For your first triathlon may say, "I just want to finish without embarrassing myself." I remember telling that to a guy I trained with. He said, it was a very common feeling for your first time out. He said people would be there using mountain bikes or maybe people who have hardly ever trained. Just go and have fun - it's an experience. I remember most everything about it. The picture of me transitioning to the run is blurry - probably because that's how I felt at that point.

Finishing a triathlon is a great accomplishment and that might be it for you. You put in a lot of training and will move on to your next accomplishment. For those who found something they really enjoy, they want more.

Being a competitor in triathlon to me means wanting more than a finish. You want to place well overall, if not in your age group. This also means several things:

• you have probably done several triathlons before
• you're past the point of feeling very uncomfortable in your weaker sport
• your training is progressing well
• you're starting to feel confident and comfortable based on experience

By this time you probably:

• started looking at how you can decrease your transition times
• have run without socks so you can save time going from bike to run
• have a tri singlet so you don't have to change any clothing, unless you wear a wetsuit
• know your expected split times
• have a road/race/tri bike that cost 3 times what you paid for your big screen TV on which you watched IronMan Hawaii

What does it take to go from completing to competing? Different people may tell you different things. First, you feel comfortable with, if not exhilarated by, racing. Second, and I believe it's imperative, is determination. Persistence goes a long way in life and and in sports. It will get you up at 5:00am for swim practice before work. It will keep you going on your long runs and bikes when you are alone and feel like stopping short and no one would ever know...except you.

If you've completed your first several events and you want to do more, you likely have a competitive streak in you and will start competing.

Let me know your stories of moving from completing to competing - when did you know you were competing?