Pearls of Wisdom / Cautionary Tales

From my paltry year of tri experience (I could write books about running....)

*On the swim, if no one is anywhere close, you'd better make really sure you're not going the wrong way.

*Whatever can fall off, will. Bike components, food, water, toenails......

*If you're a mechanical idiot, have a mechanic check anything you've assembled before you ride it.

*Always park your bike where you can find it. If you have any tendency toward dyslexia, put it straight ahead out of the swim, not to one side. (Left? Right? Huh?)

*No matter how much marathon experience/arrogance you might have, a tri run is always at best tough, at worst excruciating. But everyone else feels like s.... too.

*Check out where the finish line is ahead of time. Don't assume everyone ahead of you is headed that way, no matter how good-looking they may be.

Oh yeah, forgot one (but maybe I'm the only one dumb/luckless enough to need this advice):

Figure out the gearing on your new road bike BEFORE a hilly race, not during the race itself.

bwaah ha ha SNORT

Not that I can relate, or anything.

Another pearl of wisdom you can find in any race rules:

KNOW THY COURSE.

After a training ride, take the few seconds to put your bike in the bike rack before getting in your car. Don't sit in the AC first and drink some recovery drink first.

It's much harder to back over your bike this way...



Also, if you have a roof rack...make sure you take your bike off BEFORE entering the garage.

and oh yes, ride the new bike at least once before a race!!!  been there, done that!!

If you must go mountain biking in the week before your race, don't try new big obstacles.

If you must try new obstacles, make sure you have bar end plugs.

If you fail to heed the above advice, be sure to wear a waterproof bandage over your resulting injury during the OWS.

Never seen this rule, and I have seen the occasional MTBs at the 70.3s I've officiated. Please show me where you find this.

I learned this one first hand yesterday, the first mile of running had to be the funniest thing I ever seen.

* When the race director say's the water is a balmy 51 degree's expect to not feel any part of your body after the swim.

Oooh--first example from our own BT.

Does the Ironman 70.3 allow mountain bikes??

Bike Rules - Ironman UK

ETA: The linkie is to NA Sports's own (purportedly current) Race Rules, where the highlighted portion appears on the first page as a USAT 2006 amendment ... does that mean FOR 2006 or SINCE 2006? I don't know.

http://www.nasports.com/RaceRules.pdf

So race specific at best.

Bt forums aren't the best reference n the world. I could show you a ton of fallacious crap posted here through the years. Some have even posted that Pop Tarts are good-tasting food.

Indeed, and a good bit from me. What, nearly 30K quality posts? PFFFFFFT

However, that quote was taken from the Hawaii 70.3 race guide, not a BTer.

Maybe race-specific at best, but at least in 2006, not supposed to be so for all NA Sports IM-branded events?

Now I'm interested, and digging around to see if this verbiage appears anywhere for 2011/2012, and if so, how extensively through 70.3/Ironman races.

ETA: one very good reason for no mt/cruiser bikes is that (at least for cruisers, and some mtb's look like it) they take up way more of their fair/allotted share of transition space.

OMG now dem's fightin' words right thar, bear!!!

Really don't see the REASON behind it either. Someone wants to train and race on a MTB, and can do it within the time limits, why should there be a rule? We are schooled to believe that rules are there to promote safety and fairness, can't see where either is compromised by use of a MTB.

You keep interrupting me before I can change my mind and finish my edits, you mr. bear pop-tart hater!

as above ... ETA: one very good reason for no mt/cruiser bikes is that (at least for cruisers, and some mtb's look like it) they take up way more of their fair/allotted share of transition space.

I think no coaster-brakes or fixie-type bikes is self-explanatory? no?

I'm busy shooting off my mouth before I can finish my research. Excuse me ... must go play on the Internet more ...

Way more? How so? Don't have a cruiser but my MTB is two inches longer and no wider than my road or my tri bike.

Coaster brakes and fixies are banned by the USAT rules that say one must have a brake on each wheel, although either would be allowed if the two-brake requirement was met.

I confess I have no idea what WTC/NAS events (and the more I look, the more there are that have the exact "only road or triathlon style bikes" wording) had in mind when they adopted that rule (likely from USAT, it seems?). I ASSUMED it was primarily because of space and then service/pickup issues.

Would cruiser bars (sorry, I just can't imagine them NOT being wider, and the bikes longer), mountain bike bars, and hybrid bars on average be wider than road/tri bars?

Ya, cause those three guys in front of you don't know where they're going.

Actually, this morning I was running a short brick on the lakefront and got tangled up in the Lincoln Park Zoo 5/10K.  As I got myself disentangled, I had to send one poor dude back to the race as he decided to follow me off course.  

If I hadn't been the perpetrator of a similar race crime, I would have smugly wondered how he could have gotten away from the race.  

Take advice of self-proclaimed experts with a HUGE grain of salt.

Don't set time goals for new distance races.

Lose those last 5 lbs before you start training.

You said in yor original post

"There's a reason that 70.3 and Ironman races don't allow any kind of bike except road or tri, in road or tri setups. Even if they don't enforce it, there's a RULE and a REASON behind it!"

What reason did you have in mind there? Certainly that they take up a few more inches in transition wouldn't make your iteration a "pearl of wisdom"?