Professional triathlete SCOTT TINLEY was the California golden boy, a two-time winner of the world's most trying endurance race, the Hawaii Ironman. For twenty years he defined the sport with his world-champion racing abilities, good looks, and sense of style. Well known, well respected, well imitated, he spent half his life immersed in theintensive training that he needed to stay on top. But age finally caught him, and no amount of training would help. He stopped winning races and watched his performance slip. And, as with many top athletes, one day Scott Tinely realized his stay at the top was over. It was a crushing realization. Tinley, an introspective man, a family man with a wife and children to support, began to think about the new journey that lay before him, and he applied the same discipline he used as the world's top endurance athlete to learn how to face the rest of his life. It was a journey filled with false starts and heartrending change. For one thing, Tinley knew he was not alone, and through discussions with the likes of Bill Walton, Cal Ripken Jr., Eric Heiden, Greg Lemond, Jerry Sherk, Alberto Salazar, Steve Scott and many other top athletes, Tinley has carved a path that anyone facing a major change in life will want to follow. Racing the Sunset will do for athletes what Passages did for an entire generation.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"A frank and entertaining memoir."--Inside Triathlon
". . . Racing the Sunset is a helpful handrail not just for retiring athletes but also for anyone facing a difficult crossroads. While Tinley spoke with an impressive number of ex-athletes... the strongest passages here are his own vignettes."--Sports Illustrated
"Tinley rubbed shoulders with legends from all sports during the run-up in his own notoriety, and leveraged those relationships in writing his latest book. He opens their grief to us in their own words, and bares his own heart as well."--Triathlete
". . . Racing the Sunset is a helpful handrail not just for retiring athletes but also for anyone facing a difficult crossroads. While Tinley spoke with an impressive number of ex-athletes... the strongest passages here are his own vignettes."--Sports Illustrated
"Tinley rubbed shoulders with legends from all sports during the run-up in his own notoriety, and leveraged those relationships in writing his latest book. He opens their grief to us in their own words, and bares his own heart as well."--Triathlete
"The first-person account is interwoven with a scholarly look at how stars from other sports have dealt with the rapid and unexpected descent to earth following retirement from a storybook life. For Scott Tinley "normal" is the scariest word he knows. Every budding pro in any sport ought to read [this]." --SlowTwitch.com
"What happens with the fans stop cheering and it's time to grow up? Facing change just might be the hardest game in town." --Competitor
"A professional Triathlete shares his inspiring story of triumph and recovery, recalling his rise to prominence as the winner of the Hawaii Ironman only to realize that he had to "grow up" in order to prosper at the next big sport--life."--Forecast
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"What happens with the fans stop cheering and it's time to grow up? Facing change just might be the hardest game in town." --Competitor
"A professional Triathlete shares his inspiring story of triumph and recovery, recalling his rise to prominence as the winner of the Hawaii Ironman only to realize that he had to "grow up" in order to prosper at the next big sport--life."--Forecast
From the Back Cover
A seventh generation Californian, Scott Tinley led the quintessential Golden State dream. As he grew from beach rat to lifeguard to a recreational administration major, it seemed only natural to him that he would try to parlay the athletic skills gleaned from this idyllic lifestyle into a profession as one of the best triathletes in the world. And for twenty years, his skill, tenacity and blonde devil-may-care attitude guided him along the always-precarious path of professional sport.
But when the hands of time finally took hold of his legs, and no amount of training would prop up his performances, his athletic gold rush went bust. Cracks in his psyche began to show, as if beneath it all, like much of California itself, his life had been built on a fault and triathlon had been a stage set. Always introspective and inquiring, Tinley threw himself headlong into the subject of athlete retirement and the larger issues of life transition and change. His new journey, driven by his quest for personal growth and healing, was filled with pain, false starts, and heartrending intimacies. It lead him to hundreds of other professional athletes who would openly discuss their own triumphs and tragedies when the cheering stopped. Applying the discipline of a lifelong athlete, Tinley completed one of the most thorough research projects ever attempted on retiring athletes and befriended the likes of such thoughtful superstars as Bill Walton, Eric Heiden, Greg Lemond, Jerry Sherk, Steve Scott and Rick Sutcliffe. Along the way he uncovered secrets about himself and the process of change, turmoil and final acceptance, ideas that he shares openly and eloquently in Racing the Sunset. Tinley has carved a path that anyone facing a major life transition should consider. This book will do for athletes of every level what Passages did for an entire generation.
