Your DOH! moments in triathlon ... (Page 3)

Wouldn't getting new cleats be cheaper?

ETA: Oh, wait, you kept both bikes.  Carry on.  That's what I get for posting before my first cup of coffee.

Haven't done my first tri yet - it's in exactly two weeks - but just had a DOH moment. I had scrupulously made notes for my triathlon - ie what I'd need to pack, how I'd set up transition, what I planned to do in transition, etc - on my computer at work. Yes, I know shame on me for doing this on my work PC.

I just realized that Friday night, upon leaving work for a 3 week vacation, that I decided to leave my computer at work. So now I'm good for redoing all of it. But maybe that isn't so bad, it'll make me work through it all again.

Haven't done my first tri yet - it's in exactly two weeks - but just had a DOH moment. I had scrupulously made notes for my triathlon - ie what I'd need to pack, how I'd set up transition, what I planned to do in transition, etc - on my computer at work. Yes, I know shame on me for doing this on my work PC.

I just realized that Friday night, upon leaving work for a 3 week vacation, that I decided to leave my computer at work. So now I'm good for redoing all of it. But maybe that isn't so bad, it'll make me work through it all again.

I left my wetsuit in the car at Ironman Canada 2008.  I was at the race with with my youngest two girls who were 15 and 13 at the time.  We parked (far away), unloaded the SUV, and made our way nearly to the entry to transition.  IMC has corrals everywhere and it's a bit hard on spectators, so I kissed them goodbye and handed over my keys to them and went in to get body marked.  After the volunteer marked me I went to pick up my bags off the ground and went "OMG where is my wetsuit!" and realized I never had it.

So there I was alone, no phone, no keys, and my daughters had disappeared more than 5 minutes before.  And the lake at Penticton is way too cold for me to swim without a wetsuit.

I ran and ran up along the corrals, here there and everywhere, and amazingly I found them walking along the other side of the corral.  I had them pass the keys through the fence and I managed to run back to the car and get the wetsuit and save my race.  In fact it was my fastest IM swim ever.  Perhaps that run back to the car was a good warmup!

Thought of another one...

I'm racing in Maui at my 2nd triathlon.  This was the big Olympic one I'd been training for with TNT.  On the run at an aid station one guy is handing out little cups of goo.  I think it's a strange way to hand out gels, but OK what do I know?  So I squeeze the whole cup into my mouth.

Turns out it's Vaseline.

L.M.A.O. reading this thread ... wait, no, I checked, it's still there.

So glad I started this. Please, keep them coming ...

And thank you for all the burkini compliments.

Ran a 5K a few weeks ago with my shirt totally on backwards, did not realize it until I saw the pictures.

Once had a really bad run on my second tri, I was wearing new socks and when I finished I looked down and said to my wife.  "I know why my run was so bad, I had my socks on the wrong feet."  They were labelled Right and Left and I had them on the wrong feet, we just laughed.

That is a classic.

About 1/2 mile into the run on a sprint, the Hash House Harriers were handing out drinks. I had no idea what HHH was, I just thought it was an aid station with someone dressed as a giant beer mug. I took a cup and downed it. Beer! Who gives out beer at 8 in the morning?

That was a long and sloshy run. I think I let out two big foam burps at mile 2.

It's more common then you'd think.  Especially if you race anywhere near a university.

At my sprint tri 3 months ago i finished the race near the FOP and checked my time and it said that I was 1st overall. I was stoked so i took a picture of the results and sent a mass text to all my friends and family.

I had to leave before the award ceremony so i went to the race official and asked if i could get my plaque.  They handed me the 1st place overall plaque and i left.  After thinking about it and from the pictures that my wife took with the time stamp on the pictures we came to figure out that they had missed my entire run time.  I had to call the race organization and give the plaque back. 

I sent another mass text explaining what happened. One of my friends said that they new something had to be wrong if i won. 

The good thing was that i did still finish 18th overall and 2nd in my age group, even with a mountain bike.

...and this is why I'm a hasher!

We have beer stations at local half and full marathons, the occasional 5k, but never a tri! I'm going to have to talk my fellow hashers into coming out to a tri

I can't swim straight to save my life - I have to sight about every other breath.   I have a tendancy to veer right, and I know this.

My last tri was a triangle swim, not the normal out-and-back I've done in the past.  So I go, doing well, get around the first turn, and keep going.  I'm feeling awesome, but I realize I haven't sighted in about 6-8 breaths, WAY too long.  I look up, nothing.  I look next breath, and there are the buoys WAAAAAY off to my left. (see above, this is not actually uncommon for me).

I freak out, and veer FAR left as fast as I can, I keep sighting, I'm getting closer!  BAM!  I swim INTO someone.  Like head on into someone.  WTF?!  I stop, tread water to figure out what the *($#& just happened.

