What went wrong right before your Tri?

I found that my rear wheel was badly out-of-round and my break calipers were rubbing on the wheel!

From my race report:

Now this is where it gets spooky. I was gonna go ahead and head on up to the swim start area when I had this ‘feeling’ that I needed to go check my bike again.  I went back to my bike and the brakes looked fine. I spun the wheel and it went ½ turn and stopped! It was hitting the frame! Oh no! It was out of round. This was NOT good. I did not want to try to bike 112 miles with a tire rubbing. That would be like riding with the brakes on. I took my bike off the rack and then I saw my two internet buddies, Aaron and Andrew and showed them my wheel. They told me to take it to the bike tech guys and they could true it up. When I got the bike tech area no one was there. I asked someone where they were and they said “they are late….they are supposed to be here.” They showed up about 10 minutes later and one of the techs started adjusting my spokes to true up the wheel and he found a broken spoke! My heart raced. Could they fix it? No, evidently there was not enough time. But they had spare wheels. I have a 12-27 cassette on my rear wheel instead of the typical 12-23 on most triathlon bikes. The bigger cassette gives me 17% more climbing power and I was gonna need this on the bike. The tech said they would put my cassette on the loaner wheel. I watched in horror as he changed the cassette in the grass in very poor lighting! The new wheel on my bike, I racked my bike and headed to the swim start. My head was still reeling thinking about finding that broken spoke and I supposed that someone must have been praying for me.

On another occasion I drove 2 hrs to a race site the day before my race and when I got there I realized I had forgotten my front wheel to my bike!  I had to drive all the way home and back again.

~Mike

I parked about 4 blocks away from my tri - waked my bike down 3 HUGE hills - set up everything in transition when I realized that I left my race number and belt on the dash of my car - I had to walk all the way back - it was lame - my calves were burning when I got back to T-1 and they were announcing that my wave needed to be in the water - nice.

Our (then) 11 year old was doing his first tri with me last year and I was so particular that he had everything to have a good race. We were sitting in traffic going into the park for the race at 5:45 AM. I was admiring a gorgeous P3C on the back of the car in front of us when it dawned on me ... I forgot my bike shoes! Oh well, I wore my running shoes on my SPDs, and it was raining!

Needless to say, I had a fast T2! Still finished MOP!

Not this year:  Packed my backpack with wetsuit, bike shoes, running shoes, race belt, etc.  Helmet was in the car along with bike.  Get over to site, unload bike, unload helmet, backpack is still in the hotel room...call wife to bring it quickly.  Air up tires and 2 minutes later, Boom psssstttt.... back tire goes flat.  Call wife, hoping she hasn't left the hotel yet to bring extra tire/tube since I wasn't sure how bad it was.  She gets back as I'm working on the tire and life gets better.  Tuck my swim cap into the waistband of my tri-shorts so I don't lose it.  A few minutes later, pull on my wetsuit, zip it up and realize the *F*$ cap is still in the waistband.  Unzip, grab cap, re-wiggle into the top half of the wetsuit and I'm ready to start the race. 

Not me, but at the race this weekend:  Some guy shows up and tells the volunteer coordinator that his bike is missing (somewhere between his hotel and the race site).  She calls friends on the sherrif's dept and they find the bike in the ditch.  It shows up.  Cracked frame, busted wheels, and trashed derailleur ($$OUCH$$) 

Worst so far is forgetting my goggles for the swim.  Still finished it.

However I went to a 5k on the wrong day once.  My wife asked me how my race went, and I had to tell her, 'It was yesterday'

Yup, and thanks to the checklist, Everything I needed was in the backpack that I didn't get into the car

The last week before my first tri, my regular bike has a broken spoke on the rear wheel, and needs to go to the LBS because the cassette needs to come off to replace.  Decided to switch to the back-up bike, and it has a rim problem and keeps blowing tires.  Get the regular bike back, and good to go.  About an hour up I-95, car lurches, and then a few miles later, starts to act sluggish.  Still cruising along at 70mph, but doesn't have any power.  Decided to pull over, make it across 5 lanes of traffic to the shoulder about a mile before the Baltimore Harbor tunner.  Car is completely dead due to the alternator dying.  I-95, 90 degrees and humid, tow truck finally shows up.  Wife rescues me, but her car doesn't have a bike rack, so we cram 5 people, 2 bikes and all our stuff into it.  Finally make it to Princeton 6 hours after leaving DC.  Was wiped out.

But I made it!

My very first race I cut my foot about 5 second into the race

Got bronchitis/had bronchitis during HIM

Bike seat fell off during a HIM (different race)

Mentally not into a race as I was facing bankruptcy, some people quitting and otherno ggod very bad things....and I think this affected this race more than any of theother stuff have effected any other race I have ever done.

Finished all the races

**sigh**

Stubbed a toe and stumbled on the beach after my last long workout for my first IM--a two-mile ocean swim three weeks before the race (which was on Saturday)...stuck out my other leg to keep from falling on my face...and popped my hamstring.  Probably should have DNS'ed the run...pretty miserable experience.  Turned what was looking like a 12:30-ish finish 16 miles into the run into a nearly 14-hour slog when the injury blew up completely on me...and going ahead with the race and trashing the injury further probably puts me on the shelf for my next two scheduled events.

Nothing like a freak, last minute, non-training injury when you've just finished weeks and weeks of peak IM training without getting hurt...

(Speaking of which:  My wife nearly took herself out of her HIM this past weekend by nearly breaking a toe on the wheel of a shopping cart at Target two weeks out from the race.)