Salt in the Wounds
When I did Kona, I went through Endurance Sports Travel - our tri team has booked dozens of race trips through them. It's a great company run by Ken Glah, who has raced Kona 29 times. Ken is awesome, and he has a great team working for him (I ♥ Stacy).
Sunday morning, the day after I finished Kona, I was hanging out in front of the hotel chatting with Ken. Some vendor who knew Ken and worked for a salt-lick company or something came over to chat with us. Ken introduced me, "this is Mike, he's with us this year." The vendor asked, "Oh, he's working for you?" "No, he did the race."
(pause) "He's an...athlete?"
Why yes, I'm an athlete thank you very much. Here it was, about 12 hours after completing the greatest physical challenge I will ever do in my life, and this schmuck couldn't even recognize me as an athlete. He could have at least tried to mask his surprise.
Luckily for him, 5 minutes later I couldn't remember the name of his company. I would have been bad-mouthing them for years after that.
Sunday morning, the day after I finished Kona, I was hanging out in front of the hotel chatting with Ken. Some vendor who knew Ken and worked for a salt-lick company or something came over to chat with us. Ken introduced me, "this is Mike, he's with us this year." The vendor asked, "Oh, he's working for you?" "No, he did the race."
(pause) "He's an...athlete?"
Why yes, I'm an athlete thank you very much. Here it was, about 12 hours after completing the greatest physical challenge I will ever do in my life, and this schmuck couldn't even recognize me as an athlete. He could have at least tried to mask his surprise.
Luckily for him, 5 minutes later I couldn't remember the name of his company. I would have been bad-mouthing them for years after that.