The other post about a bad experience got em thinking What has been your worst race experience. Preferably withholding names of the race to protect the innocent.
Mine; Was my first or second year doing tri’s. Was an early season pool swim. First they line us up. However they are still taking people for registration. Now it’s a pool swim and we are seeded by time. They had already called out the numbers in order so you knew were you were supposed to be…ahh but now they are re-ordering people creating a massive Cluster F. It’s a late start to begin with 8:30-9:00, but they are now 45 minutes late so it’s something like 9:30, we are standing on a pool deck, no shade, and it’s HOT.
The first people final take off. As satted before we are seeded by swim time. The 3rd or 4th person in the water is WAY WAY WAY off on his time. It’s a 1/4 miles swim and the fast guys are around 4:30 or so. This guy is actually stopping at the end of the lane and resting. In about 2 minutes he has 10-15 guys stopped and trying to pass him. The RD never pulls the guy. Of course this creates a ripple effect that pretty much hose everyone’s swim.
OK, off to the bike. The bike is supposed to be 15 miles. I’m feeling pretty good on the bike starting to get into a rythm and then…boom back at T2. Now I know I was feeling good but no way did I cover 15 miles that fast, turns out the bike was actually 8 miles instead of 15.
Then off to the run…which was also about a 1/2 mile short in a 5K. To say the least it was pretty much crap. But back at the end I was looking forward to hanging out having something to drink…but no, no fluids left, none.
Dragons Back MTB race 2002 Laying on my back on a rock after a second crash with my bike on top of me, rain in my face, 45 degrees at the top of North Mountain. Massive quad and hamstring cramps because I lost my nutrition bottle 9 miles back on a switchback error crash. Realizing that a) it would be a really long time before anyone came to sag me out of the mountain b) hypothermia is a real possibility c) I still have 7 more miles to ride d) I can either ride or walk, but I am under my own power no matter what.
The race itself was well managed, except for the lack of an evac helicopter for my sorry ass
There was a 10K race in North Lincoln Park in Chicago in the early 90s which was featured as “Run with Craig Virgin,” a famous runner at that time. The first 200 yards was on grass and a lot of us sprinted at the start so we could brag we were beating Craig Virgin for awhile.
We got to the bike path and a race volunteer points us south. I was having a good race but I was surprised we were not getting any mile splits from the timers at the mile markers. Just after I passed the 5-mile marker I see the runners ahead of me slowing down. WTF?
Turns out that the race volunteer who pointed us south was supposed to have poined us north and then we were to loop back and go south. Well, after about 50 runners went the wrong way they halted the rest of the 1,000 plus runners and told them to go back to the starting line.
No one bothered to tell the first 50 runners until we had run over 5 miles. The RD said that they would just start the race over again. Craig Virgin ran it again. I went home.
Man, that race sounds VERY familiar. You weren’t in Texas were you? My experience that is eerily similar is with a race that is now really well done. The year of issues was their first, but they pulled in a lot of experience in that year and have put on an excellent event every year since.
Nope Illinois. That was the last year for that race. The race was apparently very well done in prior years and then another group took it over that apparently had zero experience with race and or Race directing. After that no one anted to come back.
2002 Hillier Than Thou Century, a 100 mile ride with over 11,000’ of climbing, run as a draft-legal time trial. Weather looks pretty iffy, but what the heck. At about 30 miles in, and after a fresh chipseal climb, things aren’t looking very familiar, and the roads don’t match my cue sheet. Finally find a road listed, but it isn’t supposed to be for another dozen miles. I realize that, at the last rest stop, the route doubles back on itself and takes another route to where I now am. So, I then have to descend the chipseal road, where I pass the lead group coming up. Very tempting to turn around and join 'em, but I didn’t. It’s been raining off and on most of the day. Get to Fiddler’s Elbow (> 22%) around mile 50, have to get off and walk. A few miles later, hit Iron Bridge Road (never done it before), and the road is so slick with wet grit that my rear tire slips out whenever I stand to pedal. Can barely walk it, either. Finally get to the final climb, and it’s raining. Hard. Cats and dogs. Biblical proportions. The road is literally a river, with water over my rims. Get to the final check point nearly an hour slower than the year before (slightly different course); there were only 11 finishers. Get to the start/finish, where there is no hot food as had been promised. I’m cold, hungry, shivering, exhausted, and I’m faced with cooking myself a frozen hamburger.
