Everyone knows that I am a Swim Bike Klutz.  But I know there are more of you out there.  
TriCrowd is teaming up with SwimBikeMom to give away t-shirts, gyms bags, and waterbottles for the best (worst?) humiliating triathlon moments.
Again, just as before, please don’t submit something like: “OMG, I finished second and it was sooooo embarrassing.” That won’t fly.
What’s the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you, triathlon-wise?
There are three ways to submit your story.
1) Reply to the post on TriCrowd’s Facebook page;
2) Add SwimBikeMom to your “likes” on Facebook here, and tell us about it; or
3) Comment on the SwimBikeMom blog here.
SwimBikeMom is giving away swag to the TOP FIVE folks with super-duper embarrassing moments. If you aren’t a “mom” or a woman, for that matter, you can pass your goodies along to a super tri-ing woman in your life, or we can sub out some SwimBikeDad gear. 
So let’s hear it.  To get you moving… I’ll go first.  I have alot of embarrassing moments for only being in this sport less than a year.  But this is a good one – a re-run of my first tri last October.
From My First Tri, October 2010
….. I was able to pass many folks on the bike, and it felt good….I didn’t check my time rolling into the crowded transition area, but I saw one of the race volunteers waving his arms and screaming, “Dismount your bike! Dismount here! Dismount here!”   People were cheering and it was a pretty large crowd.

Well, I kind of panicked at the volunteer screaming, and just like my first Silver Comet Trail adventure, I clipped out my right foot and my left foot was stuck.  

I hit the pavement. Sweet.  

The crowd kind of went “gasp”! and then “ooooooh!” and then when I stood up, they let out a big “ahhhhh” of relief, and clapped.  The same volunteer who scared me, had rushed over and tried to pick me up under my armpits when I fell.  He was about 120 pounds, and I kept telling him “no no no no, I’ve got it,” but I wanted to scream, “If you try and pick me up, I am SO going to unintentionally bring you down with me”… so that was awkward.  But finally, I was on my feet.  I felt like a clown, especially at the sports photographer who managed to continue taking pictures of me. But all was okay.  

Actual injuries = 0  
Pride injuries = 1″
  

10 Responses

  1. The very first triathlon I did was the Danskin in Pleasant Prairie Wisconsin in 2002. I didn't train all that well and was definitely not prepared, clothing-wise. I wore a regular bathing suit for the swim and decided to "throw on" a sports bra over my suit for the bike and run, not taking into account that I'd be oh, I don't know, SOAKING WET after the swim! I ran to the transition area, grabbed my sports bra and promptly got my arm stuck up and behind my head with my sports bra rolled up under my armpit. Needless to say it took me a couple of embarrassing minutes to finally get the bra unrolled and set my arm free. Not to mention it killed my shoulder to have my arm stuck up and behind my head like that. I can only imagine what the other athletes and spectators thought when they saw me flailing around, hog-tied by my evil sports bra. Not one of my more dignified moments, to say the least!

  2. Last year, I did the Boise 70.3 (the year we had the 28-35 mph winds on the bike). I wanted to do this race because my husband grew up in Idaho, which meant I could race with his cousin Jeff (and wife) while my husband could hang out and cheer with the rest of the family. The only problem was that I lived in Houston (which is flat) and Boise has hills. I was so afraid of those hills that I would have nightmares about having to walk up a hill mid-race.

    So its race day and its windy and hilly. I make it up the big monster hill no problem. Right before the second aid station, Jeff caught up with me and we decided to stop for a drink together. This aid station was horribly placed – right after a 90 degree left turn and in the middle of an uphill climb. Given that it was really windy and in the middle of a hill, we decided to phyically stop for water rather than risk a hand-up crash.

