Funny mishaps in racing and training.
You race/ train and you have a story to share good bad or otherwise sometime sooner or later things get interesting. So someone posted on the dashboard that when they started their ride on the trainer the handle bars broke in half. I thought it funny some things that go on while enjoying the sport so this thread is about your story if you want to share one. Here is mine ....
While doing an Iron Distance race Beach to Battleship in NC last year, the aero set up on my left side fell off my bike. I mean snapped off metal and pad the whole thing popped off and just bounced into a ditch. This was at the 96 mile mark , thank God it was not mile 1. So I still stayed in my aero position left forearm on the handle bars right forearm on the pad and finished up the bike. And no I didn't stop.
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I'm don't have as many years in this sport as some of you, but my beginner days are still fresh in my mind...
so my best was back in 1989 I was racing every other weekend. I did very little speed work, just raced a lot. I jumped in a sprint tri and had spent a lot of time reminding my Significant Other that I needed to know what place I was in when I came in off the bike.
Had a great swim and was in 9 or 10 out of the water, came off the bike and my wife was screaming, "You're in 3rd!" I blasted through T2 and bolted out of transition and the course marshalls made me go back to T2 ... ... ...
where I took off my helmet and then took off running to finish like 20th OA.
My first race, Oceanside Oly, 1999:
The one thing I did right was to have a good attitude about the whole thing. I knew I would make a lot of mistakes so I just laughed them all off and had fun with it
OK, 100+ races, must have been SOMETHING worth relating ... @ the first ever Ralph's HIM (now the Oceanside 70.3), the race directors (Huddle and Frey) had modifed the course a bit from the previous year's full IM. AND, for some odd reason, they had the OFs (50 and up men) start FIRST, like 20 minutes before the pros (men and women together), then all the other AGers followed. So, I'm riding along near the front of the race, and hear a herd coming up behind me - Tim DeBoom and a following train. For giggles, I decided to hang with DeBoom ... for 30 seconds. And got passed by the whole crowd, Chris Legh, Torbjorn Sindballe (who went on to win), etc. I tried drafting at the end of that group ... again for about 30 seconds.
Then, maybe 30 minutes later, the women pros start to pass me. Huddle had (probably on orders from the Marine Commandant) put an out and back section into ONE lane, so each direction got half a lane. It was here that some women went by me trying to catch the leader (I cant remember who). But I do remember hearing Lisa Bentley sceaming, "Out of the way, out of the way, pro coming through!" I didn't want to bang into the cones, nor did I want to booger Lisa's race. So I wobbled a bit at the edge, and hit a traffic button - POP goes my tire.
I went on to have the best half marathon split I ever got in an HIM, I suppose from the 5 minute respite changing the tube.
Just remembered that I have another story. Almost too ashamed to post this just because of the calculated stupidity involved.
Pretty silly now that I think of it, but man, thinking about the fatigue and despair that I had that day still makes me cringe...
But I do have a friend that was doing his first 70.3 a few years back and on his way to the race, stopped at a drive-in bank, forgot he had his bike on the roof and managed to beat it up pretty good on the overhead (I'm sure thats been done before by a few triathletes/cyclists
My first HIM , non-branded, the course had a slight change due to bridge reconstruction.
The swim was great with a 1 mile T1 about a mile from the swim end. I hopped on the bike and
was on my way. About mile 40 was a nice down hill off a bridge. I had a blow out on my rear tire.
I wasn't very good at changing out tubes and still not that great either. I changed the tube inflated it
and guess it had a pinch then blew out. I had another tube and tried again, and again the tube
blew out. All my supplies were on empty. Someone stopped and gave me a tube and C02. The
tube wasn't any good at the stem. A friend of mine goes by and gives me another tube that I installed
however the C02 cartridge that was given to me would not fit my inflator. Sweet I just sat
there. Along comes a chase truck and the tech hops out and changes my tire in no time. The loss of
time was 20 min. I continue the race and end the bike however my PT shows I'm 10 miles short. At a
coned turn around the volunteer just left and I didn't know this until I was leaving T2. So I finished the
race , my A race first HIM, the end of the season race to finish my season without completing that
goal sat on that idea for the whole winter... Arrrggggg
When I started doing tri, I lived in Salt Lake City UT. Early season sprint races (March) were done as run/ bike/ swim. March really isn't that warm and it can still snow.... Off we went on the run, basically a long descent followed by a long climb back. It was overcast. Out on the bike and rain starts. On the way back it turns to sleet. Now mind you, I don't own tri gear, so I am wearing a bathing suit under my bike shorts. Transition is in the parking lot of the local pool. It's really cold, windy, sleeting. I don't want to strip down to a bathing suit outside, so I try to go in the building in my bike gear to undress. They send me back outside. So I am forced to strip to a bathing suit in the sleet AND leave all of my gear outside getting soaked. A pool has never felt so warm.
The following year, I guess they had learned a lesson. It was going to be swim/ bike/ run. Here was the plan- Half start on one side of the pool, half on the other. When the gun goes off, you swim AT each other. I spent a lot of time swimming under people along the bottom. That was an interesting swim!