Stiff competition.
A young man in Ohio ran, swam and biked a triathlon last weekend in nothing but a tight pair of jorts he was forced into wearing after losing a bet — and still came in second place.
James Miller, a first-time triathlete, came to the fifth annual Tri CLE Rock Roll Run triathlon complete with the most uncomfortable outfit anyone could wear while sprinting, swimming and cycling in the hot summer sun. While he wore the Daisy Dukes with pride, it wasn’t by choice, according to News 5 Cleveland.
Miller and his friend, Luke Kim, made the fateful bet at a Cleveland Cavaliers game in February to raise the stakes in staying on track with their fitness goals.
“We’re like, let’s set a goal. Let’s actually be accountable to each other and let’s actually set out to, you know, be better, right?” Miller told the local outlet.
The duo decided to make an enticing bet: whoever did the fewest push-ups, pull-ups and shortest wall-sit during an agreed-upon competition judged by their Bible Study friends would have to run the triathlon in denim shorts — all but guaranteeing the loser a painful few hours of chafing.
Miller and Kim put their all into training and, eventually, tested their mettle in front of the unflinching judges.
Kim came out on top, beating Miller’s 5-minute wall-sit and sum-odd 50 push-ups.
Miller kept up his end of the bet and even trained for the triathlon in uncomfortable athletic shorts so that running in jean cut-offs the day of would be a little more bearable.
Clearly, his training paid off as he cut past a majority of participants and landed in second place overall.
At the end of the race, Miller stood proudly beside his supportive friends, beaming in his soaked jorts — and shiny new medal.
“I think it’s very easy to look at a challenge like this and [be] like, ‘Hey, I’m not going to do this.’ But for me, I think that’s something that, especially, you know, in our culture, we need to continue to build on,” Miller said of sticking to one’s word.
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