Posted this one before, but to date nothing tops it.

I was a sophomore in high school. It was the first year of a local triathlon which has fortunately turned into the largest race in my area. I was a distance swimmer at the time, and being 16 at the time, I got tossed in the first wave with waves going about every 1:00 (they were't really sure what they were doing at the time as far as race organization goes yet). Knowing swimming was my strength, I figured I should capitalize on it as much as possible. Swam maybe the fastest 750 meters of my life, and being an decent swimmer, I came out of the water with about a 2 minute lead (and would later find out the 3rd fastest split by just 4 seconds).


Well, my hyped up brain says "Woah, you're in first place. You could totally win this thing!" (ignoring the looming 19 mile ride and 5K still to follow). So naturally I had to continue to push the gap and gain a bigger cushion in any way I could. So I sprint into transition, throw on my helmet, look down at the footwear and say to myself "F*** socks. Putting on socks with just waste time. Surely I can do the next 22 miles of this race without socks and any repercussions." I hop my Wal-Mart Maga 26" mountain bike (Don't worry...I had an extra water bottle cage on it) and my T1 time from water exit to mount was 0:44.


I get on my bike and just start spinning. At this point in my young life, I had no idea what gears on a bike meant. So I'm probably spinning on like 34-26 or something of the sort. Basically, my cadence was pushing what felt like 120 with my speed hovering near 14 mph. But I was in first place, so who cares. Which lasted for a full minute after transition. My most vivid memory of my first triathlon will be guys passing me tucked into their aerobars with aero helmets, giving me looks as if they were angry at the race coordinators for not clearing the course of children out for leisure rides.


I got passed by nearly 80 people on the bike course. Was completely toast. Ran the 5K in almost 30 minutes. And remember that part about not putting on socks? I had blisters covering the entire insides of both feet and I couldn't walk normal for 2 weeks.

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Ever Grateful, Ever True.
Boiler Up.
Hammer Down.
Hail Purdue

Long-time lurker here- but I have to respond to this one! I too signed up for an Ironman as my first triathlon. I had never swam the distance and had only "run" one marathon in a time of like over five hours (more like shuffled myself). For me though it was Ironman St. George in 2012. I got about 750 yards into the swim, was punched and kicked twice, and said the same thing-I'm never doing this again! That was before the waves even picked up... it took me over two hours to swim it, and it took me over 16 and a half to finish it- way, way underprepared...

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"There are two ways to slide easily through life- to believe everything and to doubt everything- both ways save us from thinking "- Korzbyski

1) Strapped my watch over my wetsuit sleeve. When I got to T1, it took me 15 seconds to figure out why I couldn't get my wetsuit off my right hand. Doh!
2) Ran the wrong direction to leave T2.
3) Left my bike in a high gear in T1.

I was 16 back in the early 80s when triathlon was just starting to take hold in Ontario - so there were not a lot of resources for a young kid trying to figure out equipment, etc.

A number of lessons learned way back when (in different races):

1. wore a surfing wetsuit - filled up like a garbage bag and pretty much ensured I couldn't swim properly because my arms were so constricted.

2. didn't have clipless pedals, so figured my tennis shoes had a stiffer sole than my runners, so took the time to change into tennis shoes in T1 and then into runners in T2.

3. didn't tie my shoes properly for the bike, so my lace came undone and kept winding around the pedal spindle from about 20k to the end (40k). Every few pedal strokes I would pedal backwards to unwind the lace. Not sure why I didn't stop to tie it up.

4. didn't know you were not supposed to draft. Got yelled at bad a few times before I figured it out.

5. a buddy had a very early generation wheel cover that he won at a race. Put it on his bike for the next race, put his bike on the roof of his car, and the cover promptly ripped off, never to be seen again as soon as we hit the highway.

6. didn't have much money so we used to "draft" (read: "tailgate within about 18 inches") transport trucks in my buddy's crappy compact car on the way to races - we thought we would save gas money and cancel out the drag of the bikes on the roof.

7. I bought some "U shaped" aerobars that clamped onto my road bars the day before an olympic triathlon, bolted them on the night before the race, rode around the block and then spent most of the next day's 40k bike leg in the "aero" position. Until then, I had never been in anything close to the aero position on a bike. Pretty sure I almost crashed numerous times, and my back was in knots for a few days afterward.

At last year's Deuces Wild oly in Show Low, AZ, swim was two loops. I knew that. But somehow, lulled by the feet in front of me, or just daydreaming about the post-race snacks, I just forgot. I ran up the boat ramp after only one loop, had my wetsuit stripped by volunteers, and as I was running up to T1, the race director, who knows me, gently queried, "Did you do both loops?" Oh crap. Now what? I looked at my soggy wetsuit and calculated I'd never get it on again, so handed it over to her, and hopped back into the chilly lake, cold and unbuoyant for the second loop. Nothing helps a swim like self-anger. Still managed to snag my (admittedly weak) AG, turbocharged with the mantra "How could you be so stupid?"

I've seen/heard "unthaw" many times, never "dethaw". It's just thaw. You're welcome.

Defreeze or unfreeze, but not febreeze, would also have been acceptable wording.

:> I was there too. So another dumbest thing was not realising that the current would be even faster around the turn buoy. I thought I got around it but didn't, and somehow managed to get walloped by it on the second attempt. It was like getting smacked around by the Pillsbury dough boy at the end of Ghostbusters.

dethaw
verb become or cause to become soft or liquid;From dictionary.com Y'all welcome...... Upon further research one website called it the illiterate form of thaw. Then again, if I'm not smart enough to make sure the liquid was drinkable before the bike portion, I'm probably not smart enough to use the word appropriate......

