Triathletes/Duathletes are there own breed. You cant duplicate the people, the emotion, the scenery or anything that makes up an event with any other kind of sport in the world. For me its the comradery (sp?) and the competition hands down.

I think my reasons have changed over the years. Sometimes it's the competitiveness, sometimes it's having an excuse to push myself harder than I would otherwise, sometimes it's trying to see if this 42 year old body can go faster than the one I had at 20 (answer: in a sprint, no; in a half-iron, yes), sometimes it's the fun people, or the cool places I get to travel, the scenery I get to see, waking up at 4:00 am to get in a cold lake, feeling alive, and because I can. One of my good friends this year got Guillain-Barre syndrome and was paralyzed and in the hospital. This guy is a biker, hiker, plays competitive sports. It's eerie to see someone so active literally go to bed one night and the next morning not be able to move. It makes you appreciate the good strong body that you have been given, and vow to live life fully.

Right after I finished High School my dad bought me a hybrid bike and I started riding a lot. I was the opposite of active in school and biking was a nice change. I rode our local bike path a lot thought it was amazing being passed by these guys on these tiny tires and spandex. I started looking online and upgraded to one of those crazy bikes.
After about a year of very casual riding I was poking around on the internet again and discovered a triathlon, 3 sports in a row!!! I thought it was crazy that people could finish that and all I was looking at was a local sprint. My friends were not active people and I wanted to set myself apart from everyone I knew. I signed up, I suffered and finished.

When I started I could barely run a mile, now its 5 years later and I've completed around 15 Tris including sprints, oly, halfs. And built up a fair running pedigree including Halfs, Fulls and 50k's.

I keep looking at the next big distance with the same eyes as I looked at my first race. I wouldn't give up Tri's for anything else that this world could offer me.

because no one has invented a quadrathalon.

honestly, because 15 months ago there was a sprint on my campus, and the announcer woke me up at 8:00 AM while i was hung over. needless to say, I wasn't too happy. it really woke me up in another way too. i had been a swimmer and I had a road bike that was becoming a garage dust gather-er. here I am now, 13 weeks from my first 1/2. no one probably believed I would stick with it for this long, and that really motivated me to begin with. at first i needed to prove them wrong, now I need to prove myself right.

I would say just by being involved you have more competitiveness in you than you think...I'm not competitive to the point where I go out to win races...I, like most mid to back of pack AGers (I assume), am competing against myself and my previous races...or going longer than I have before.

What else would I do? TV, online games, playstation, sportsbars? I have to do something, and it's hard to train for most sports at 5am, or during my lunch hour. I can swim, bike, or run by myself, and do them just about anywhere.

I keep doing triathlons because I'm hoping I'll find the answer as to why I keep doing them.

I started training at the encouragement of a friend, then when I told my parents about it, my dad said, "You are NOT going to do a triathlon!" so then it was a challenge. Of course, the last mile of the run, I was thinking, "This is the 1st and last time I am going to do this"...and then I got to the finish line. It took about 10 seconds, and I asked my friend when the next one is.

Now I do it because I like the training; I like that my friends think I am crazy for waking up at 4 am to train- no excuses; the "scenery" at the races; and just to do something for me- not a wife, not a mom, just ME.

so I have an excuse to shave my legs and wear a Speedo to the beach..

and as I've said before it's the only legal way I know to chase chicks wearing spandex..

PoC

that too..
heh.

Now in Copenhagen they really know how to do it on a bike:

then there's this guy..

PoC

I tri cause I CAN! It's always a challenge and if I don't do something each day I feel litterally, "dirty" inside. Also, tris give you the ability to do something different for training each day. Also the toys are cool!

woah....:)

i live by T. S. Eliot's quote:

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."