    Once we were watered up, me being the stubborn person I am, looked at the other people walking up the hill and I decided that I would NOT be one of them. I clipped my right foot in, couldn't get my left foot around in time and did the really awesome slow-mo sideways crash. At the aid station (and all the volunteers). In front of my cousin. To make things even more impressive, I somehow cut my leg during the fall and had a pretty impressive blood streak going down my calf. I ended up walking up the hill.

    Jeff beat me into transition and was greeted by 2 sets of aunts/uncles and 5 cousins. They asked how I was doing and he replied "Erin crashed at the aid station and she's bleeding – its AWESOME."

    Yep, it sure was awesome. (actually, the race was awesome – I highly recommend Boise).

  3. From our Fan Page on Facebook:
    Mickey says:
    ""All of mine involve swimming…since I kind of suck at it. I decided to wear surfer booties for my 2nd tri. Nevermind that I never practiced swimming in them to see if they would work. Of course, they both filled up with water within the 1st 25m of the swim. It felt like I had 10 lb. weights tied around both legs. I could not get myself horizontal to swim since my feet were weighed down and pointed straight down in the water. I basically doggy-paddled the whole swim. Then I got to T1 and couldn't get the stupid things off b/c they had formed a nice, tight seal around my legs from the water. I had to sit on my a** in T1 and pry them off my feet (and dumped about a gallon of water out of each one). Did I mention that T1 took me about 6 1/2 minutes because of those booties? I could have had a cup of coffee and a bagel in that time. Never again."

    "I've got more…like the tri I just did a couple of weeks ago. Another mishap in the water. I started out in the front row with all the baddies, thinking I could hang. Someone pulled my ankle and dragged me back (within the 1st 10m or so). Then someone else started heading in the wrong direction; swam over me (twice — once going the wrong way, the other time coming back to get back on track). Then I started hyperventilating. A swim buddy saw me freaking out and asked if I was OK. Then a paddle boarder followed me for pretty much the entire swim course (b/c apparently, I looked like I might need to grab on at any minute). Then I finally pulled myself together and started actually swimming the last 100m or so and the men's wave behind me (the wave that started 5 minutes after mine), the crazy fast swimmers in that wave started catching up to me and I started freaking out all over again. It was awesome. Did I mention that I was 2nd to LAST in the swim in my wave. How much fun does that sound? Luckily, my bike & run saved me (and I wound up placing 3rd in my AG).

  4. From the fan page, Dana says: "I would say the trisuit tan lines I still have are pretty embarassing! Some of us (Me) should remember to apply sunscreen after getting of the bike in T2. Nothing like second-degree sunburns to make sure you remember you first race by. I hope they fade by next summer!"

  5. From the Facebook fan page, Stephanie says: "Stephanie says: "I don't know if this would be considered embarassing to som , but if was to me and perhaps just a blow to my ego. I had no idea what I was doing my first tri and had no tri friends…I just new that I needed to try it. I hadn't been on a bike in nearly 20 years so when I went to buy one my biggest concern was feeling comfortable. I bought the biggest, heaiest, clunkiest bike you ever saw. Bad choice…YES! I did most of my training on a recumbant bike at the gym…too scared to ride the bike on the road, but still I trained HARD and felt so ready. I picked an event that I thought would be "pretty" and "scenic" Hello Adirondack Mountains! When I arrivd at the event I was thinking…what WAS I thinking??!! When I finally got to the bike portion of the race I had to start at the bottom of a 1 mile climb with essentially a mountain bike. I felt like I was going backwards…people on tri bikes were wizzing past me effortlessly. I felt so stupid. It was still the best feeling in the world finishing my first tri and I've been hooked since then, but I wasted NO time trading that bike in!!"

