The ultimate Achievement for Non professionals

[Stretch]

As the title suggests....I was sitting eating supper after a run,  and browsing through my strava feed, and wondering what the ultimate achievement in sport one could achieve without being at the level of a professional. For example in running a 4 minute mile is in the real of professionals while a 5 minute mile is more readily achievable. a 60 minute 10 mile or a 90 min half marathon are great achievements, but ultimately the one that everyone aspires to is the 3 hour marathon, but is that the ultimate? possibly not

 

what about cycling? are there similar milestone targets? the hour record comes to mind...but what is it for us no pro's?

 

swimming - is there a similar goal and same for triathlon and ironman.

 

so what is the ultimate goal to aim for each discipline? and what is the ultimate across them all?

[RABUBI]

A sub 3 argus.... on a mountainbike... with takkies..26er mountainbike

[BaGearA]

Beating A pro's strava time comes to mind, or entering the highest level race you can without A pro license or support from a team and smoking the pros

 

Other than that I can't think of much else unfortunately AFAIK Paris-Roubaix ain't open to privateers and damn that would be something to do with an all backed or or store bought kit

[Stretch]

A sub 3 argus.... on a mountainbike... with takkies..26er mountainbike

Lol..I was gonna say... No one is allowed to reference sub 3 Argus [emoji23]

[Dubber]

kona for triathletes?

 

Difficult to try put a time/speed thing on cycling as routes are always changing. 

But anyone who has done a freedom challenge/trans alps/ RAAM etc sits pretty high on my Chuck Norris scale...

[fanievb]

Finishing the Munga

[Grease_Monkey]

Qualifying for an EWS race as a privateer, and then winning a stage. I think there are one or two guys here who could make that dream a reality this year at Jonkers Enduro (well the qualifying part anyway).

[mazambaan]

Dakar for me.

[RocknRolla]

Beating a doper, on home made date balls and water. (or honey sachets)

[V12man]

To still be enjoying riding my downhill bike at 75... and my singlespeed, road bikes, XC and enduro too....

[Escapee..]

To still be enjoying riding my downhill bike at 75... and my singlespeed, road bikes, XC and enduro too....

 

Thats in 5 years time, I am sure you will still enjoy it

[Shebeen]

Awesome thread. I have thought about this before and last year I set myself the goal of achieving three things before i turn 40 (now 15 months away).

 

a)Sub3 argus

b)sub 90 half marathon

c)2:11 800m

 

the thinking behind it all:

a) (never been in a decent enough group to do this), and my official best time of 2:55 is belieavable was admittedly on the 50km shortened route with a LOT of stops. but i can't really count that. Will most likely need to do some proper seeding races for next year and then the pressure will be on!

b)if you're counting half marathons in hours you're a hacker. my pb for this is about 93mins

c)this was my event at school, but I can't remember what my pb is. I love the 800m, so am going to try and beat the 1896 Athens winning olympic time. this is very achievable (i think, surely I'm less than 20% slower than Rudisha)

 

 

so far I'm on 0/3

[V12man]

Thats in 25 years time, I am sure you will still enjoy it

Fixed it for you....

[Eldron]

The sub 1 hour 40km TT has always been my "amateur" success test.

 

Sub 1:30 21km as one of the other posters suggested.

 

Some stage races - Epic is tough - Joberg2c is easier but the last 2 days take a mental toll.

 

Finishing a 24 hour race without a nap has always been a fun mental challenge.

 

Sub 3 hour 100km race is a little soft - fast'n'flat races with big bunches make it too easy/variable. Goals have to be individual in my opinion.

 

All of this changes with age of course!

[Spoke101]

Finishing one of the big SA road races in the Pro/Elite bunch sprint.

[Beard]

...getting to a point or personal fitness level in whatever sport where even though you pushing yourself harder than you ever have... you dont feel pain or strain, just the sheer unbridled joy that doing that sport brings you. (oh and smashing your personal record again and again)