dumb things you have done

Nothing to compare to that, but my life is greatly complicated by the fact that I work outside the US. It's pretty common for me to depart for Vietnam without some crucial item that is not so easily replaced. I have two sets of most of my bike tools and spare parts, but somehow I always seem to end up with two of one tool on one side of the Pacific, and none of another tool on the other side. Last year I managed to leave the US without any running socks and only one bike jersey, although I'd planned a two-week bike tour at break.

As far as training, getting stuck in a fishing net while doing an OWS in Vietnam is pretty high up the list. It wasn't life-threatening, but the fisherman was pretty pissed off and I was laughing so hard I had trouble extricating myself from it! Then there was the time I somehow lost my pants at a race in Singapore. (They have public restrooms on the beach where you can shower and change after the race, and when I got out of the shower, my pants had disappeared, so I had to wear a wet tri-suit on the subway back to the hotel. Theft is almost non-existent there so guessing it was a case of mistaken identity. Not sure it was my own stupidity for leaving clothes unattended while I showered (everyone else did too), but definitely somebody's stupidity. How can you not notice you're wearing someone else's PANTS??

Okay...have thought of one more. Not the first time I have admitted to it. I was chasing down people in front of me at the end of a sprint tri and I managed to run about 100m off course because it turned out I was following one of the top men, who had finished some time before and was doing a cooldown. Nearly ran into him when he stopped to walk and he was nice enough to inform me that was not the way to the finish line and direct me back on course. Oops!

My first half ironman I was a complete detail freak, which bit me in the arse. I put a small cut in each of my energy shots to ease in opening, but then forgot I put them in my tri top pockets before the swim. i was reaching for the first pack while on the bike and realized my error only to find empty packs from them seeping out all over my shirt and spent the rest of the race looking like someone stabbed me in the back due to the fruit punch flavor/coloring. Lesson learned.

I was doing a race with an OWS and was a little late getting in the water (was meeting my family that just arrived). There is a pipe that is the boundary for the swim area that is the starting line for the swim start. Everyone puts their body weight on the pipe and so the pipe is sunk under water. I forgot all about the pipe and swam out to the start as the race horn sounded. The pipe came up and cracked me in the ribs. I was able to finish but had to take short breaths and actually won my age group. The swim was hard, bike okay but the run was a major pain with the cracked ribs. It took about a month to heal. I felt dumb because I knew about the pipe but forgot all about it.

Hope you get your wheel back. Check with your bike shop. Someone may have took it there thinking you would be looking for a new wheel.

Hmm, last December I took my fairly new road bike onto some tame single track thinking it would be fun. But I didn't realize how wet the trails still were from recent snow/rain. I figured it would be mostly frozen over. About half way through I hit a muddy part of the trail. Instead of turning back, I tried like an idiot to slowly make my way through. Well, it was somewhat working, but after awhile I just had to give up and walk the bike out. The mud kept caking onto the brake calipers to the point where the wheels just wouldn't turn anymore and I fell over a couple times.

The worse part is when I got home. It was cold out, maybe in the upper 30's or so. And I had no choice but to get the hose out to wash the bike down. Eh, that water was cold and it took me forever to get the bike completely cleaned off.

Went on a fairly long bike ride around a lake in hot hot hot temps. I felt extremely dehydrated through most of the ride and ran out of fluids before finishing the loop. I even felt a bit light headed towards the end.

When I finished I leaned my bike against the back of the car, got inside, turned on the AC, and started chugging my recovery drink. Phew...started to cool down and feel somewhat normal. I go to drive away....kachunk...I ran over my bike

 

 

Edit: I know someone who pulled into their garage forgetting that the bike was still on their roof rack!!

Edited by Rencor 2015-08-07 11:05 AM

Sorry! I hope you get your wheel back. I thought that story was going to end with, then I squeezed my brake lever with the wheel off and it was impossible to get the wheel back in.

I've forgotten plenty of stuff. A swimsuit, socks, sports bra (more than once), and bike shoes. The bike shoes I realized that I forgot when I got to the velodrome. I rode in the shoes that wore there, some converse style shoes, when i found some toe clips laying around. Last Tuesday I raced my bike in a push up bra. It was less than my best.

Edited by jeng 2015-08-07 1:13 PM