  6. From the Facebook fan page, Luke Skywalker says: "Luke says: "When I first started racing I had to trade in my old hybrid for a real road bike. The difference was enormous, and I really felt like I was flying on the new machine. Then on one of my first training rides I hit a bump, and noticed an odd change in the sound of the bike on the road. I figured I would check things out when I finished my ride, but the problem became apparent immediately at the next corner. Turns out the odd noise was the sound of my tire running flat. Nothing quite beats the feeling of trying to take a corner at 15-17 mph and realizing that you're trying to turn on your rim, not your tire. Of course the rim won't keep you up, so I augured in directly on my shoulder (traumatic bursitis, lots of nice road rash). Luckily there were only about 3 or 4 people out to witness my crash and the limping, bike-carrying, blood running back to my house. Too stupid to know I have a flat tire=embarrassing"

  7. From TriCrowd, Michelle says: "HI, I'm a Mom to 4 – my youngest is 9, so triathlon is the only thing that keeps me sane. This is a little gross, but here goes.. when you do a race of 70.3 or longer, you need to either stop, or learn how to pee on the bike. Especially in order to secure a fast T1 after a long swim….. I have actually become quite good at it. This past Sunday, I raced the Providence 70.3. Around 20 miles on the bike, I needed to go. The best place to attempt this is on a long downhill where you don't have to worry about pedaling or navigating turns. Well, knew where this hill was, so I sort of planned it…and I got behind a guy who looked fast and I figured would just hammer down the hill ahead of me leaving me to my quasi-privacy. Halfway down, he's still right in front of me. I'm like, "dude, it's a Cat 1 downhill, you can't move any quicker?" I didn't say that , but that's what I was thinking. Then I felt some drops on my leg and I realized they weren't mine. He was using that hill to do the same thing – and he knew it the second I passed him at the bottom. That's a fine how-do-you do!"

  8. From TriCrowd, Matthew says: "I was in the middle of an ocean swim. Stupid me didn't sight often enough, or at all (beginner nerves I guess), and as I got that lonely feeling, I looked up and saw I was heading straight out into the Atlantic Ocean. The kayakers were coming at me to tell me to turn around because I was a good 50 ft off the beaten path. My dreams of a personal best time were dashed 5 minutes into the race."

  9. From TriCrowd, Lisa says: "A few years ago I was doing a very small, new and super hilly race. As I was running, I was totally alone and the signs telling us where to go were all paper plates tacked on to trees. I was running along, feeling pretty good about myself even though I could not see a single person around me. A car stopped and the lady stepped out an asked if I was ok. I said I was fine. She said are you sure you are ok? I said yes. She said well I am part of the race volunteers. So I why, am I going the wrong way? And she well, yes, you are going the wrong way. She put me in her car and drove me a couple of miles back to where I should have turned. By then, I had gone so far the wrong way and I was really behind everyone else. My friend finally came looking for me. Everyone was so excited to see me finish and cheered me on at the end, but I was so embarrasssed to be so far behind the next person. The asked for my name at the end and I gave a fake name!!!"

  10. I was doing my second triathlon, the first one I didn't finish due to bike malfunctions. I had made it through the swim and the bike, and although not pretty, I had completed them. At around mile 4 of the 6.2 mile run, I became aware that I was the last runner. At this point a man came up next to me on a golf cart. He was my escort as the last person out there. He was about 60 years old, but had white hair and had a gut that told me he had probably not run anywhere in a very long time.
    He says to me "You know you are the last one out here?"
    To which I responded "Yes, but I am going to finish, even if I have to walk it in."
    The man then says "But why?"
    I'm thinking "Really we are going to have this conversation. I am trying to finish a race, on a hot June day and I have to waste energy talking to him."
    He says "I could just drive you in. It doesn't matter."
    I guess I was wasting his time. "No thanks. I had to quit my first race due to technical difficulties, I'm not quitting again."
    He nagged me a few times during my last 2 miles, but still stayed right next to me on his golf cart as I ran in as the last runner.

    Thank goodness, a friend ran with me for the last quarter mile. He was a much better escort that the golf cart, and a little less obvious. I finished the race, but not even the announcer bothered to notice. I was 15 minutes behind the previous finisher. A little bit of a kick to my ego, but I finished, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

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