Activations: Survivor: Triathlon Island

Activation – noun: making active and effective

Sometimes I think of the “triathlon lifestyle” as a close relative of the TV show Survivor, with various aspects of our lives competing to stay in the game.

In this season’s version of Survivor: Triathlon Island, the contestants battle for the attention of a busy triathlete. The nine players are named:

• Sleep
• Diet
• Training
• Job
• Socializing
• Household
• Friends
• Financial
• Downtime

In the first immunity challenge, a cooking contest, Household wins easily. Downtime is voted off. Job summed it up by saying, “There’s no place on Triathlon Island for Downtime. That was painfully obvious by looking at the training plan.”

Alliances soon formed along natural lines between Financial and Job, as well as between Sleep and Diet. Training and Socializing quickly became enemies and Friends duped Socializing into thinking they were in alliance.

Next off the island was Household. Tribal Council made it close, with Socializing getting a couple votes — one of which was from Friends. Financial got immunity in a math puzzle of sorts. “He was draining all our energy with exhaustive cleaning chores,” said Training, referring to the exiled Household.

Friends proceeded to backstab Socializing and garner enough support to toss him off the island. Diet earned immunity since the contestants had to eat native plants and bugs.

The next immunity challenge involved staying awake all night, but host Jeff Probst changed it to a fitness challenge because he thought the vixen Sleep would boost ratings and allow his crush on her to blossom. Training won the challenge and Financial left on his own terms, saying, “I’m not responsible for going into debt on race fees and all this expensive equipment. I had to listen to my conscience.” The contestant known as Job was distraught, wondering, “How can I support this lifestyle on my own without Financial?”

Diet got kicked off the show for stealing food from the camera crew. There wasn’t enough time to plan, organize, and cook healthy meals on Triathlon Island anyway. Soon after, Sleep was lonely without Diet around, and could no longer contribute around camp. Since the rest of the contestants were fed up with his ironic excuse of being too tired, his days were numbered and he was next to go.

That left Training, Job, and Friends. Between these three, Triathlon Island was getting by with the bare minimum.

Training and Job formed an alliance to get rid of Friends, hoping that when the show was over, they could reconnect and apologize.

Realizing they needed each other to make it to the end of the show, which culminated in an actual sprint triathlon around the island, Training and Job protested, essentially going on strike and demanding that all the contestants be brought back to compete.

Training won the actual race and prize money, but in an unheard of show of generosity, split the money with all the others saying, “Every component is necessary for a triathlete to be successful. I didn’t want people out there to think that you could live the triathlon lifestyle on training alone. It just doesn’t work that way.”

Roll credits …

Respect,
JPD

This also appears in SwimBikeRun St. Louis Magazine.