The Triathlon Mythbuster Thread: NEW MYTH ADDED!

Triathlon Forum
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There are some enduring triathlon myths that I’d like bust using the power of this forum.

Most of these myths are propagated by internet forums like this, so let’s try to use The Force for truth and good here to reverse that trend of hearsay and urban legend.

Here’s the idea: The only parites who should respond to the thread are the ones to whom these things have actually happened. In other words, we don’t want to hear *any *stories or anecdotes like “… I know a guy who…” or “…My girlfriend had this happen to her…”.

None of the here- absolute, irrefutable first person accounts only, dates, times and places mandatory- photos prefered.

Here we go:

Myth #1: “I was blown off my bike by the wind when riding a disk wheel and crashed.” If this has happened to you tell us about in this thread.

Myth #2: “I was attacked by a shark during a triathlon swim.” If you were attacked and bitten by a shark while doing a triathlon ocean swim- tell us.

Myth #3: “I got a flat tire at Ironman from riding through a bunch of tacks thrown on the bike course by locals.” If you actually got a flat pre-1990 Ironman- post here.

Those are two that I could think of. If you guys can think of other good, enduring lore that falls into the myth/urban legend category- add it to the list. I can’t wait to see what happens.

Remember- **first person only. **

I predict this is off the front page in under an hour…

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Myth #3
“I personally saw a guy at a club TT who came along on an MTB with mudguards and baggies. No one talked to the guy at the start as they thought themselves superior. He then toasted everyone there with a 22 minute time on the hilly course.”

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Myth#4 - my IM finisher photo was ruined by some jerk crossing the line with his kids, wife, grandmother, doggy, and 6 other relatives.

Myth#5 - I lost out on a Kona spot, or dropped a place in AG standings as a result of some jerk crossing the line with his kids, wife, grandmother, doggy, and 6 other relatives.

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You don’t have to have something happen directly to you to have a first hand account of it. I’ve never been blown over while riding, but I’ve witnessed it.

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Tom

Do a search on Mequonman. I’m pretty certain anything having to do with triathlon and being referred to in the first person is an unban legend/myth there.

Now let’s talk about something important. I have been waiting for your take on the weather for days now. whaddya think

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Myth#2 – At least two triathletes have been attacked by sharks on training swims in the last two years on Maui alone:
http://mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=9831
http://mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=15375

There have been a bunch of other regular swimmers, surfers, and beachgoers attacked too.

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Myth 2b: I have had an encounter with a sea lion while open water swimming. I was about 50 yards off the shoreline, and the thing didn’t bite, it sort of head-butted me in the hip. Not sure if it was trying to play or send a warning, either way i got out of the water as quick as i could. This happened two summers ago in Aptos, CA. I think it would have been the last week in June, IIRC.

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Myth #2: “I was attacked by a shark during a triathlon swim.” If you were attacked and bitten by a shark while doing a triathlon ocean swim- tell us.\

I think that I’ve told this story here before, but let me blast the myth…

Daytona Beach in 1985 I believe, and I was 3/4 through the swim off the front by about 100yds, with about 500 to go. Someone startet to hit my feet, you know the annoying swimmer that keeps swimming up onto you, but then it dawned on me, I was OFF THE FRONT!!!. I stopped and did a little backstroke, and then WHAM!!! I got hit in the back, and the life/death flicks began to start rolling. I saw the shark now coming straight at me, and I began to move my hands back and forth, getting ready to land the hardest punch of my life on its snout.

Being a lifeguard, that was the one thing that we were told to do just in case, sensitive spot I guess. My luck it was a hammerhead, probably didn’t have a sensitive snout, but I didn’t know any of this yet. I just knew some fish was trying to make lunch out of me. My brain went into overdrive and the processing speed would make todays fastest computer look like a calculator from the 60’s… What it did was determine that sprinting the 500 to shore was fruitless, too far, and who of us outswims anything that lives in the ocean, and also just gives excitment to the prey to chase. Can’t just sit there like a sitting duck and hope to make it to the 10th round with this guy, so my gambling instincts took over. It’s all about odds baby, so I swam back to the chase group of 5 and planted myself in the middle of them. Give the shark a choice, 1 out of 6 is a lot better than 1 out of 1, and hope he eats off the edges, and not the middle. The chase group of course had no idea what I was doing, and in the final leg to the shore the shark did attack two other swimmers.

Mike Garcia, an old great pro from those days and I got out of the water together, and he screamed at me that a shark had rammed him, and I said “No shit, why do you think I swam backwards to you guys?” WE were like soldiers in a battle that just ended, major adreneline rush, fear of immenent death, then it’s over. Only thing was, that we had two more legs of a race to do. We kind of jogged to the bikes together, and I could tell he was thinking the same thing as I was, so glad to just be on solid ground and alive, really wanted to go to a bar, get drunk, and talk about it, but there was that pesky race in front of us… SO we got on our bikes and finished the race, one of us won, and the other second, but for the life of me I can’t remember who…

Afterwards we found out that some fishermen had caught some hammerheads in that exact area a few days prior, so it was a breeding ground, or just their hangout area. Apparently they are territorial like most animals, and they ram their prey unconcious, before going in for the real bite, glad I didn’t play possum out there…Most likely was that we were just invading their space, and they/it were just giving some friendly ramming warnings, hard to know the mind of a shark at that moment… I believe that Wendy Ingrahm was the other swimmer that was hit that also, must have been one of her first races too…

I can blast the other myth too, 83’ Ironman, 50+ mph crosswinds, but just remembering this story makes me want to go get a beer and relax now…

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While it technically breaks your rule about first-person-only accounts to reference a published news story (with pics), I think this guy presents pretty compelling evidence of being attacked by a bull shark while training:

http://www.clarkecountydemocrat.com/news/2004/0729/Sports/022.html
.

