Boulder 70.3 '17: Picked up a stomach bug three days before the race. I thought i was over it, then three hours before the gun, i purged all of my nutrition.
I made it 36 miles into the bike before my arms were cramping so badly that, I couldn't stay on the aerobars or hold the bullhorns. Turned an aid station portaloo into a Jackson Pollock. Very quiet and smelly ride in the sag wagon.

Does 9 months count as "right before"? My first big big race was IM Austria in 2012, and 9 months before that I became a Dad. Cost me a lot of time.

First ever multi-sport race was meant to be an off road duathlon. Got food poisoning the day before and spent race day on the throne.

Another duathlon I jumped a fence at my work car park to take a short cut. I'd been junping that fence every work day for over a year and the day before the race I ended up on the deck with a knackered knee. Went to race but didn't race after trying to warm up.

Tough Guy OCR summer version, rolled my ankle jumping down the steps from the toilet block. Still did it but instead of the run being my strong point I had to walk a lot of the run sections and came nearly last.

A junior triathlon my children we going to. My wife set fire to the kitchen the day before the race. I was at work and came home to fire engines and an ambulance. Everyone was alright but the kids didn't race because we had to stay the night in a hotel and I had too much cleaning up to do the next morning.

My first ironman. I went away on the Friday afternoon for a Sunday race. My parents came to visit to help out with the kids. The first evening my dad crashed his car bringing one of my kids home from swim club and then didn't have a car to drive to pick the other two up from their later swim club session (I usually do this and my wife doesn't drive). The Saturday my eldest daughter got a splinter stuck up under her finger nail. Again nothing serious but I got a message saying she had to go to hospital. Found out a little later why. Had a few minutes of worry until someone at home answered my calls. The biggest problem before that race though was my room mate in the hotel we were staying at was a snorer and I didn't have ear plugs :-D.

It's usually a lack of consistent training that ruins my races.

I had an end of year local race and was in great year end form (the kind of year where you don't want the race season to end or you start looking at far away races to add some gravy to the season).

Was camping the night before in the provincial park where the race is held. Had a caterpillar drop down my shirt while cooking out but just thought my t-shirt was rubbing. Had a pretty bad rash from that which burned under my wetsuit the following morning.

Then later that evening a girl in a nearby tent starts screaming about a sexual assault. And so the police attend and we are all awake from about 12 to 2 am while statements are taken.

Still had a great race:-)

Girlfriend bought a plane ticket to surprise me at a race...knocked on my hotel room door (she saw my credit card info, called front desk, they gave her my room number) and my other girlfriend answered.

Night before the race. Always a classic story

I was in the water at IM Boulder 70.3 waiting for my AG to start. For some odd reason, I thought about how tight my ankle strap was and realized I'd never even put it on after getting my wetsuit all set.

With about 90 seconds to spare they take my name, give me an another ankle strap, and I was on my way with the AG. That would have sucked to realize that halfway though the bike or whenever really. Race mornings are mentally wild and I never did pinpoint where I set the thing or what exactly happened.

You don't? They weren't raised right. They think yelling is just fine by everyone just because they are fine with it. Also, no self awareness. It also explains tanktops and jean cutoffs. On men.

Anyway. Always always carry earplugs with you when staying in hotel rooms.

Thank you. That week sucked.

Came down with a cold or something the day before the Nationals. I had that shiver chills feeling all over my body and trouble eating. Well fought through, raced like crap, but finished.

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I still lapped everyone on the couch!

Helmet visor (Giro Aerohead) cracked in half. Just "click" and it was in two pieces. Crisis that was a hard 140.6

Kind of a lead up disaster to my first race of this season:
- 2 weeks out: achilles tendinitis
- 1 week out: flu
- Day before the race: broke seatpost bolts whilst trying to adjust my saddle just that little bit during course recon.. leaving me with no bike. Raced on a loaner roadbike with some tribars slapped on that I found just hours before the start of the race.
Thought of not even starting the race, but I did and still crossed the finishline in 4h21.
Hardest fought mental battle ever during those two weeks. Been trying to up my karmapoints ever since haha

My bke got ran over by a car.

That sucks!

I had the rear shifter on my tri bike break a little over a week ago right before the Quassy Half. I ended up using my road bike and getting the fastest bike time. Kind of frustrating, because I was only off the OA podium by about five minutes, which is what BBS had being the difference on my tri bike.

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LOL. My first IM I was so fucked up I didn't think straight. Collected all my stuff, got on the shuttle, then off the shuttle, then discovered that the subdivision closed their gate where we parked. Jumped over the fence to get to the car and a few other finishers in the same predicament we helped each other hand the bikes over the fence. I mean come on we just did an IM for petes sake! Anyway. I very carefully loaded everything into the car and started to drive off when

Screeeeeeeee! Thud. Rattle.

That was the bike.

Still leaned against the car. I carefully packed everything into the car except the bike.

Luckily the bike fell cleanly away from the car and I didn't run it over.

The now defunct Ironbridge half iron (ish) race in the UK, 1998.

