First race ever, West Palm Beach in May, Olympic, I had done zero training going in... did the race on a bet.

Survived the swim, bike took a long time, didn't have a race belt so I had pinned my race number to a t- shirt for the run. A black t shirt. It was almost 100 when I finished.

Last weekend. Dd an Oly distance race where the swim is in the Thames. 1000m upstream, 500m downstream. The current was quite strong - so much so that at the start you had to work hard to hold your position in the water.

Now just about everyone - me included - knows that in a river the current is strongest in the middle of the river and slowest close to the bank.

I managed to swim the upstream section right up the middle. So badly that I swam into one of the kayakers and got a bollocking. By the time I rejoined the main field I was in with the breaststrokers. Quite annoying, when I'm usually in the top quarter of the swim field.

Completely fucked my day. Cost me 6, maybe 7 minutes. And a lot of energy.

Makes for a great story though.

Not in the race but before the race. It was July 1997 and I phoned Ironman Canada and left a message asking if it is too early to enquire about signing up for that year's race. They never phoned back.

Far from my first race but did not understand why even though I thought I was pushing hard on the bike, was getting passed by lots of folks. When I got on the run thought I was going to die.

I happened to spin my front wheel in transistion after the race, and it barely turned. Yep, brake grab. I still have to deal with that at ever race. Luckily I have checked often enough I have found this many times
before a race start.

Boy did I feel dumb, but lesson learned.

.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

How do you not notice that while riding? I've only had a brake grab once but I noticed it within two minutes of transition and fixed it.

I guess that's part of what makes me so awesome.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Let's see. No power meter. No HR monitor. I did feel it pull to one direction. Just never had this issue so had no idea what was going on.

Now I have opened the brakes a few times while racing if I think something is rubbing.

So, this thread does say the dumbest thing you have done, so yep, it was pretty dumb.

.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

I use none of this stuff.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Breezy Point Triathlon, 2005, my first ever triathlon. I went for a pre-race ride to warm up, when I got back to transition I couldn't unclip my foot, so I fell over and took out 1/2 of the transition area fencing... keeping it classy.

I do know of someone (USAT did an article on her) who forgot her bike shoes for Ironman Cozumel, left them at the house, on the back porch. She rode barefoot for about 30 miles before trying to create a platform from cardboard at an aid station.

Why do your brakes adjust position so easily and get out of alignment?? I've never had a brake grab in 15+ years.

I think what is happening is while taking my bike to the race in my bike carrier, the front tire is held by the arm. So, it gets jarred around. Now, maybe I also have not tighened
the skewer enough. Bottom line is to do some type of bike check when you get to a race is what I have learned. I also now spin the front and rear wheels on the racks just
to make sure.

I have left my timing chip at the wrong place. Once I left at home. Another time I left in transistion.

I also have left the top of my 2 piece Desoto wetsuit home. That was one cold ocean swim.

I put my running shoes on when I was trying to get ready to ride the bike.

.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

Doing the Austin Tri Olympic a few years back and came into T2, hadn't paid enough attention to which rack I was in. Run up and down a couple aisles, saw my running shoes and racked my bike, put on my shoes and realized this was someone else's spot (and shoes!). Same brand & model shoes, wrong size. I hurriedly took off the shoes, tried to put them back exactly as I found them and saw my actual spot one rack over. Doh.

My front wheel comes off during transport. I put my bike inside my suv and I have to be very careful putting my wheel back on.

At the Kansas 70.3 there were several announcements looking for someone with a size 10.5 running shoe to lend. With 2 transitions you would think you would notice not having any shoes at T2,

Happened to me a while back. I fortunately recorded the time myself so I knew. Even better, I came in 5th AG (or would have, had I not lost my chip) so I didn't feel bad about it. I would have been *really* ticked if my time netted me a podium spot and I couldnt claim it.

Ya I remember being *that guy* who fucked up his whole "shoes already on the bike" mount because I never practiced it. Seemed like something easy so why not?

right...

I never tried that again :P

Coming out of T1, on the bike, I go with no hands on the bars, both hands up onto helmet to grab and put sunglasses on, wind comes up, blows me right into a volunteer. Found her later to apologize. She was having none of it.

Not using the toilet before the race.

1st race ever (4 months ago). Just got on my bike and stood out of the saddle to get up to speed. I had a gargantuan fart that I let rip, and proceeded to shit all over myself. That was a soggy, and stinky bike ride. Come to think of it the run was shit too :)

Froze my bike water bottle for a Mid July South Texas tri using an insulated bottle. It didn't dethaw in time so had no fluids during the bike and got dehydrated.

It inly takes a hit to them from another bike in transition to knock them over to rub. Easy to do but easy to fix too.

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who's smarter than you're? i'm!

LOL! I just spit out my tea reading that one.

I signed up for a half ironman for my first ever triathlon.

First words out of my mouth were..."I'm never doing a triathlon again".

That was in 2001....many, many, triathlons ago.

I was all ready to go on the beach in a sprint and I was in the zone. Had a great warm up and there I was focused and I looked down and saw the anklet timing chip on the guy next to me. SHIT I forgot to stop for a chip!! The announcer says "4 Minutes until the wave sets off" I had to run from the beach 500m to the registration area and back. I got to the water out of breath (but fully warmed up) with 10 seconds to spare. Needles to say I'm always patient in the registration portion of the races now.

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"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"

Maybe my second tri... a sprint.
Come out of t1, jump on the bike.
Try to take off, but realize I'm not going anywhere.
At this point I'm getting on people's way.
I don't know what the problem is, I'm a bit flustered and volunteers are telling me to step of to the side... which I finally do, and realize my chain came off while transporting my bike to the race in my SUV.

Big lesson... check to make sure bike is functional before the race.

 - 1/2 distance triathlon.
- Do these all the time, no big deal, right?
- Relay, planned on only doing the swim (good practice.)
- Runner had the flu the week before. (I'm a pretty good runner, hey, good practice.)
- Biker had never done 90k before, but hey, not concerned about the time, right?
- Swam, felt pretty good. Passed chip onto my compatriot.
- Time to kill, hey, lets go for breakfast.
- Local breakfast place, eat a meat skillet.
- Start the run.

Yeah. Run was interesting.

GPS: Sprint, stop, sprint, stop, sprint, stop, sprint, stop, sprint, stop, sprint, stop.

Yeah, not my brightest moment.

In my first Oly I was so nervous that when I ran into T1 I could not find my gear. Cost me almost 15 minutes. In the same race ran out of T2 with my bike helmet on.