I didn’t want to wait in the long lines to the Port-a-Potty’s at Eagleman last year so I waded into the water right at the start, squatted down, and began to pee. Looking up at the people on the shore putting on their wetsuits, I noticed how incredibly thin and fit they all looked. Just as I realize that those people were the pros, race director Vigorito shouts at me through a bull horn,“Only pros are allowed in the water!” I was mid-stream and couldn’t stop. My response was,“But I’m peeing!” I think Desiree Ficker got a good chuckle from that.
I got some guy’s foot stuck down the top of the 2-piece speedo during the swim start. I came really close to being kicked unconscious and having the top half of my suit rip apart. Thankfully, we got untangled eventually without any damage.
Okay, what one of you was the guy with nothing on under his wetsuit at IMLP 2000?
I’ve posted this before, but it’s been a while. I’ve always hated those swim caps they give you to indicate your wave – very thin and made for folks with huge heads (except the Boulder Peak caps; I like those:). Anyway, I was at my third or fourth tri and hadn’t really caught on to the fact that there was a reason the caps were different colors. I decided to just use my own cap, thinking that there were all these different color caps around so who would care? Minutes before my wave goes off, one of the race volunteers approaches me looking kind of panicked and asks if I’ve lost my cap. I immediately realize my mistake (all those women around me wearing yellow caps was a big tip off) and tell him, yes, I lost my race cap (no way was I admitting what really happened). He was nice enough to find me a quick replacement, but I felt like a real dolt.
On my first Olympic distance triathlon, I didn’t really pay that much attention to the transition area set up before the race. I had forgotten my race belt, and like an idiot i used pins to attach my number to my jersey. My back was soaked after the swim, and as I pulled the jersey over my back, two of the pins came out and poked me in the ribs. I had to fumble around on the ground for them, and repin them. Probably took 5 minutes to do so, my number was crooked and my jersey all balled up. Other than that, it was a good day, and I came off my bike and I was totally “in my element”. I entered T2 and had a quick transition, then began the run the same way the I had come in off the bike. Big mistake. Turns out, the start of the run was on the other side of the transition area on the other side of a plastic fence. I didn’t know that, so as I ran back across the mat that I had just biked over, the volunteers had begun to yell at me and I had no clue what they were saying or why. Needless to say, I ended up with a 2 minute run penalty for crossing the wrong mat. Kind of pissed me off since it was my first Oly tri.
I got some guy’s foot stuck down the top of the 2-piece speedo during the swim start. I came really close to being kicked unconscious and having the top half of my suit rip apart. Thankfully, we got untangled eventually without any damage.
We should never be allowed to swim in the same pool, bay, lake or ocean. This story along with mine is a recipe for disaster!
Embarrassing Moments in Triathlon
Back in the early 80’s, I recall coming roaring out of T1 with no helmet on at a race!! Some guy shouted from the side of the road at about the 100m mark, “Hey you don’t have a helmet on”, so I U-Turned and headed back to Transition, went back to my spot and put the lid on and away I went. I know that these days you would have been DQ’d and tossed out of the race and black listed for something like this, but back then in the wild-west-days, it was not such a big deal. 
My most embarrassing moment was in a small local duathlon. This race was different in it only had a 4 mile run to start and then 20 miles on the bike, no second run to finish. I started with a great run and led into T1. After taking off on the bike I was riding scared the whole time. Manage to get back to the parking lot still holding the lead and am so pumped up to win my first ever event overall that I keep hammering to the line. That is where the excitement happens. They wanted everyone to dismount to cross the line for the chip and start screaming at me to dismount. Well with no run to go to I figure I’ll just clip out and jump off like a regular dismount but with the shoes on. Let’s just say cleats and asphalt don’t hook up well at that speed. I crossed the line first but on my @$$ with both feet in the air. Real smooth!
forgot to check the goggles for leaks before the Alcatraz swim. long swim.
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Forgot to apply ‘de-fogger’ to my goggles, barely being able to see where I am swimming.
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I had been having problems shifting into my big chainring on my Litespeed w/ 650 wheels. If I wasn’t real careful the chain would slip off. So for an early season Duathon, I set it so the I would start the bike leg with the chain already on the big ring. While setting up, the very nice chap mentioned to me that I have my chain on the big ring “You know you have your chain on the big ring” he says. I sort of laugh and tell him my predicament. So I come barreling into T1, throw on my helmet, sunglasses and shoes, take the bike and mount my titanium beauty as soon as legally possible. Well, it did not take long too get a lesson in physics, as I can’t even turn the peddle. I am going about 2 mph, I can’t see where I am going as my glasses are all fogged up and end up bumping into volunteers, crashing into barriers, etc. Had to dismount, shift into the smaller chainring, apologize to a bunch of nice folks, and start up again. Thankfully, I couldn’t see all the people having a good laugh.
3a) Trying to put on a wet shirt (pre-wet-suit days) and getting my arm stuck in my shirt.
3b) ditto, but putting on a shirt AFTER your helmet is already on.
Got one or 2 more, but you get the picture.
Are we having fun yet?
mist the race meetting, so at t1, i take off my wet suit put on my helmet and start running go past the line mount my bike,
did 100 feet the announcer start talking about the guy with no t-shirt that i would be dq and that i didn`t not attend the meeting.
with all the people loocking at me. i turn around and felt very bad snick back in put on my t-shirt and finish the race.
