Reading confessions.

Shh, don't tell anyone but after a decade of reading Triathlete magazine, a periodical that I have been a published writer within, I stopped reading in 2007. This month is the first month in almost a decade that I will not be receiving a Runners World magazine in my mailbox. I am quite sad about this but I have been resigned to this fact for over a year and just waited for the subscription to expire. I realized that my money truly only went to reading Scott Tinley's last page in the former and John Binghams 'Waddle On' column in the later.

What do these two columns have in common that left the remainder of the magazines lacking? They were truly about the struggles of the common man.

I became incredibly bored reading about what the pro's wear, what the pro's eat, what they ride, what they run in and where they train. Sigh. Each magazine wrote less and less about race days and became a masturbatory opus to their advertisers.

Let me invite you in on a secret. The pro's ride what their sponsors give them. They run in what their sponsors give them. And the big surprise, even after completing dozens of Ironmans from Kona on down, not a single one of them will tell you they are ever confident in their nutrition on race day.

The fact is, they got boring. They became more about the pro's and less about the age groupers. Oh sure, the Gear of the Year annuals are great and I may thumb through them this year but it won't be to drool over new Shiny Things.

I love my running shoes, I have worn others but on race day I have relied on the same make for 7 years.

I have the bike of my dreams and the wheel set of my dreams and they weren't found in a magazine. If, God forbid, my Valdora is broken or stolen, I will consult my tri store but most likely will get newer model of my current bike. Why mess with a great thing?

Goggles, wet suits, gloves, socks, flasks, water bottles you ask? All expendable items and once you get above a certain level of manufacturing are completely arbitrary. And trust me I own $15 running socks ergonomically designed for the left foot and right foot and they're no better than $9 DeFeets. I could care less if one water bottle is better than another. I just don't want the lid to leak when I squeeze the bottle upside down. And come to think of it, why can't all bottles have the same size lid? I have 20 bottles and 15 lids and none of them match.

But back to the two magazines that stoked a fire in me for over a decade. They inspired me and I loved them for that. Did I change after my upteenth race or did they change after caving in to marketing?

I think actually it was the readers of this blog and the (fractured but still thriving?) Triathlete Blogesphere we created. You are the common wo/man that I needed to hear from and meet and build relationships with, not the pros. What did you eat, how did you train, what did you learn? Thanks to you I am richer in thought and deed than the money I spent each month on those magazines that at one time changed my life. You all changed my life much more profoundly. And that's a true confession.