140triguy wrote:
The goggles literally split apart at the nose piece as we were being whistled up to the blocks. I had worn those to warm up in 5 minutes earlier with no issues. I drew the starter’s attention, showed him my goggles, and I walked over to my team area to find another pair. My coaches were so F-ing pissed. Once the race actually started, it was a giant cock-up. I swam horribly and barely got 16th place, good enough for 1 point. My concentration was definitely shot, but other circumstances also contributed. We’d had a teammate die the previous summer, and I was still a roiling ball of emotions at the meet, 7 months later (this was March, 1992). Since that day, I’ve taken a second pair to the blocks for EVERY SINGLE RACE in a pool, college and masters. NCAA 1993 and 1994. FINA World Masters in 2006. US Masters nationals 2015 in San Antonio. Even last weekend at a local 1500 scm meet, I tossed a spare pair under the block next to the pool JIC. It’s my ritual. Even at OWS and some tri races, I’ll have the spare tucked into the waistband until the race starts and either toss the spares at the shore or hand off to a Sherpa.
Wow, sorry for the bad race. I guess you're totally covered now by taking two pair every race now though. :)
"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."