My first race I was about thrity pounds overweight and crazy out of shape. It was brutally hot, and I knew absolutly nothing about nutrition or hydration at all. Finished the twenty mile bike, which was twice as far as I had ever riden before (great preparation skills as well) and got ready for the 5K run. About three miles into it, I discovered it was a 5 mile run! Fortunately I had already began to puke from a combination of the heat and exhaustion. To make matters even worse, I had decided to skip the Gatorade at the aid stations in lieu of water, since I didn’t like Lemon Lime. So a viscious cycle of dehydration, vomiting, and only drinking water ended up with me going hyponatremic. I get to the three hundred yard straight to the finish, dead last, with my friends waiting at the line for me. About 100 yds out, I begin to puke violently. Shake it off, take a few steps, and puke some more. Did this a total of three times, until the RD came out with two cups of cold water and dumped them on my head, shocking me across the line. I get there, and they lay me down in the medical tent, and begin to stuff ice down my shorts, which was a surprise to say the very least. Whoever was doing it then had the “sense of humor” to say, “At least you finished with dignity” as he stuffed more ice into my crotch. Not sure what his idea of dignity is, but it must differ from my own!
Needless to say, I was hooked.
I point out pot holes and other road hazards to the car behind me all the time.
My buddy awhile back maybe 10 years made the big mistake of racing I think it was a half ironman in a new race suit (speedo of course) well he was fine until about 4 miles into the run when the suit started chaffing his $%# (unit, johnson, you get the point) well by 10 miles it was really bad and was almost bleeding … he was not going to quit though he ended up running that final mile with his hand down the front of his suit holding his package so it wouldnt rub anymore skin off !! LOL all the way across the finish line of course to the cheers of the crowd !! I cant see how anyone would guess why he was doing it … but that was freaking hillarious and needless to say he got razzed by us for a long time after that … finishing pictures were- PRICELESS
Add me to the list, in front of a bunch of cute girls(and everyone else) right at the t2 entrance.
At about mile 9 of the run at Lake Placid, as the delerium was setting in, I approached a race official and complained about the mile markers. I mentioned that, while the first few were 9 minutes apart, the last few I passed were more like 11 minutes apart. They needed to get that straightened out.
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.
OK - I did the exact same thing! Wasn’t even my first tri (maybe my 3rd or 4th). Took off out of T2 with my helmet on. Got about 500 yards and wondering what everyone was yelling at. Ditched mine too and was also there (thankfully). Geez.
Not actually during a race, but preparing for one.
In getting ready for my first race in cold ocean water here in Northern California I decided it would be a good idea to buy a real triathlon wetsuit rather than use my old farmer-john from my river rafting days. When I went to the store to try suits on I didn’t think to wear a Speedo under my street clothes, so I took the suit into a dressing room to try on. It was a tiny room, not very well lit. I was kind of hot and sweaty and sticky cuz it was a warm day, and I didn’t know about the plastic bag or sock tricks for getting your leg through easily. I really struggled just to get the first leg on up to my knee. Then I stuck my other leg through what appeared to be the correct opening, thinking “Man, this one is REALLY tight, I must be getting even stickier than I was before.”
Only after I got the second “leg” pulled up to my knee and then found an incredibly loose “arm” opening did I realize what I had done. I had put my leg through an ARM hole opening. At that point I should have just swallowed my male pride, stumbled out to the young girl (naturally) who was at the cash register while wearing nothing but my underwear and a neoprene hobble down around my knees, and asked for help. But no. Instead I struggled for what seemed like hours trying to get the wrist cuff back off from around my ankle. Then of course I had to get my foot through the real leg opening, being even stickier and hotter than before.
When I finally was done I actually did walk outside with the suit on just to cool off a bit. I felt like saying to the clerk “Don’t bother to wrap it, I’ll just wear it home like this.”
Dan
For some reason, I always walk away from races with awkward photos of my backside which is every girl’s nightmare:
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A race I did well at kept making mistakes with the awards and calling the finishers back onto the stage. I finally got lazy and jumped on rather than walk around to go up the stairs. The result was an unexpexted sequence of photos of my crouched backside, in the trisuit, that were so close up you couldn’t see my head or feet. This would have been wonderfully anonymous, except my coach had screened my last name across the lower back of my suit for the world to ID me by.
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Coming out of T1, I tried to do the speedy bike mount that included having my shoes clipped in. I completely biffed this move so I was kinda leaning over as I fumbled with the shoes/pedals. Because I was one of the earlier girls out of the water there was a photographer paying close attention from the backside. As a result, the entire episode was caught as a sequence on film from my backside. Seeing as I was wearing a women’s Orca speedo to avoid leg chaffing, it was more than a little bit revealing as my team later pointed out. (Pics were the incentive for a new race suit).
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At Malibu tri, I came down with a miserable case of food poisoning and finished the race with a 101deg fever and a run split that was about 1:15/mile too slow. As I crawled around doubled over waiting for my award, one of the challenged athletes came running over to tell me that my backside was the motivation for his fastest bike split ever. Oh yeah, and he also thanked me because apparently in my tri-suit’s second season it had become completely see-through. Sweet. So much for increasing the coverage of my suit.
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At the first race put on by the university tri club I founded, I was the announcer and my boyfriend was the race director. We stayed up until about 3am making sure every part of the course was properly marked and then got up at 4:15 to set up race day reg and aid stations. By the time I started announcing the awards I was to tired to even hold up the megaphone. In order to call attention to our race director’s hard work I said something along the lines of: “I just want to say thank you to our race director who has worked so hard to ensure that all of you would be standing here smiling today. I’m his girlfriend so I can tell you that he was up all night last night” Before I got to finish that line one of my teamates jumped in and suggested much more exciting options than chalking directions on the road which certainly ensured that everyone was smiling.
Great story! I wouldn’t have admitted to what really happened either!
Rob