Sonnets were made for triathletes! Okay, maybe not, but they work very well. Why? Because they have 3 quatrains. A triathlon sonnet devotes a quatrain to swimming, one to biking, and one to running. The sonnettic volta can come anywhere in the poem. It’s probably going to be somewhere when the writer/racer “turns” from strength to sheer determination! The final couplet of the triathlon sonnet is usually a realization that triathlon is a way of life. Here is one for all you triathletes:
The Final 26.2 of 140.6
The swim was just a minor 2.4
A contact sport because of this: mass start
I didn’t know what pain was yet in store
But I could feel the pounding of my heart
Transition placed me quickly on my bike
A century, and then a dozen more
I don’t recall a thing I didn’t like
Except to know I still had one thing more
A marathon, my third, but not my last
The slowest marathon I’ve ever run
It’s true, I’d started hours in the past
But hours yet before my race was done
It’s Ironman; it’s more than just a race:
A Way of Life that nothing can replace!