But when the hands of time finally took hold of his legs, and no amount of training would prop up his performances, his athletic gold rush went bust. Cracks in his psyche began to show, as if beneath it all, like much of California itself, his life had been built on a fault and triathlon had been a stage set. Always introspective and inquiring, Tinley threw himself headlong into the subject of athlete retirement and the larger issues of life transition and change. His new journey, driven by his quest for personal growth and healing, was filled with pain, false starts, and heartrending intimacies. It lead him to hundreds of other professional athletes who would openly discuss their own triumphs and tragedies when the cheering stopped. Applying the discipline of a lifelong athlete, Tinley completed one of the most thorough research projects ever attempted on retiring athletes and befriended the likes of such thoughtful superstars as Bill Walton, Eric Heiden, Greg Lemond, Jerry Sherk, Steve Scott and Rick Sutcliffe. Along the way he uncovered secrets about himself and the process of change, turmoil and final acceptance, ideas that he shares openly and eloquently in Racing the Sunset. Tinley has carved a path that anyone facing a major life transition should consider. This book will do for athletes of every level what Passages did for an entire generation.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really interesting book about a fascinating subject.,
This review is from: Racing the Sunset: An Athlete's Quest for Life After Sport (Paperback)
Scott Tinley has experienced firsthand the challenging life transition from adulated winning sports star to over-the-hill retiring athlete. Being introspective, he studied athlete retirement in depth. He threw himself into this project with as much intensity as he engaged in physical training for triathlons. On the way, he acquired two masters' degrees, one in writing and the other in sport psychology. And, he is currently studying on a Doctorate. Tinley completed this book in 2003 at the same time he finished an 18 month long seminal research paper on athlete retirement at San Diego State University. His research became the knowledge foundation for this book.
The book is excellent. Tinley has a breezy writing style that renders the book very easy to read. While his research paper is very interesting. The book is a lot more fun. This is because the book reflects his firsthand experience of his sports career from childhood till his transition into academia. Instead, his research paper is focused on 16 other athletes and covers exclusively their post retirement experience. The professional athlete post-retirement transition is psychologically brutal. Athletes typically face this transition with no college degree, no professional skills, and little financial wherewithal. Tinley uncovered much research disclosing startling facts about athletes' retirement. Fewer than half of pro athletes get to choose when they retire. The divorce rate for retired athletes in the major professional leagues is over 60%. Retirement is especially harsh on NFL players. This painful transition is compounded by NFL careers being the shortest at less than five years in average. The suicide rate among retired NFL players is six times the average. Offensive and Defensive linemen have a 52% greater risk of dying of heart disease than the general population. Also, two thirds of football players retire with a permanent injury. Tinley was not spared the psychological ordeal of the retired sports star. When he retired, his income decreased by 90% (take out a zero as he puts it. That entails he made $100K a year as a triathlete). He experienced marital problems. He suffered a long bout of depression and tried several anti-depressant prescription drugs (Prozac, Zoloft) without much success. He sought therapy. And, he gradually pulled himself together thanks to his success in academia as a student, college teacher, psychologist researcher, and writer. His own research indicates an inverse relationship between money earned as a pro athlete and successful post retirement transition. Two opposite examples of this are Bjorn Borg, who never quite recovered his footing after retiring from a very lucrative tennis career. His life has been plagued by a succession of failed marriages, palimony suits, depression bouts, and bad business decisions that have nearly jeopardize his financial independence. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Tinley mentions Eric Heiden the five time Olympic gold medalist in 1980 who goes back to Stanford goes on to med school and becomes a successful orthopedic surgeon. "To me what is mythic about Eric is the seamlessness of his transitions between professions, between lives." Eric says "What I do now is so much more meaningful." Tinley states that big money is really a curse. It renders the individual so much more invested in their sport image that the upcoming retirement triggers a devastating identity crisis from which many never fully recover. And, he feels the key to surviving the retirement transition is how you perceived yourself beforehand. The more your self-identity had an obsessive single dimension as a sport star, the less prepared you are for retirement and the more you will suffer psychologically. If you enjoy this book, I also recommend John McEnroe's You Cannot Be Serious and Boris Becker's The Player. McEnroe is a good example of a sport star that has become very successful in post-retirement. Becker is an example of one who is still fighting his demons. Both books make for very interesting and entertaining reading.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Read for any Triathlete,
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This review is from: Racing the Sunset: An Athlete's Quest for Life After Sport (Hardcover)
As an age-group athlete, I enjoyed reading about the exploits of one of the pillars of what is endurance athletics today. While the sport has changed much since those early days of triathlon, the drive to conquer these distances and endure has not. It was also interesting to get a perspective on what drives the endurance athlete to participate and/or get to the top of these types of sporting activities. I also found the book to be a must read for anyone who is currently facing the inevitable forks in the road that life throws at all of us.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved the book,
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This review is from: Racing the Sunset: An Athlete's Quest for Life After Sport (Paperback)
This book is relevant not just to athletes who are facing the tough transition to retirement, but for anyone facing a change in life which bears significantly on their self-concept. Many of the insights were helpful for me, as back surgery forced me to "retire" from 28 years of distance running. Tinley's writing is engaging, entertaining, and insightful.
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