I'm pulling a "Favre"

It is with great anticipation, and no regret, that I am formally announcing my retirement from the sport of triathlon. After careful consideration, I have decided that retiring from this sport is the only way that I can eventually become good at this sport. You're probably confused, so let me explain.

I have been a triathlete for six years and for all of those six years, I've believed that the three sports of a triathlon are swim, bike and suffer. I have swim times that most pros would kill for and I routinely post one of the fastest amateur bike splits at every race I go to (as long as the course if flat). While my opening two legs ought to set me up for a damn-near pro-level finishing time, they don't -- I run like the fat kid in gym class and it's time to change that.

Next Sunday, I'll be racing Vineman 70.3 and that will be my "swan song", if you will, until Spring of 2009. For the past few months, I've been fooling myself into believing that racing both the 70.3 and XTERRA world championships would make 2008 my most memorable season to date, but there's a problem--I don't care about merely participating in these events. Just making it to these two races isn't enough for me. So, instead of spending the rest of the summer and fall training for triathlon, I'll become a runner for the next eight months.

Here's why it makes sense:

I have the "honor" of being the only person I know who has gone exactly two hours in an Olympic-distance race while still running over 40 minutes. At Ironman Florida last year, I came off the bike ahead of more than half of the men's pro field, only to follow that up with a pathetic 4:30 marathon.

After Vineman, I will begin a build-up to the point that I can run eight times per week (yes, that means a few two-a-days) and I'll use the weekends to recover (easy bike on Saturday, long swim on Sunday).

Will it work? I have no idea. But, I don't want to just participate through the rest of my triathlon "career". I want to know just how good I can be at this sport and this is the only way to find out.