There’s an article in this month’s Triathlete along these lines called dumb-ass mistakes, or something similar. Some good chucklers in there.
For myself, my moron mistake was at a sprint tri (and not my first one either!). Waiting at pool side, guy said go, I jump in the pool and swim a lap wondering why my eyes are burning and I can’t see. Whoops, should have put my goggles on instead of leaving them on my forehead.
I’m sure I’ll do many more stupid things as the years go by. I have a propensity for this kind of stuff.
One is my screw up and the other the RD’s. At Santa Cruz Sentinel a few years I decided to warm up before the swim as the surf was running big that year. Forgot to put goggles on before cap and while bodysurfing in a wave I got tumblems and goggles flew off my head. Looked everywhere but couldn’t find them. Did the whole mile swim with no goggles and by the time I finshed I was conviced the fog had come in since my vision was so foggy from the salt water in the eyes.
The other is from a race just a few weeks ago at the Ukiah Triathlon. T1 is separate from T2 and when I cam flying into T2 I couldn’t find my spot. It was right near a car that was parked nearby. Finally after running back and forth one of the volunteers casually tells me he had to “move around a few racks” after everybody headed to the lake. He couldn’t understand why that was a big deal…as the frustrated racers came later he began to understand.
Man some of these make me feel a lot better about my goofs. I’ve done the clip through both sides of the shirt once. I also clipped the number to the front of my bike jersey once. I had my socks all set up nice for T1…inside out. Same race at T2 run socks…inside out. Forgot my gloves at one race at T1. Forgot sunscreen at T1 once…baaaad mistake. Got down to race start without goggles once, fortunately it was a lake swim.
I had a double, two (well maybe three) in one race. The first was in T1, I was first out of the water by a large margin, at least 2 minutes. Run to my spot strip out the wetsuit in no time start putting my shoes on, except they were still tied, with double knots. i fought like hell trying to untie them, getting more and more pissed that I left them tied up and as i watch as several guys pass me in T1. I finally get them on and get ready to mount my bike, when I realized i had just spent severalminuts untying and retying my running shoes. Off come the running shoes, on go the cycling shoes off I go on the bike. Pissed as hell and mind numbe with rage I blaze down a hill at 40 plus mph and start to wond why there was cop stopping traffic half way down the hill at a crossroad. About 5 seconds after I passed the crossroad I realized that the cop was stopping traffic so I could make a turn for the race.
I have spent ages pinning my number on perfectly only to go put it on in T1 and realise that i had pinned it to both front and back of my top. solution? tuck top into shorts at the back with number flapping and hope it didn’t blow out. it worked. kinda like the first version of a race belt.
How 'bout getting ready to rack your bike at your first Duathlon and realizing that you left your front wheel in the garage at home. Luckily, race was about 10 minutes from home and I was an hour early for a sprint duathlon and had time to run home and still warm-up.
It’s pretty interesting to be the only vehicle trying to get out of the parking lot on race day.
HAH, I remember that! If it is any consolation, you weren’t the only guy who was running into the water with his wetsuit half on 'cause he missed his wave…
The years blend together, was that really 2003? I can’t remember which year in the last 5 was a no-wetsuit swim, was that 2002?
The absolute funniest moron story I’ve heard was the guy who posted here once about the time he turned up on a Sunday for a triathlon. Apparently the race was the day before on Saturday.
showing up a week early to a sprint (and didn’t drink the night before due to my tri). had 3 flats before getting there, so pretty bad…
And at another sprint
arrived 5 minutes prior to the start
realizing that I forgot the wetsuit, so decided to swimmed without (+18 celsius, not that bad)
swimmed in the wrong direction at the loopcourse, got caught by a rescueboat (with a lifesavingdevice put in my neck, them telling me to go somewhere else).
and finaly on the bike, a trained crossed and we had to wait at the road, when the ones that passed just continued…AHHHHH, that was the signal that turned the race into a DNF…
And another, doing OK a the swim and run (in the first pack). Reardereaualliiier (might be spelled incorrectly) get destroyed, I get upset, so Im doing a remake of the Bjarne Riis trick at the TdF 1997, and throws the bicycle way into to the fields…No mecanics shows up to get it for me, so I have to go and pick it up myself after a while…hmmmmm.
I have only done one sprint. The bike was three laps of a hilly course. I had forgotten to close the QR on my front brake after fitting the front wheel. At every turn on the steep, twisty descent I wondered why my brakes where so rubbish. Probably made me faster though.
