NO HELMET = NO RIDE

[meic]

I have just recently started learning how to swim after all these years of getting by with "staying on top of the water and moving forward".
Then I got the idea of trying a mini triathlon as it is just a 400m swim, 3 mile run and 23k bike ride.
I am a bit disgruntled about the run as I havent run for thirty years.
Entering for it next April and training up for it would have been quite a help in stopping my decay in health and fitness. Nothing too drastic like an Ironman or triathlon.

So I find the webpage to check the rules and there in bold is NO HELMET = NO RIDE
http://www.healthylifeactivities.co.uk/ ... -questions

At a time when we should be trying to encourage healthy activity (this is part of a healthy activity campaign) there should be an assumption of removing barriers to access, not creating them.

This is a major part of our obesity problem, exercise has been separated out from normal life and packaged as a commodity that needs special equipment and exercise is something you have to pay for.
Doesnt matter though, I am not around on the date, so I will continue incrementally degrading into a fat slob.

[axel_knutt]

Digressing a bit, I went back to swimming this summer after a break of about 25 years. It's done wonders for my shoulder joints, I'd been starting to lose mobility in them from lack of activity. Previously I'd had to stop because of ear trouble, so I'll see if I can get away with one day a week this time instead of 5 days like I used to. My speed was never good, and it's even worse now, my mile time has gone from half an hour to three quarters of an hour.

[landsurfer]

Most of the Sportive's i enter insist on wearing a helmet, so i do.
Until i go through the start gate then stop, take it off and stow it in my saddle bag for the rest of the day ...
The timing chip works fine in my saddle bag ...

[Bez]

This is a major part of our obesity problem, exercise has been separated out from normal life and packaged as a commodity

It's a competitive event, a race, involving a 400m swim, 3 mile run and 23km bike ride. If that's not "separated out from normal life" I don't know what is, unless you live on a small island just off the coast with the nearest road 3 miles from shore and you live with someone else who does the same commute and constantly takes the mick out of you for being slower.

If you think requiring a helmet for such an event, where people ride as fast as possible with their heads as low as possible, is some sort of factor in the nation's obesity problem then I think you're looking in slightly the wrong place.

Why don't you go for a swim, then a run, and then ride a bike?

[700c]

What are they going to do if you ride sans Helmet? Physically stop you? If so...how...assuming you are not a subservient mouse...

[meic]

We are looking at this event rather differently.
Remember I said it was being pushed under a "healthy living campaign".

If I was to participate I certainly would not be "as fast as possible with their heads as low as possible"
I would just be looking to complete the event. Same goes for the swimming, just get through 400m without drowning and not taking quite a whole day over it.

Possibly I am being condescending towards short duration events, I thought they were more aimed at casuals like my present self.
I dont expect anybody to be taking the mick out of people who are getting off their fat arses and actually making an effort, except possibly a few immature fifteen year olds.

Why don't you go for a swim, then a run, and then ride a bike?

Because I am afflicted with the same psychological disorder as 90% of the population, that we need a target or "cause" to motivate ourselves.
Personally I am not as bad as most others because I get out on the bike (much more than this mini-event is suited to) yet I have zero motivation towards running or previously swimming.
Here lies the problem that I am trying to highlight, in an event meant to encourage the great inactive, they shouldnt be promoting the highly "competitive" event you are envisaging so much as the laid back one I am seeing.
I have no objection to them running both types or people entering and wearing helmets and going hell for leather (I am led to believe they will stagger things to let them off without us getting in their way.

[Mick F]

If one was to enter one of these events which they insisted on a helmet ...............

1. What happens if you don't own one and cannot afford one? Do they supply one for you?
2. What about religious objections? Turbans etc?
3. What about medical conditions that preclude wearing a helmet?

#3 is pertinent to me. Alopecia Universalis and my scalp is too sensitive to wear a cycle helmet.

[Bez]

We are looking at this event rather differently. Remember I said it was being pushed under a "healthy living campaign".

