Still in hardcover only from Amazon.com - $17.06
Buy it if: You want to pick up where Scott Tinley left off. And you actually know who Scott Tinley is.
Don’t buy it if: To you triathlon is three times as stupid for having three times the ways to exhaust oneself.
Triathletes are a dime a dozen, trust me. Throw a rock in any corporate setting and you’re likely to hit at least two or three on your first go. By its very nature the sport caters to the Type-A personality, the type of person that thrives on extra complication. But that’s triathlon for mortals. At the pointy, Olympic end, are a few very gifted, very focused outliers doing things with three sports that most people wouldn’t dream of doing with one. Chris McCormack is the one of these athletes, a man so at the edge of the triathlon bell curve it’s doubtful you could slide a toothpick in past him.
McCormack is also one of the sport’s most divisive figures, cutting a wide swath of opinion through competitors of all abilities. As such, it’s no surprise that his upset win at the 2010 Ironman World Championships was all the impetus the cagey athlete would need to put his story (up to this point) down on paper for the endurance junkies of the world to snap up from their local bookseller. If his book is to be believed, he’s a man who always prefers to bet on himself. The publication of I’m Here to Win maintains this leitmotif.
Interestingly, for all of its marketing as a guide for improving a reader’s own mental gamesmanship, it’s real strength is actually the ‘simpler’ portion: the autobiography itself. McCormack has had a fascinating athletic life and his own take on accomplishments and disappointments is incredibly honest. From his start, racing the continental and World Cup sprint series, to his most recent wins on the long course circuit, the man has included a collection of sports and personal stories that would rival any self-penned athletic tome in your collection. With a career that spans a good portion of his sport’s entire history, I’m Here to Win is also a fascinating look inside the very sparsely populated world of pro triathletes.
Refreshingly, for a book purporting to be an athletic guide to avoiding psychological pitfalls, the author takes quite a few very hard looks at his own performances and history before delivering advice that his younger self may have found difficult to take. That being said, there’s not going to be a lot advice here that can’t be gleaned from the myriad of coaching/training/racing manuals already available: Train your weaknesses. Analyze and correct you tactical mistakes. Rest properly. Learn to interpret your body’s signals.
None of it is groundbreaking. The unique slant offered here is McCormack’s own insistence that simplicity and common sense are the keys. If the messenger has succeeded, it’s certainly a lot easier to trust the message.
All in all, if you’re a fan of the sport or the athlete, the racer’s writing will be welcome on your shelf. Apart from a few stylistic missteps (repeating a sentence in bold and with break lines around it does NOT constitute a bullet point) it’s a decent read. If you’re looking for a training guide, your money should be spent baking your endurance cake elsewhere. I’m Here to Win is only the icing.
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