Well it finally happened. After 12 years of completing and competing in triathlon and the 3 sports individually, I had my first DNF this weekend.
2 weeks ago I was lucky enough to have dinner with Cameron Brown. After being one of the favourites at Kona he finished a disappointing 34th. I asked him why he didn't just pull out and race again another day, for a paycheck. He said that it would make pulling out way to easy from then on, and that he had never dnf'd and didn't want to start. Right answer as far as was concerned. I too had never considered quitting before and even finished IMNZ2000 witha broken skull and broken pelvis! Man am I tough.
This last weekend I was entered and started a 320km race, twice around Lake Taupo in New Zealand. Race started with about 60 riders (for the enduro event, and about 10,000, yes 10,000 riders, for the one lap 160km race) at 1:30 in the morning. It was a cloudless full moon night and bloody cold. It was about 6 deg C at race start and cooled off to 1-2deg C later inthe night. I was well prepared, wearing just about every piece of cycle clothing I own. I was warm enough in general. Some of the long descents were a bit chilly and some of the long climbs were a bit warm, but all reasonably comfortable. My hydration and nutrition was good, with 1 bottle per hour and 2 gels per hour. I was going well and right on my target time for the first lap. I stopped at the house we rented for a few minutes for dry clothes and a potty stop. I flet very good passing the start/finish line. It was good to get the company of the 10,000 solo riders to chat with. Within about 20km the power went out of my legs and my guts went into knots. I ended up stopping and vomiting everyting back to about last wednesday! Far Out!
I knew that with about 130-140km to go, and a builiding headwind, tha tmy day was done. No fluids and all my gels were gone and I was pretty bummed out to have to find out what a sag wagon ride was like. I got back to the deserted finish line and proceeded to lick my metaphorical wounds.
I had a shower, a burger (my treat after a long race) and back to the house for a while.
I'm not depressed or anything, but feel a bit of a loss that my DNF free racing career is over. Anyone else had similar experiences? What to do next? I want to apologise to several people I had planned on meeting after the race, particularly "fulla". Maybe we can meet another time soon. I was just too bummed out to wanna socialize. Hell, I didn't even head to the hot pools afterwards.
:-(
TriDork
"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"
2 weeks ago I was lucky enough to have dinner with Cameron Brown. After being one of the favourites at Kona he finished a disappointing 34th. I asked him why he didn't just pull out and race again another day, for a paycheck. He said that it would make pulling out way to easy from then on, and that he had never dnf'd and didn't want to start. Right answer as far as was concerned. I too had never considered quitting before and even finished IMNZ2000 witha broken skull and broken pelvis! Man am I tough.
This last weekend I was entered and started a 320km race, twice around Lake Taupo in New Zealand. Race started with about 60 riders (for the enduro event, and about 10,000, yes 10,000 riders, for the one lap 160km race) at 1:30 in the morning. It was a cloudless full moon night and bloody cold. It was about 6 deg C at race start and cooled off to 1-2deg C later inthe night. I was well prepared, wearing just about every piece of cycle clothing I own. I was warm enough in general. Some of the long descents were a bit chilly and some of the long climbs were a bit warm, but all reasonably comfortable. My hydration and nutrition was good, with 1 bottle per hour and 2 gels per hour. I was going well and right on my target time for the first lap. I stopped at the house we rented for a few minutes for dry clothes and a potty stop. I flet very good passing the start/finish line. It was good to get the company of the 10,000 solo riders to chat with. Within about 20km the power went out of my legs and my guts went into knots. I ended up stopping and vomiting everyting back to about last wednesday! Far Out!
I knew that with about 130-140km to go, and a builiding headwind, tha tmy day was done. No fluids and all my gels were gone and I was pretty bummed out to have to find out what a sag wagon ride was like. I got back to the deserted finish line and proceeded to lick my metaphorical wounds.
I had a shower, a burger (my treat after a long race) and back to the house for a while.
I'm not depressed or anything, but feel a bit of a loss that my DNF free racing career is over. Anyone else had similar experiences? What to do next? I want to apologise to several people I had planned on meeting after the race, particularly "fulla". Maybe we can meet another time soon. I was just too bummed out to wanna socialize. Hell, I didn't even head to the hot pools afterwards.
:-(
TriDork
"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"