Events for the New Tribe

In this morning's post, I talked about the growing group of fitness buffs who are taking their action outdoors. Lately, we've seen 5K and 10K Fun Runs getting popular, with entries numbering in the hundreds, and even thousands in some cases. Triathlons and road cycling are also getting to be popular among working professionals. Even adventure racing, trekking and mountaineering are gaining fans.
And these people aren't all hardcore, diehard purists. They are lawyers, physicians, software developers, bankers, corporate-types and entreprenuers who just happen to enjoy being active outside of the gym. And some of them even go so far as to adopt strict training regimens and compete on a regular basis in their chosen disciplines. I like to call this group the Multi-Sport Tribe.
This new Tribe is made up of both men and women who go to great lengths to perform well in all aspects of their already busy lives- they maintain a balance between their professional, family and athletic pursuits.
For these multi-sport athletes, many of whom are in their 30s and 40s, with others pushing 50, competition is no longer about fame or fortune. They race to prove to themselves and their peers that they are far from becoming "washed-up" desk jockeys.
A couple of friends and I had been observing this interesting trend for some time, and one day we decided that what the Tribe needed was a set of events, staged on a regular basis, professionally organized and run, and enjoying a healthy dose of media attention. And from that meeting of minds was born the Executive Road Cycling Race Series (XRC '07).