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It’s all about odds baby, so I swam back to the chase group of 5 and planted myself in the middle of them. Give the shark a choice, 1 out of 6 is a lot better than 1 out of 1, and hope he eats off the edges, and not the middle.

I’m not sure what to say to this so I’m going to go with “Holy SH!t.”

I’m guessing you didn’t have any real close friends/family in the chase group…

That is one of the most cunning, and dastardly, survival decisions I’ve ever heard.

Wow.

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so, based on what we’ve seen so far, it is more likely that you will be attacked by a shark than blown over riding a disk.

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That is one of the most cunning, and dastardly, survival decisions I’ve ever heard.

Wow. \

It is only my explination of it afterwards that makes it seem calculated…In all honesty, it was a purely emotional survival response, us humans like to cling together in the face of death, wheather on a battlefield, or a crashing plane… Only after the fact, was I able to figue out what and why my brain did what it did to protect the body. Not sure you can put yourself in my place, but what would you have done???

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perhaps I should try swimming with my disk? could make a nice boogie board!

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A better anology would have been the famous shark disaster of the USS Indianaopolis I believe. Famous story of I think over a 1000 guys in the water, sharks everywhere. They huddled into groups together, probably for the exact same reason I went back. Some kind of saftey in numbers thing that goes through our heads. The reality of their situation, it probably was better to be off on your own though, less sizeable target for the sharks to hone in on, but no one wants to die alone out there…Hundreds were eaten alive in that one, guys just popping under the surface right next to you, now that is some traumatic stress to have to live with…

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now you’re reminding me of my dad’s Navy stories. He was the first one to tell me about the Indianapolis story (Quint, in Jaws, tells this vividly).

My dad has a picture from his Navy days, half the crew of his destroyer is swimming, there are two or three guys on deck, holding rifles. “What’s with the rifles?” “They’re watching for sharks.”

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Myth #1:

Kona, 2000 - 55 min swimmers to 1:00 swimmers headed into the lava fields and the real winds (sustained wind ~45-50, gusting to 75 mph). I weigh ~160. Two German guys about 170-175 go past me on the left (legally) and then as we clear a lava rock formation the wind pull both of them down right in front of me. The wind blows me to the double yellow line on the Queen K as I am fighting hard to stay up. I stayed with the rubber side down but the heart rate got a good jump - I thought I was going down for sure.

Two friends did get blown off the road a little further down the course - climb to Hawi. My buddy David (Virgina) perhaps you can add your comments here. Broke his humerous on the way up to Hawi…and still finished the race. Female racer crashed out and was in the hospital for 4 days afterwards.

I’ve seen the wind do weird stuff but rarely like that. Once was when we were riding back to town in what turned out to be a severe thunderstorm turned F2 tornado. Riding away from a tornado is one of the scariest rides you’ll ever do. Famous last words, “It’s only raining right now. No thunder or lightning or high winds…do you really want to ride the trainer in May?”

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so, based on what we’ve seen so far, it is more likely that you will be attacked by a shark than blown over riding a disk. \

Going way back once again(I’ve calmed down now) to 83 Ironman…These were not disc wheels, but it makes it even worse, so it should be applicable… While riding up Havi, the winds would gust to 50+mph, and I saw two pros get blown over, off the road, don’t recall their names. On the way down the hill I did see a Benjemin Parades(top pro duathlete, 2:10 marathoner from Mexico) get blown over on his way up. I saw at least 10 more people on the side of the road, most likley victims of this wind. The helicopter covering the race was blown into the side of the cliff, and crashed into the ocean… It was mostly light men and women, but I had to ride the center line the whole time, because the gusts would blow me from there to the end of the shoulder. At times, I would be doing a track stand in the wind, not moving an inch, until the gust went past, and it would settle to 20 to 30mph, and you could creep again…I believe estimates were in the 100’s of people blown over that day, it there were disc wheels allowed, it would have been everyone that used one…Today they would cancel the race in those conditions…

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It’s worth mentioning that at this stage not one single person who has been blown over while riding a disk has posted to this thread.

Not one.

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Myth #1 - As discussed in a old thread, I have been blown off the road on both HED-3’s and plain 32 spoke box rim wheels. I have never crashed, but been VERY close. On more than one occaission, I have been blown across the road (2 lanes) and been very glad there was no traffic, as I would have either been hit from behind or had a head on. Like I said in the older thread, in Colorado we can get high, and gusty, winds at times. These winds will blow over semi-trucks on the freeway.

To anyone who thinks you cannot crash due to wind, but who doesn’t live in a particularly windy area, I propose an experiment: Put on a front disk. Go ride in moderate (20-30 mph) but gusty wind. Report back.

Paul

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c’mon. let’s get some real myth busting going.

Myth #6?. moving the seat tube angle forward (steeper) 6-8* (72 or 73 to 80*) and then bending the torso foward 20-45* ‘preserves the hip angle’ so it is the same as on a road bike.