What is Project Superman?
Project Superman is an experiment. Project Superman is a reportage. Project Superman is an adventure second-to-none, it’s literally hundreds of stories, Project Superman is …
Well, ok, stop…
I wanted to write an inspirational story, make documentary about age groupers, so to speak. We all know the pro athletes, the ones who we – the lesser gods – look up to. They are our heroes, our examples, they are our inspiration. And they are, as I found out during the course of this project so far, generally a quite likeable bunch, communicative and approachable men and women. They are also about 10% of the field.
The rest, that’s us, the age groupers.
A couple of years ago, I witnessed an interview with Luc Van Lierde who explained that after a difficult period and a dip in motivation, he got inspired by seeing age groupers train, race and invest so much - financially and socially – in their sport.
Luc expressed a tremendous respect for the hundreds and hundreds of men and women at the start of Iron Man Lanzarote that year, most of them racing anonymously through the day, displaying exceptional courage and dedication for 12, 13 even up to 16 hours.
But what if we gave an 44 year-old age grouper with a 50 hour per week job the same weapons as a pro athlete: nutritional advice, an outstanding but still affordable bike (not some dream-like prototype) some excellent (but again findable and affordable) food supplements, facilities to train all year round, a coach …
Would this age grouper then be able to distinguish himself and to stand out of the pack and to get himself noticed? Would this once average recreational athlete be able to defeat (one or two) pros ???? That’s what we’re going to find out over the course of the next year.
I have always felt that as far as ability and fitness go, there’s John McEnroes and then there’s Ivan Lendls.. The first being the very, very rare and exceptionally gifted greats of the sport, the latter being the monuments of dedication, striding for every inch of ground but having to work so hard to keep up with the pace that the Macs of this world so (seemingly) effortlessly display. You can’t build a McEnroe, but – given the right commitment and dedication – you can build an Ivan Lendl. And that’s what we’re going to try here: building a triathlon version of Ivan Lendl.
All of the work, all of the effort are dedicated to you, my dear age grouper friends. I hope these stories will inspire you. If you have any training questions, you want to post some remarks, if you want to come over and train with me, if you need a place to stay for the Antwerp 70.3, … Just send me an e-mail. I’ll be in touch.
Peter
"Hi Peter, this sounds like an awesome project. We'd like to help you with a wetsuit".
Jake Jansen - Zoot Wetsuits