Oh no...I was *slightly* to the right of the buoys I was supposed to be following - the ones to my left were the ones coming OUT of the start....I just swam about 1/2 way back to the start - into the wave of Elite Men (which was the only wave behind me)....

Somehow I finished the swim at only 2:30 past my goal.

Luckily, I haven't experienced any major DOH moments at races **knocking wood**, however I have some during training.  As with most triathletes I am always in a hurry to get in a workout or plan for a workout later in the day. 

One morning, while grabbing my swim stuff on the way out the door, I reached into the dryer to grab my jammers.  Got to the Y at lunch to find my 8 year old daughter's dark swim suit instead of my jammers - no way to make that work.

Yesterday, I was rushing to get out the door for a two hour ride.  Since it was 3:00 and I still needed to go to the grocery store and make dinner, I was moving pretty quickly.  Dressed, suncreen, garmin, water, helmet, gloves,...check.  Close the garage, jump on the bike as I roll out of the driveway.  Click in my right foot...whoa, wait...I'm still wearing crocs.

TankBoy - 2011-08-16 9:46 PM My most recent "doh" moment was just this morning. I woke up a little early to get my run finished up before the heat, but first decided to check in on BT. An hour later I go "Doh! Where did the time go?!?!"

So I quickly downed some Vaseline, put my bike helmet on (backwards, of course), dumped a cup of Heed over my head, slipped into my crocs and dashed out the door for a quick 8 miler. Turned out to be a PR - so once again you BT peeps have come through with awesome training advice! Now if somebody knows how I can get the pee out of my chin strap I would be all set... Or should I start a new thread for that?

Really funny stuff, folks - as always, great way to start the day!

*SNERK*

I can actually see that happening to me ... I really am a train wreck most days!

This happened whilst training for my first tri...

I'm coming home after a ride on the bike. I just got my clipless pedals installed so I am still new to them. I already had a couple 'incidents' but nothing major, and I think I'm getting the hang of it, 'it' being dismounting by unclipping. I coast up the street towards my home, unclip my left shoe and slowly apply break as I near the home. Lost in thought about the session, feeling good about it, I reach the front of the house, apply the brakes, *Click!*

Wide-eyed in surprise (srsly, how many times in your life do you go 'wide-eyed'?), the bike stopped, I realize I'm clipped back in. Desperately, I move to unclip, but the moment of balancing on the edge of forever is over; slowly we careen to the left. I can still visualize every moment of that fall, me and my trusty steed felled like that horse on 'Blazing Saddles', BAM!, then laying on the street like I'm riding my bike, yet doing it wrong. I'm in shock, then panic, wondering if anyone saw me! I try to get up but I'm still clipped in! OMG, I can't get up! Finally, after what seems to be an eternity I am able to unclip first one foot and then the other. I look around and blessedly I see no one on the street. A miracle.

"Wow!", exclaims my wife curiously as she walks down the drive towards me, "are you supposed to do that!?"

She's new to triathlons too.

That first story is soooo a tri moment. Love it!

I totally failed at a tri a few weeks ago... it was in my hometown, super-small (like 20 participants) and it was miserable rainy weather.  My head was not in the game at all.  Standing in the water before the start, another athlete was like "Where's your swim cap?"  went back to transition (well, the guardrail where we leaned our bikes) to get it.  Got back in the water- "where's your goggles?"  oh.  Had a decent swim split, biked in the pouring rain, took off the wrong way out of t2.  There were clear signs saying "run" and "bike" but I followed the bike- then people were telling me I was going the wrong way and I said, "But I'm biking!"   um, no.  I was told the run was 4 miles- I didn't see a map before the race and somehow got in my head it was an  out-and-back.  I only saw one other runner way behind me on the course.  I passed 2 miles, kept running, and figured the run must be much longer than 4 miles, and I was through with it so I took off my number and turned around.  Turned out it was a loop course-   A volunteer told me what I'd done and felt all sorry for me- she wanted to give me a ride back to the start but I wanted to "finish" it at least in my mind.  At the finish the volunteers felt so sorry for me and kept apologizing but I was like, it's not your fault I'm an idiot!

The funny thing is I did tris for 3 years in Taiwan, where I barely spoke the language, and had no problems.  I come home and do a race in my hometown and it's like I never heard of triathlons before! 

First tri I forgot to take my bike gloves off, between the fingerless gloves and the one piece trisuit I had a very retro/80's look going.

For my first HIM I decided to put my gloves on the aerobarss so I could put them on while riding, dropped one, decided to just keep going and that was the end of bike gloves while racing for me

Also ran out of T2 with my bike helmet on a couple years ago 

-Dave

The side-effects of cold medicine at 140-150bpm are magnified compared to sitting around the house!