Each night, a festival of reading is held in the Pol household. The highest priority on the list is the reading of bedtime stories. Regardless of what the clock says, each of our kids gets a short story or a chapter or two from longer books. My son is already showing similarities to dad. We've read about 50 short books in the past year. Most are from the Magic Treehouse series, though we've read children's versions of The Time Machine, Peter Pan, and others. We have also read My Side of the Mountain. Twice.
We are currently rereading an old children's book called Ghost Town. In the book, some kids have the old diary of a great-grandparent who helped found the now abandoned community. The family makes a cross country trip just to see and learn more about the town.
That got me to thinking about our sites. Every so often I'll swing by some of my old posts and review them. I've never been one for traditional "diaries," but I've accumulated a fairly extensive collection of writings over the past few years. Others have been at it far longer.
Commodore recently posted a piece by Bob Mina. This year starts the second decade of race reports he has posted. Included in the mix are reports on some of the major training accomplishments.
A few members of our tri club have maintained similar records, including printed race reports, pictures, and news clippings. In fact, they have memorabilia from racing in Hawaii, PRIOR to the qualification requirements. Like Bob, they are a wealth of information accumulated from years of experience.
In the future, will my kids (and beyond) look at my posts in the way the kids in Ghost Town view their great-grandfather's diary? Or will they look back and be intimately familiar with the content because they live similar lifestyles? Will they look at the pictures and see a groundbreaking family member, or a wacky forefather who wrote about crazy undertakings?
Regardless, the collective writings of members of the Tri Blog Community are a tremendous resource. They will also serve as a historical document for future generations of runners, cyclists, and triathletes. Whether serious and technical or silly and irreverant, these pages are an important piece of the endurance culture.
So, the next time you complete a major workout or race, or experience an important endurance life lesson, remember to share it. Even if it's been said a dozen times before, put it down. You never know who will read it. It is quite likely that at least a few of your readers will learn something new.
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