I'm a Slow Learner

The motivation for athletic accomplishment is complex and multifarious.  My own motivation has been fundamentally to stroke my own ego.  There are other motives that are less vain and perhaps more reputable.  Introvert.  Health benefits.  A sense of control over the simple mechanical aspects of bicycles.  Ego.  And ... more ego.

RAAM.  Race Across America.  Several years ago this annual event was sponsored and run by a non-profit organization and then sold to a profit based private party.  Before the sale RAAM was apparently on the ropes because the non-profit organization did not have the resources to pull it off. 

I'm disenchanted with the RAAM organization.  It seems that it is nothing more than a marketing organization that holds a party on two coasts every year. 

I'm not disenchanted with a race across America, though. 

Is the `RAAM organization' worth it?  I don't think so. 

Its sort of like a new religion that sets itself up with rules, rituals, promises and entry fees.  History is littered with examples of people who convince themselves that `nothing' is really `something.'  The RAAM organization is not something that takes place between two coasts.  It takes place between two ears. 

Once the race starts it is literally `out of business.' 

For hundreds and thousands of miles there is no presence of the organization. 

Check points are mostly intersections on a map with nobody there. 

Racers are to call in when they get there ... the honor system. 

The organization has marketing and media teams that take pictures, videos, produce short internet bobbling head youtube videos. 

Data reported to the organization for presentation to the public via internet is late, slow, after the fact, rarely current and often inaccurate. 

So, admittedly, I don't get it. 

At least NOW I don't get it.  Because I was swept up in the race `hoopla' myself.  So that I could publicly scratch my ego. 

I can publicly scratch my ego for a lot less money and with a lot more validity without the organization. 

So ... it's a marketing and media organization.  Except for recording when the racers start and when they stop it throws parties on both coasts and ... is like a cult of true believers. 

I guess bowling is like that, too.  But a lot cheaper and without the hype. 

That's nothing new, though, for me.  I mean, being a `slow learner.' 

Slow, but I usually come around.  Often with a spongy sounding `thud.'