Literally on the start line (in the water) and my "race" goggles, those pool ones (Speedo I think) with string across the nose bridge, string came untied and way too short to try to fix i the few minutes before the gun. So no goggles for the swim. Came out and had blurred/clouded vision for a while.

Then got taken out buy a car turning left in front of me (we ride on the left in the UK), sat on the side of the road feeling sorry for myself. Got back up, finishing the ride, dismount was on the far side of the ironbridge, so downhill. Failed to see the dismount line which was a triangular piece of aluminium across the path. Hit the brakes too hard, performed a "stoppy" and was luckily caught by the marshal just before I went over the handlebars. I got my eyes tested after that (I now wear glasses/contact lenses).

The run was reasonably uneventful. Apart from the blood on my leg from the bike crash.

As it was a trial run for my first iron distance later that summer, I guess I learnt heaps!

IM LOU 2007 as I set the bike up the night before dropping off my seat broke. I put the race wheels on and went for a quick spin, as I got back into the parking lot the left rail snapped. I picked up a similar seat first thing in the morning from the expo.

This passed Saturday I did an Olympic that was about an hour drive from the house, I had my morning nutrition with me in the car, a 600 calorie shake. I went to grab it from the passenger seat and realized I didn't secure the lid. Needless to say the front seat was a mess of Infint mud and banana.

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All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

In adult films, that scenario ends much differently and you probably wouldn't have had the energy for the race anyways.

LP 2015--The building that friends and I shared an apartment on Mirror Lake caught fire...game over...oh, and try finding a place to sleep in Placid the night before an Ironman...and, when you are out in town who carries their car keys with them? Try figuring out how you are going to get home with no F%^&ing car keys!!

Lake Placid 1984

Never rode ew ups and those are the only wheels I brought. Glued them on for the first time night before the race in the hotel room

Glue everywhere, me , the bike, towels I mean every where. Offered to pay for the towels but hotel declined.

Scared to death on the course, never seen hills that big, kept thinking I was going to roll a tire

Water temp COLD. COLD COLD. no one had a wetsuit - there were none back then.

Got on the bike in the skimpy speedo I had swam in with no short

Proceeded to lose a contact lens on the first down hill. Now I couldn’t see distances

Got hypothermia, didn’t realize until MUCH later

last thing I remember is getting off the bike and thinking screw that I am NOT running up those hills

4 hours later woke up almost back in Rochester.

My sister in law driving. She informs me that I was telling the poor volunteers to F-off for not cutting the oranges up and then throwing my banana peels in the dunk buckekts with drinking water in them.

So if any of the volunteers are reading this I apologize lol

Was waiting for my wave approx 10 mins to go.

I see a girl in the current wave yelling for help. She LITERALLY is yelling help I’m drowning. And not a single rescue canoe around. All they had was a 16’ power boat.

She screams again. There are 2 or 3 people a lot closer than me. No one makes a move to help her. I was a lifeguard for years so I take off to get her.

Sure enough just as I get there she goes underwater again I drive down a couple feet grab her and pull her to the surface

I bring her in to shore when i get there she looks me in the eyes and says I would’ve died if it weren’t for you I’m not bragging at all. If you are a lifeguard Long enough you’ve got at least a few instances where you’ve saved a life

Just then the horn sounds for my wave and I run over to the start area swim the first half way too fast

Tris are so pumped up I can barely keep swimming lol

But I don’t think My purpose that day was to race as it turns out


After the race my friend comes up to me and says did you see that big ugly long haired girl rescue somebody? Lol.

He knew it was me

At the time I had long hair and he had seen what happened Lol

I threw out my back Friday afternoon before BSLT a few years ago. Couldn't even stand up straight and there was no way to sit or stand or lie down without pain. Got through the swim and called it a day.

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The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

getting hit by a car two weeks before a half iron... not fun for a variety of reasons

I've had loads.

Few years ago was training for the Consiton end to end swim. Month out ended up with Acanthamoeba keratitis and nearly went blind in one eye.

Last year was supposed to do Helvellyn triathlon. Month before did an Oly distance, slipped getting on the bike and my toe went into the back wheel which sliced a massive chunk out of it. That got infected and took ages to heal.

This year was the worst. First IM planned, Lanzarote. Spent horrid UK winter training, hours on the bike in the freezing cold. 10 days out notice a pimple on my finger getting bigger. Gets quite large, go to the Dr. Antibiotics don't improve it. Then get sent to A&E, end up 5 days in hospital IV antibiotics and an operation under general. Massive open wound on my finger, told not to swim and couldn't bend it. 9 months and £500 down the drain.

Not going to enter races again

I saw this thread and feared reading it. But i am now part of it.

Currently 3weeks away from IM Canada and laid up in bed with some lower back pain that’s keeping me from training. . I’ve put some solid months and months of training in, but missed some crucial mileage this past weekend. Hoping to get over this physically and mentally and back to some training next week before taper time.

Sorry for the terrible luck and pain! Mind telling us what that was, specifically?

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The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.