robeakin.com Triathlete

About Me

Name: Rob Eakin
Home: Vancouver, BC
Age: 27
Education: Bachelor of Science (Honours) - Physics and Astronomy, Bachelor of Education - Secondary Math and Science
Occupation: High School Math and Science Teacher

My Life Story (In 300 words or less):

Was born in Etobicoke, Ontario (just outside of Toronto and home of Kelloggs, no wonder I love cereal). Moved to Richmond before I can remember where my awesome parents still live. Went to Dixon Elementary (Go Dragons!) and Hugh Boyd Secondary (Go Trojans!).

Spent most of my time growing up playing sports. From soccer to baseball to hockey to basketball to curling (really) to tennis to football (very briefly) to golf. But mostly it was baseball (as a fastball hurling pitcher) and hockey (as a stay at home defenceman) with a little golf thrown in in the summer to fill the gaps between baseball and hockey season. So while I had little experience in swimming, biking or running when I got into this, competitive sports are in my DNA I would say.

Graduated high school in '99 and went to UBC where I took the hardest sounding major I could find: honours astrophysics. Definitely interesting but not extremely useful. Spent my summers working at Marine Drive Golf Club (told you I couldn't stay away from sports) and eventually spent a full year there after graduating from UBC.

Now living in Vancouver, it was while working at Marine Drive with the junior program that I discovered how much I enjoyed teaching. So it was back to UBC to get my teaching degree.

So here I am today two years later, a high school math and science teacher at Mulgrave School moonlighting as a triathlete. And there is my life story in 252 words.

How I Got Into Triathlon:

During my third year at UBC I volunteered for UBC Rec which ran all of the intramural sports on campus. I helped run the ball hockey league but they always needed everyone to help out for the campus wide events. This included the UBC Triathlon.

I distinctly remember spending that day helping out with registration and seeing the vast array of people who were taking on, what I thought at the time was, an extremely daunting task. I had a passing knowledge of what triathlon was and had it built up in my mind to be ultimate athletic test of endurance. Watching how many different people strolled through that day to register I realized how wrong I was and said I would do one eventually.

It took me two more years before I got a bike and then another 8 months before I got in gear and commited to doing the UBC Triathlon in March 2005. That January I signed up for a clinic with Reflexion Clinics. I had no idea what to expect having never swam competitively (had done swimming lessons) and never having riden a bike more than 10 km. But 6 weeks in, I had been moved up to the fast lane in the pool and told that I was doing the olympic distance race not the sprint.

That first clinic and race was such a great experience that I signed up for their next clinic for the half ironman in Victoria two months later. Looking back, a half ironman 6 months into my triathlon career was probably not the best idea. It was a fufulling experience but left me needing some time off. A time that ended up lasting almost two years...

Why I Do It:

There is always a simple answer and a more complicated answer to each and every question. How are you doing? Good. Or...I had a tough time sleeping last night because I had work on my mind so it was hard getting up this morning but when I got to school there was a student waiting for extra math help and after seeing that it finally clicked with them I was energized so...good.

The simple answer first.

I love competition. I could delude it with saying I love sport, I love being active, I love being outdoors, or I love pushing myself (all of which are true). But let's call a spade a spade. I want competition.

I want a winner and a loser (or losers). It's for this reason that I couldn't get myself into things like snowboarding and skateboarding. Sure they're fun at the time but at the end of the day what's the point if I have no concrete way of saying I'm better than you (or vice versa as often the case is). I'd rather spend hours hitting a little ball around a field into 18 little holes in fewer strokes than you than look cool doing a rail grind.

It may seem odd that someone who is so laid back and soft spoken could be so concerned with winning and losing but there is a big difference between being aggressive and being competitive. In fact I'd argue that some of the greatest competitors have been the least aggressive athletes (did you ever see Michael Jordan get in a shoving match or Wayne Gretzky get in a fight?). But that's a whole other discussion.

Triathlon gives me that competition. Everyone stands at the start line and whoever gets to the finish line first is the winner. Plain and simple. One winner and a whole lot of losers.

Sure, at first, it was a competition with my mind to actually believe I could complete one. Then it became a competition with my former selves to get faster. And in some ways that competition will always be there and be a driving force in my training. But in all honesty it's about standing out from that crowd of losers and being the winner. To not be normal and be a champion as I was once told.

So in 300 or so words, my simple answer is competition.