While perhaps unsafe and ill advised, this strategy probably did save you guys quite a bit of gas.

You've probably figured this out by now, but I usually set the barrel adjusters on the brakes at about 50% AND I leave a fair amount of distance between pad and rim at the same time. I don't have the same "right at the end of travel" feel that I generally like with brake levers, but those two adjustments in combination usually mean free running wheels even if I get an on-course pothole "adjustment."

My dumb thing wasn't during, but after. Loaded the bike on the roof rack after the Half-Full last year in MD, and started driving around the field looking for the exit. Took a wrong turn and drove under a low tree, WHILE my wife was saying "Watch out!!! You're bike's on the roof!" So I stopped on the other side of the tree (after having branch bath / bike adjustment #1) - then I put the car in reverse to "get back out from under" the tree, and re-branch-whipped the bike.

Fortunately they were small branches, only broke the fork at the dropouts on one side. As a reward for my stupidity, I replaced it with a new Easton Aero fork. Re-packing all of our gear into the back of the Prius and making two 10-year old boys share the 60 part of a 60/40 rear split seat "sobered" me up enough!

Racked the bike the day before the race. Winds were pretty strong. A buddy and I decided to use packing tape to secure our bikes on the rack. We were pretty generous with the use of tape. Let's just say, it was a long T1. Had to find scissors to cut the bike loose. Numb fingers didn't help either.

I came up behind a guy adjusting his helmet strap riding hands free swerving all over the place. He straightened out and was riding the yellow line so I decided I would pass him on the right and let him know as I approached. All he heard was "passing" and quickly swerved to the right and took me out.

Rules say pass on the left only for a reason I guess.

I entered my first triathlon last fall. It was my buddy's first triathlon as well. It was a well attended local sprint tri. We were full of excitement. At the end of the race, we racked both bikes on the back of his truck. While discussing the race, he proceeds to back directly into a brand new Porsche! All we heard was crunch. We got out to see that his bike was a little dinged and mine was unscathed. Unfortunately, the Porsche did not fare as well. I'll never forget him saying that of all cars he had to hit the most expensive one in the parking lot.

I can't believe that you joined in January of this year and Speed Concept wasn't already taken - well done.

twomarks

That is a great in put about brakes. Even if they are perfect at the start of a race, yep, one pot hole and I could be rubbing.

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

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Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

First triathlon after a 14 year lay-off (having only done 1 before) was Eagleman in '06. First mistake of the day was staying about 30 minutes away and not accounting for traffic ...... with a 4 month old and my late wife ...... so barely made it into transition before it closed to set up my stuff and get my wetsuit on. Which I just did as they were closing transition.

That was the beginning of the pain.

Horrible swim, crawled out of the water and hobbled to bike - which has always been my forte - and hopped on and rode off. Keep in mind that calling E-Man flat is an insult to the word "flat." I could barely hold 20 mph when I fully expected to be in the 23 - 25 range for an average. F'ing sucked donkey balls. Around 45 miles or so you turn back toward town and it was at that point when the wind was at my back and no longer in my ears that I could hear it ........ my rear brake had been rubbing the whole gawddamn time! For 45 miles I was not only fighting the wind, but my own machine because I was in such a rush in the morning to get to my wave that I didn't check my gear like I always always always did before a ride. Reached back, quick adjusted it off the rim and it was like night and day! Flew back to transition.

But it was too late. Completely blew my wad fighting the brakes for so long. Ended up walking half the run and finished in 5:58 or something like that.

Payback? The next year I came back and rode a 2:23 and finished an hour faster overall than I did the first time I tried the race. Needless to say ..... I gave myself plenty of time to get to the race in the morning and triple checked my equipment before the start. ;)

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Rick, "Retired" hobbyist athlete
Trying to come back slowly from acute A-Fib

Put myself in a position where I was dropped by my coach. Midseason.

I used to buy a couple pair of identical running shoes when I found a make and model I liked. And once started to unpack my bag in transition for a sprint race only to discover that I'd brought only two right running shoe and had no left running shoe.

Fortunately my mom just happened to be down for the race, and our feet are about the same size, and I did the 5K in her moon boot-like walking shoes with no ill effect n my legs.

Came out of T2 with my trucker cap on backwards. Sooo embarrassing.

1) Strapped my watch over my wetsuit sleeve. When I got to T1, it took me 15 seconds to figure out why I couldn't get my wetsuit off my right hand. Doh!


AWESOME!!! I do that sometimes when training in the winter when putting my watch over my long sleeve shirts.

It was a very cold/rainy race day. Feet/toes were numb finishing bike leg of 70.3 and could barely feel my feet the first several miles of the run. Around mile 4 I stopped to re-adjust my shoe (which felt oddly uncomfortable) and realized I had a GU packet under the arch of my foot....fortunately it did not break and make a sticky mess.

Left my race number in T2. (In my defense, it moved somehow and then got covered up by a wetsuit. Out of sight out of mind.) Referee saw me just as I was about to run over the timing mat out of transition and I kid you not sent me back to go get it. I finished fourth. Missed the podium by a few seconds. Weeeeee!

Well... in my last swim workout I tightened my googles one [small] notch on the right hand strap. During my Oly tri yesterday the goggles leaked like a sieve from the start and I swim the 1500 essentially blind with lake water in my right eye. Really, really bad.

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

I once put on my my bike shoe in T1 and then realized I still had my wetsuit on from the waist down. Took me a min to realize why something looked totally wrong... Whoops.

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-Alex