Something you never hear men say to their friends: "Hey, I signed up for a triathlon/marathon/race of some sort...you should too!"
And then proceed to pressure their friends into considering and eventually co-signing up out of either guilt or mistaken enthusiasm.
But women do this to one another, unabashedly, all the time.
Perhaps it's because every race these days is in the name of breast or ovarian or fallopian tube cancer awareness and because we all have these parts it’s assumed that we would like to run 26.2 miles so others are aware of them. I’m not sure. I wear a sports bra when I run so people aren't aware of my parts.
Recently I played tennis with a friend, who mentioned that she was doing the Ironman in 2 months and therefore I should too.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I haven't seen you in a while, c'mon, it will be fun to train together!”
This is always the reason female friends initially give— that training for a grueling event will be made fun because we will be together.
“I have to scrub my bathtub tonight; do you want to do it together? It will be fun,” Is what I want to say.
“You expect me to be ready to compete in the Ironman in 2 months?”
“Not just you, US, I expect US to be ready! Let's challenge ourselves otherwise we will regret it for the REST OF OUR LIVES!”
Another female ploy, regret.
“I have no interest in doing this.”
“But why? (whine) you can swim, you own a bike and you run. We would be doing this TOGETHER and you'd be so proud of yourself.”
“I am proud of myself.”
“You'd be prouder!”
“I'm already there, very proud. I'm an A+ paper on my own fridge.”
At this point pouting and frustration begins with the friend.
Soon it moves from it being about the race to it being about the friendship.
“Are you worried spending so much time training together would harm our friendship?”
“Yes, totally.”
“I promise I won't let it if you don't.”
“I am avoiding all potential of that happening by not signing up for the Ironman with you."
“You'd really sacrifice the chance to do the Ironman in order to save our friendship?”
“Yes, I would.”
“Wow! You really do care about me...US...our friendship.”
“I do, and not doing the Ironman in 2 months with you is my way of saying that I cherish this friendship.”
