What is the worst idea you have ever tried on Race Day? With all the racers here there have to
be some great stories.
My own worst idea was racing an X-Terra in unpadded running tights…I didn’t want to wear my baggies
and for some reason thought my regular road shorts would have too much padding. After the first
few bumps I realized what a terrible idea that was an alternated between getting spanked in my
crotch and standing up for the whole bike leg. Between the chafing and weary legs, the run turned into
a death march.
Alright, please do share, I know there will be some laughs out of this.
About 10 years ago I did my first endurance MTB race. I thought a MetRX shake would be a great pre-race meal. I also just had water with me during the race. It was a 6 hour event going from 6 PM to midnight.
On my last lap I was horribly bonked. I remember hallucinating that something was stalking me in the woods. I thought if it attacked me I would get behind my bike and maybe just fall on it. Yeah, I was mentally gone.
So, uh, MetRX shakes are bad and not bringing any calories on the bike is bad.
Pre IMAZ April 08, it was going to be wicked hot, and I had read about pre loading sodium. Spent the day and a half prior taking salt pills (maybe 4, but S tabs) and using sodium laced infinit. I had used E tabs before in races, never before a race, and not S tabs.
My neurologist thinks that created a sodium/potassium imbalance in my inner ear leading to massive vertigo on the swim, having to get pulled from the water. NOT fun!!!
First off, this was not my story but a very good friend of mine’s. If you knew this jovial soul you might appreciate it more - he is super nice. He had run a few marathons, he loves running a lot. He had heard that people who were forefoot strikers ran faster, debatable if not incorrect information, so during a marathon he decided to try to run as a forefoot striker. By the time he hit mile 14 he had developed a hematoma in one of his calfs but kept running. At around mile 22 he got one in his other calf. This crazy nut continued until he finished and both of his calfs were filled with blood. Another friend of mine grabbed him at the end of the race and went straight from the finish line to the emergency room. Scary thought, I just couldn’t believe he continued!
Doing my 1’st olympic distance race with a new wet suit, (I had never used a wet suit before. ever…) and the water was 53 degrees. I finished, but that’s about it.
Cycling with a shower cap in your shoe I hear isn’t advised. I forget what he said it was for, but did mention there was a chance of rain. Regardless he forgot to remove it from a place he wouldn’t forget about it. The run sucked because of it.
I almost did the same thing with a sock in my bike shoe, but i remembered his story.
Where to begin… the number of dumb mistakes I’ve made on race day just doesn’t seem to end. In fact, it gets more colourful every year.
Anyway, here are a few highlights:
Okay, this one didn’t happen on race day, but it could affect my race day. I found out there was a half marathon in our city the next weekend. I’d run, but never in a race longer than 5k. I figured the best way to see if I’d be able to complete the race was to run the entire distance 6 days before the race. So, there I was, on my treadmill running a very conservative 21k (It took 2.5hrs!). Luckily enough race day went well and I knocked 45 minutes off that.
During my first 1/2 IM my nutrition consisted solely of a 500ml waterbottle filled with raspberry gel. That’s it. The only thing I ate on the entire course. Might explain why it didn’t go so well. I was so sick of raspberry gel by the end of the bike that i don’t think I ate anything on the run… Brilliant.
Race flats purchased the day before my first race of the season. Surprisingly, this one turned out quite well.
Putting empty gel wrappers in your shorts on the bike. Anyone ever just stuck one in the waistband and then forgotten to remove it before the run? Well, I had a couple get lodged down there and the chaffing by the end of the run was really something else.
While on holiday in Bali i thought it would be fun to try the Bali Triathlon as my first tri. Having no bike with me on holiday, the local guide hooked me up with his cousins sons MTB! I am 6ft tall and the average Indonesian a lot shorter! Needless to say the bike was very very small and also fitted with a no name ‘suspension’ fork unable to hold my weight.
After my longest 40k bike ride ever, my knees was busted and I had to limp all the way round the run course. The morning after i was unable to bend my knees…
Never the less, i owe the guy who lend me his MTB a huge thanks. If he hadn’t lent his bike to a complete stranger i wouldn’t have tried to tri and would probably still be a couch potato.
A few years ago I did a Du in Richmond, VA in early April. It was raining lightly in Northern VA and I had a 2 hr (4:30AM) drive on race morning. The outdoor temperature was holding right at freezing with the rain swiching over to sleet at times. The roads were fine but my dumb-ass idea was car-topping the TT ring. Once I got to the race site my bike was encased in a tomb of ice. I spent the entire warm-up period chipping the ice tomb off my bike. oh yeah, I also forgot my cycing shorts that morning and had to ride the 30 mile bike portion in cargo shorts…ouch!
Needless to say I didn’t have one of my better races that morning.
After racing 1 sprint (the Danskin) I decided to do a half iron. Also decided I still needed to lose a few pounds, so it would be best to race on just water, didn’t need any extra calories. It was also 107 degrees. Ended up hyponatremic.
Also decided to do a full IM that same year & thought since I’d never run a marathon before, I should do one about a month before the IM. Also, my longest bike ever going into that first IM was 80 miles.
My first race ever(10K) I decided to save something for “finishing kick”. At the 6 mile mark I tried to sprint for the 1000 or so feet. I burned out within the first couple of hundred and was barely moving for the finishing 800ft.
Wearing split shorts I had never really worn before in a run for my first marathon. My inner thighs were raw for a couple of weeks.
Getting up at 2:30am to drive(2 1/2 hours) to my first 50-miler ultra. Running it and driving home immediately afterwards all with manual transmission. I did all this so I could sleep in my own bed.
I signed up for the 52km Noquemanon ski Marathon (Michigan UP) 3 days after purchasing my first pair of skate skis.
It was September and had never XC skiied before at all, and the Noque was at the end of January.
The first time we had snow in MN that year was a man made 2.5km loop in early December. I skiied just about every day on that hamster wheel.
The race.
I broke a pole after falling on a long descent.(strangely enough, my ex-gf was right behind me to see it) I skiied with 1.5 poles for about 10km.
I made it to halfway (after all the big climbs) feeling pretty good, and felt holding the pace I’d set would get me a good time. The second half of the race was purported to be mostly downhill, but to my surprise, they’d moved the finish line because there wasn’t enough snow to another place on the other side of some monster ridges.
After covering about 35km, I started to feel fatigue & remembered that I hadn’t consumed any calories, and I ate a gel.
With 10km to go, I was so bonked out of my mind that I remember very little of the remainder of the race. One thing I do remember: all the “caution: big hill ahead” signs.
