Let’s face it, we’ve all had embarrassing moments while training or racing. After seeing the response my Pool Dork Alert post received I realized that people enjoy reading and in some cases, laughing at other people’s most embarrassing moments. If you don’t mind sharing yours, post it here and I’ll make a voting list on my Squidoo Triathlon Swimming Page so we can all vote for “The Most Embarrassing Moment in Triathlon”. So who else is willing to share for the entertainment of others?
mmmm… I had a dismount line crash rolling into T2 at a local Oly. I didn’t run into anything or anyone, I just fell over! I started practicing my dismounts after that.
I’m fairly confident I’m not alone in this one though, I’ve seen one or two others.
I intentionally crapped my pants during a tri so I wouldn’t lose my placing. I don’t think anyone knew (I hope not!) but I embarrassed the hell out of myself.
I intentionally crapped my pants during a tri so I wouldn’t lose my placing. I don’t think anyone knew (I hope not!) but I embarrassed the hell out of myself.
LMAO! I think I was behind you during the race…I thought you had a banana and a gel in you back pocket.
Mine would be more of a dork moment: During my first “comeback” tri in 2006, I spent what seemed like a half hour trying to put on Injinji toe socks on my wet feet in T1. Nowadays, those socks stay at home on race day. They only get put on my feet for snowshoeing, or longer bikes and runs.
Whew! I was pretty sure I wasnt alone. I usually get out of my shoes, but I couldn’t get the right one undone and I was approaching the line too fast. Crashed, unclipped the right one and ran to the rack with a bare left foot and a cleated shoe on the right. Not the best way to start the run.
Yea, I plan on getting out of my shoes a mile or two before T2, depending on how crowded the course is. It may seem like quite a way out, but it saves me worrying about it. Too many other things to think about.
OMG! Just this past Sunday night I was at the gym. After about an hour running, I thought it would be nice to spin my legs out on a stationary bike. They just put in these fancy bikes with computer screens and programmed routes. Tells you your power, speed, cadence, HR, pace. I was pretty excited and picked out a casual 5 mile loop. I forgot to mention, the base bars move so you can “steer” on the computer generated course. I get going and am really getting into it. There are these computer generated cyclists on the course with me and I am grooving right along with them. Well I am picking up the pace and decide to pass one of them on the left…without even thinking I look over my left shoulder before I pass! I am on a stationary bike, for heaven sake. I feel like such a dork and I hope and pray no one has seen my total Tri-geekiness. Sha-grin.
To this day I still feel like an idiot. At my first triathlon, I got off the bike, put on my shoes and took off on the run. I FORGOT TO TAKE OFF MY HELMET. About a mile into it I finally just took it off and ditched it on the side of the road. Luckily we went back to get it and it was still there. So friggin’ embarassing.
coming back in from the swim, I thought I would try to take my wetsuit off in the water (water up to my shins) as the run to T1 was quite long. So I get my top off and get my bottoms down to my ankles and that is where the comedy starts. I couldn’t get my foot out of the legs at all. So I am hopping around the water (with about 500 people watching me) when I realize I have hopped into water about up to my knees know. I don’t know if any of you have tried hopping on one leg in water like that but it is quite difficult. So wouldn’t you know it, I keel over and SPLOOSH into the water I go. I finally got my bottoms off and as I am running up the beach to T1 everyone is clapping and laughing. I had a good laugh about it as well but my T1 time was pretty good!!
Years ago at a Triathlon in Oklahoma I couldnt figure out why I was sweating so much on the bike coming out of T1…sweat was just pouring over my face…then I reached up and realized my rubber swim cap was still on under my helmet…nothing to do but just to keep going until T2…
I’m glad I’m not the only one. For me it was a duathlon in Central Park last year. After realizing I had it on, around 200 yards out of T2, I took my helmet off and ran with it in one hand the rest of the way. I thought about leaving it by the road, but hey, it’s New York City. Luckily, it was just a sprint.
I did consider wearing it on my head the whole way, claiming an aero advantage.
Mine was in buying tri gear! I got these great new socks in a goody bag and I went to a sports shoe store to get some more of them. They couldn’t help but laugh when I asked if they had any Bal Ga socks! - I felt pretty stupid when he told me that weird symbol in the middle of Balega was an E.
At least he said I wasn’t the first one to ask for Bal Ga’s.
At Steelhead last year- My first (and only so far) HIM… I was stuck in traffic for well over an hour and got into the transition area after it was technically closed. I threw my stuff in a pile by my bike and was running to the starting line (the race had already started and I was in wave 11- and I had a over a mile to walk to get there). Anyways, I stopped and put my wetsuit on, turned around, and yelled at my wife to zip it up. She responds “I don’t see any zipper, Honey.” To which I responded, “the one right there in the back!..geez!” (or something more disrespectful than that) And then I noticed my zipper was in the front. Not only had I put my wetsuit on backwards, but I had bitched out my wife about it and gave everyone around me a good laugh.
Oh well, it ended up being a really fun day. I had to apologize to the Mrs. when I was done, though.
Nothing to report that was embarassing in a race (knock on wood) but on Monday I was riding my new, sweet, lovely P2C with SRAM Red for the first time and nearly went down because I was looking at how cool my bike and I looked via the reflection in the window of a building I was passing and I hit a seam where two pieces of the road meet - lost my balance and damn near went down. Two guys in a car saw the whole thing. I was first scared to death and then embarassed.