Putting new cleats on my bike shoes the evening before a race, turns out I put the left cleat for my Speedplay pedals on my right shoe and my right cleat on my left shoe. I am twisting my foot outward over and over again, yanking the thing, trying to get it out as T2 is rapidly approaching. Then I thought to myself “hmmmm, I wonder if…” so being careful not to put my heel into my rear spokes when turning my foot inward to get out of my cleats I was finally able to unclip. Moral of the story, don’t install anything new without trying it before a race.
My first Tri I had a total of 8:27" of transion. I did the pin your number to your jersey, then rip it off while putting on the jersey. Try to re-pin the number with shakey hands. Then Gloves onto wet hands. T2 was a blazing fast 3:27" as I tried to put socks on and tie shoes and choke down a gel, and try to remove th problematic gloves. Then I ran out of T2 the wrong way and had to turn around.
On the bright side, it did mean that all of my race times woudl be faster due to better transion. On the down side I took 3rd in my AG and missed 2nd by 3 min. Dough!
This past july 4th weekend i had a great 3 days on the bike … did my 2 standard training rides one for about 50 hilly miles and about 30 with a group of roadies who hammer on the flats … the third day i accept an invitation to go and ride the bike course of an oly tri that’s the next weekend. The course is awesome and i’m feel really sharp during a brick run afterwards, (I hadn’t signed up for the race b/c my swiming had been shit and i was feeling like a pauper) … I drop the cash the next day and sign up, paying the late fees and all … the day after that I finally get a date with this girl I’ve been interested in seeing … it goes extremely well, and we make plans to get together on friday … friday comes, this date goes even better and it turns into saturday … we’re having a late breakfast and i’m commenting that i can’t do much in the evening b/c i’ve got a race the next day … then i start thinking … “wait … the race is … on the 9th … what day is today?” you guessed it, it’s about 3pm and the race has been over for hours … i didn’t even get a t-shirt for my $95!!!
however, given how things turned out, i wouldn’t have done any thing differently!
I think I saw you at Peterborough, unless that was someone else who made the same mistake
Anyways, I was watching my husband race and he had just headed out on the bike. If I’m spectating, I usually wait until the race has begun to use the facitlities, and I decided to go. I had my jog stroller and was waiting for the large stall so I could push the whole thing in. While I was waiting I couldn’t help but notice that it was currently occupied by two ladies participating in the race and they were changing. I don’t suppose there’s anything wrong with that, if you’re not interested in a quick transition. But they had gear spread out on the floor were sitting down, chatting, applying deodorant, and footpowder. I would have been more amused had I not had to pee so badly! Oh, it was an Olympic distance race.
1 - First tri was a local sprint - 750M pool swim. I signed up online and when I came to the “swim time” block I figured that, since I only lived a mile away I might as well get up early. Hmmm, thing started at 7 and I didn’t want to be first - so I put 7:15. At registration the lady commented on how fast I was… it wasn’t until 20 minutes later I put the pieces together and got my time moved back to where I belonged.
2 - Same tri… Put my HRM on only to discover that it kept sliding down when I’d push off the wall in warm-ups. Whew, had just enough time to run back into T1 and put it in my bag. BeepBeep. Hmmm, guess these mats are on, huh?
At last! An opportunity to unburden myself! First tri ever, a low key event around Syracuse NY. I too had my wetsuit on backwards. I was strolling around before the race trying to fit in with the suit on the wrong way. No one said anything. I went for one last pee before the start when I realised the mistake. I did a frantic reversal in the bathroom (remember how hard it was to learn how to get out of those things?) and made to the start on time. I confessed to some folks who were there and in the three years since they have not let me forget. I feel better knowing I wasn’t the only one.
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If anyone has done the Chicago Triathlon, you know that the swim starts after a 4 foot jump into Lake Michigan. On this type swim start, I can never decide if I should put my goggles on first and then jump in, holding them to my face, or put them on after jumping into the water. In 2004 I chose the later, doing it hurriedly because the start horn sounded sooner than I expected. On the first few strokes I noticed the goggles filling with water. I emptied them, started swimming again, only to have the same thing happen. Getting frustrated, i swam to the pier at the edge to see what was the matter, only to find that I had put them on upside down!
I swam very well after that without my goggles let in in so much as a drop. I learned a lesson that day, one I thought didn’t have to be learned.