My worst race experience was one of those freak things that was not the fault of the race organizers or anyone else (except for a fisherman. I got a fish hook stuck in my finger during the swim of a race. As I was swimming along, I felt a prick in my finger and it got to the point where I had to stop and see what it was. I looked down and there was a fish hook on a string with a little bobber sticking out of my finger. I swam a little bit out of the way and pulled it out, as I treaded water. It stopped bleeding by the time I got to T1. Other than that, it was a great race. Oh well, at least I have a little story to tell
My worst experience had nothing to do with the race but my own foolishness. I donated blood the day before a half ironman in Menomonie, WI (I don’t think it exists anymore). The woman at the donation sight said it wouldn’t impact me and I foolishly believed her. It was a hot day and it was a pretty hilly course and I barely survived the bike. I didn’t start the run and had my only dnf to date. I took my bike to my car and just laid next to the car for over an hour because I didn’t feel well enough to drive. I haven’t given blood since which is too bad because I used to do so regularly but now I am just too worried about the impact it might have on me.
Flatted on a 650 tubular during an oly. Wind was so bad, they cancelled the swim, which meant that the race became a bike-run. Since no one (i.e. ME) has a spare pre-glued 650 tubular at a local race (I think I’m the only triathlete in Vegas on 650 tubulars), I had to hitchike back to the start. The guys who picked me up reminded me of the dudes from deliverance. The grill of the truck was as jacked up as the driver’s mouth (think hillbilly).
Totally my fault, but it’s still a good story to tell…
2 ways to look at this question: Worst Race Venue/RD
Olympic: The RD changed which side we were supposed to swim around the buoys in the pre-race talk. This or something else resulted in a 500m short swim. Many people were misdirected on the bike and the run was 2 miles short of a 10K.
Worst personal race
Swim: Mostly uneventful except for I realized I was swimming off course towards a lifeguard kayak not a buoy. Doh! Bike: 4 blown tubes the day before the race. Just as I was being kicked out of transition I realize my tube is sticking out of a gash in my rear sidewall(kind of like a pimple). Rear flat at mile 12. Front flat via road debris at mile 17. Blew replacement tube using the CO2 inflator. Had to patch the flatted tube to finish the bike. Run: PR for HIM run I guess it ended well.
Maryland swim for life in 2004 or 2005 maybe. Out and back 5 miler with 1,2,3, and 4 milers at the same time. The instructions both in the packet and from the race director say if you are doing the 5 miler turn around at the 5th buoy. Problem was some helpful individual had put out white turn buoys and red navigation buoys in the same line.
About 1/4th of the field turned around about halfway through the race, swimming 2.5 rather than 5 miles. A couple of them “finished” in 1:22. Clearly the wrong time.
I suppose i could get over the mismarked course, but they didn’t change the times by the award ceremony nor on their website when they were posted a few weeks later.
The woman at the donation sight said it wouldn’t impact me and I foolishly believed her.
I can’t believe she would say that. Every time I’ve ever given blood they gave me a time I’d be back to “Normal”, If memory serves it takes something like 48 or more hours if you give blood but much less if you give plasma only.
Crazy. Good thing something more serious didn’t happen.
While there are races I’ve done that I don’t think are worth going back to again, I can’t say I’ve ever ran into that kind of horrible incompetence on the RD’s part.
Personal worst- a 5K where I ended up vomiting to dry heaves at the turnaround, and when I tried to find something after the race to rehydrate , the only options were water that tasted like I’d imagine dolphin piss would taste like, and Natural Lite beer, which is not what I want when I’m trying to settle my stomach.
Mine was at the GFT. I laid down for a wetsuit peeler and she peeled my bottoms off with the wetsuit by accident (I was a tad too big for my suit and the bottoms I chose were a new pair that were a bit on the loose side). The inadvertant public nudity I could handle, but the particles of sand that stuck to me drove me nuts. I had to race the rest of the day with sand in my crack. I contemplated DNF’ing but then imgined conversations like:
“Why didn’t you finish? What happened?”
“Sand in my crack.”
“Huh?”
“I’d rather not go into detail. Still need lots of ointment. Hurts, man. Hurts real bad.”
Course changed the week of the race First buoy placed driectly in the sun 2 minutes before the gun Went off course about 5 times on the bike due to poor markings Went though a really busy intersection without looking because there was a cop parked there…she was just sitting there The first time I went off course I ‘took’ about 10 people with me because I was near the front at the time (incl the eventualy WM’s winner). We had no idea how to get back onto the course. We guessed right…eventually. Got stopped by a train and at two different totally unmanaged traffic lights Runners on both sides of a narrow, unmanaged street Race was ~$40 more than other HIM’s in the area
I was so pissed I nearly parked it…
