What the... ?!

Today I found that one of my biggest pet peeves - obnoxious corporate sponsorship - has struck where my sporting heart lives: my very favorite triathlon.

This afternoon I went online to register for my race, and to my dismay found that the sponsorship changed. Not that the corporate sponsor shuffle is unheard of in sporting events - alas, it's common as dirt nowadays - but this one, at least to me, sticks out like a sore thumb.

Before Danskin moved their Chicagoland venue to Pleasant Prairie this race was one of that series. Since then it's been part of the Reebok series. In fact, became so well known as part of the Reebok series that every triathlete I've met in the area refers to this race as "doing Reebok".

So you can imagine my horror at finding it is now the "Subaru U.S. Women's Triathlon Series." I mean, it made sense when sponsorship shifted from one sporting goods company to another... but what do cars have to do with triathlon? (They're not even cars I'd drive!)

They also changed the format to include an option for a SuperSprint distance. I'm not sure how I feel about that... but I think I don't like it, particularly since it appears they adjusted the bike course a bit to do it. The city of Naperville holds its own race over the same course about 8 weeks later; I don't see why they can't offer the supersprint option at that one. This one's already crowded with 2500 Sprint distance racers, where the hell are they going to put the additional numbers who want to do the shorter race?

So, my initial euphoria at race registration has been dampened considerably and I'm already picturing stupid corporate logo race shirts with dumb cars on them I won't want to wear. Plus, this race is widely known around here for being incredibly well run... I tremble to think how this new (and likely inexperienced) sponsor will fuck it up.

Guess I'll just have to keep working my ass off so I can hopefully come up with the money to do more than one this year. I picked this race as my one because, until today, I knew I could count on it being a fantastic experience. As much as I like the atmosphere of the Danskin, logistically it sucks big time (no food, no sports drink, they ran out of freaking water...) so there's no way I was going to let that be my only race.

If I were ranting this aloud, right about now my husband would be cautiously suggesting I take a Midol... between my reaction to this and the fact that I ate the better portion of a pint of Ben & Jerry's today, perhaps I should consider re-evaluating the situation in about a week...