A detail I overlooked, to be fair (can't see the site at the moment as it's blocked on this connection), but I still think that anyone aiming for a triathlon—even a small one like this—is already well off the sofa and enthused by the idea of exercise as a sporting activity, and I don't think people see equipment as a huge barrier to such activities. In fact some see it as very much part of the appeal. There may be one or two like yourself who are put off but I think it's a completely negligible number in the grand scheme of things: if you'll pardon the hyperbole, practically no-one is going to think "I was hoping to do that triathlon but I don't want to spend £30 on a hat" and then return to eating pizza for the duration of a fifteen hour marathon of watching repeats of Homes Under The Hammer.

I am afflicted with the same psychological disorder as 90% of the population, that we need a target or "cause" to motivate ourselves.

I'm firmly in that 90%

I tend to organise A Thing which I either do with a handful of friends or which I broadcast to various bits of the Internet as some sort of charitable venture. Or normally both. Means I can do whatever I want, including riding a bike without an itchy jaw, in the knowledge that if I don't pull my finger out then someone's going to be on my case.

[meic]

I think that all of the options like refusing to wear and riding anyway, turbans, exemptions, legal challenges etc are all a greater deterrence to participation than succumbing and borrowing a helmet.
My point isnt about helmet objections it is about creating barriers to healthy activities. They are a symptom of the problem rather than the problem itself, which is why this wasnt posted in the ghetto and may just possibly stay out of the ghetto.
It is the barriers and "sportification" of ALL healthy activity that I am getting at.

[meic]

but I still think that anyone aiming for a triathlon—even a small one like this—is already well off the sofa

I was merely at the "looking into the possibility of" stage, the helmet criteria has* diverted me from reaching the "aiming for" stage. So its back to the sofa.


*academically as I will not be available on the date anyway.

I guess if somebody(else, of course!) combined a swimming bath hire, a park run and an Audax it would meet my wishes.
Possibly for the rest of the population the barriers are not barriers so much as an eagerly grasped excuse to remain on their sofas and blame others for their lack of activity.

[Mick F]

Yep.
You're right.

It's a barrier.

Providing you can swim, you can jog, and you can ride a bike ........... that's all you should need or be required to do. Making stipulations about kit or equipment, is a barrier.

[meic]

I noticed a recommendation about having a spare pair of goggles in case of a failure but it was just a recommendation.

[HelenQueen]

I have just recently started learning how to swim after all these years of getting by with "staying on top of the water and moving forward".
Then I got the idea of trying a mini triathlon as it is just a 400m swim, 3 mile run and 23k bike ride.
I am a bit disgruntled about the run as I havent run for thirty years.
Entering for it next April and training up for it would have been quite a help in stopping my decay in health and fitness. Nothing too drastic like an Ironman or triathlon

How did you do in the mini Triathalon? I know it was a very long time ago, but I'm debating whether to do one myself!

[thirdcrank]

If, as meic seems to imply, this event is for people inexperienced in, or physically unprepared for this type of thing, you might assume that among the risks such as heart attack and falling off a bike, getting into difficulties while swimming would be the greatest. Common sense suggests to me that some sort of life jacket might be appropriate.*

* for the swimming, that is.

[meic]

I have just recently started learning how to swim after all these years of getting by with "staying on top of the water and moving forward".
Then I got the idea of trying a mini triathlon as it is just a 400m swim, 3 mile run and 23k bike ride.
I am a bit disgruntled about the run as I havent run for thirty years.
Entering for it next April and training up for it would have been quite a help in stopping my decay in health and fitness. Nothing too drastic like an Ironman or triathlon

How did you do in the mini Triathalon? I know it was a very long time ago, but I'm debating whether to do one myself!

I havent done one, I only reached the pondering stage and that was last week!

I did talk to somebody who has done one and there were no cut-off times and relayed entry into the swimming pool, so I got the impression that people who are entering merely to complete it (quite slowly if need be) were catered for.