First race of this season, a lowly sprint. I was flabby and not in top form due to injury and sickness. I felt ok, did fine in the water, just took it easy. Ride was ok, but towards the end i REALLY had to pee, but couldnt. Got into transition, and my adrenaline was pumping (ya'll know how it is) and just put my shoes on and started the run... I'd be back in ~20 minutes, right?

Wrong. 25 minutes of cramps. The run was along the waterfront condos and then onto the beach, nowhere to take a leak, and i couldnt just let it go. i tried. I tried not too try. I hadnt been passed on the run during a tri up to this point, I was always catching people. Not that day. like 8 guys passed me. One was like "thats all you got?" PISSED me off! But I just couldnt go. That 1.5 miles down the beach was the longest I have ever run.

My first Oly was tough, but not as demoralizing, as I was still catching people even though i was sucking it up. That sprint and that oly are my motivation to never be underprepared again. I am already in better shape than the whole of last season, and ready to go! Only a few more months to turn into some kind of Tri Monster!

I had a minor war wound happen to me yesterday during a workout. Does a workout count? I was swimming laps, minding my own business when out of nowhere a person decides to join me in my lane. Their method was not the usual 'tap you on the head' or 'sit at the edge and hang your legs in so you can be seen’ way of joining lap swim. This person came out of nowhere and did a seat drop on me just before my turn. This is a lap only pool and I was in the middle of a timed 1000 split so it totally shocked me. She scored a direct hit on the back of my legs and butt. Had it been the middle of my back it would have probably paralyzed me.

why is it so reassuring to know that other people suffer through this **** too?
Why am happier that you all are having a hell of a time with this sport? Its not that I want to see you fail at it or get hurt, physically or oherwise.
I guess it just makes me feel a little less insane to know that other people can be just as nuts about this sport.

Hey CA. Did you get the number of the woman who dive bombed you? Maybe she just wanted to ask you out or check out your shaved legs! :D

My worst was also a training accident about 12 weeks ago.
I was training for a local bike race with a bunch of guys I know from a LBS.
We were climbing a fairly easy hill, getting into a good rhythm going about 18MPH.
I wasn’t paying real good attention when the guy directly in front of me has a blow-out and swerves a bit. I react poorly, smash into the back of him and go down hard on my left side, didn’t even have time to unclip. Two people behind me crash into me, so four of us are sprawled out in the middle of the road. I ended up with a broken collarbone (which really sucks, wearing a sling for 5 weeks, rehab for another 4…)
I have finally started back training, it’s scary how fast your cardio goes away when you set around and do nothing.
- T

This is coming from Trimedic??
Aren't you in a healthcar profession??
I'd be scared to have you stitch me up!!! :D

You couldn't get away from the race doc??
Next time don't scream and you have to run faster than the doctor.
:D

My War Story- 1989 Endurance iron distance race Sunapee,NH
This was my second tri season and 1st race at the distance.
My bike had like a 10-21 and there was this monster hill that I ended walking up 3 out of the last 5 loops. ( I was not alone on the push your bike hill segment) It was hot, dam hot and I had really no idea about training,eating, pacing or much else but I was going to finish.
At about mile 20 on the run I knew I was in trouble and just wanted to lay my tired self dowm. Fearing disqualification for medical reasons, I spotted a nice piece of lawn beside a house and layed myself down. For two hours!!! Woke up, felt good enough to finish and rode that wave to the finish in under 16 hours.

Four and half hours faster in 1990. Learned some hard/good lessons.

A nappy will do you good!! :D

I can't say I've had any real war stories..
That doesn't mean I haven't puked industrial strength chunks after the swim...or crashed or had flats or bonked or a plethora of other "bad" stuff happen during races...I've had all the above, but isn't that what all this is about? Sticking your neck out in something more challenging than a session on the couch, remote in hand? And really, the little dings that happen to us all are nothing.
I can't write about "war story" tri stuff after reading about the Kona finisher with ALS or seeing young Marines on hand crank bikes missing their legs.

2002- My first Oly at Lake Lanier Islands outside of Atlanta. I violated so many rules that day the worst being "don't race with anything you haven't trained with first". I was riding my neighbors old Trek 400 with down tube shifters (which I had no idea how to work) as a result I am in the big chain ring the entire ride and my chain keeps falling off. Worse still is I go up a hill, lose forward momentum and fall over before I can unclip. After (barely) making it through the bike I take off on the run and end up boking worse than I ever had before (or since). Some how I walked most of the run and stumbled (literally) accross the finish line. My wife said that I looked like I was going to pass out. I learned alot that day. Many mistakes never to be repeated.

I don't think I have any total war stories, but I guess I have 2 pretty difficult race situations, neither of them tri's though...

I ran my last high school xc race senior year (5k) with a lot of motivation, pressure mostly from myself, but some from the coaches as well, a couple stress fractures in my tibias, and ridiculous shin splints. I started out way too fast, got myself screwy lungs from breathing in the near freezing dry air, and a very upset stomach for the entire last mile (it felt like a hundred) and still managed to take the 30 seconds off my PR necessary to make the hall of fame cut (sub 20) in a season where I had already PRed every race and taken almost 3 min off my best time the previous season despite running less than 10 miles per week. Needless to say, I couldn't stand for the next two days or walk for a week afterwards and my legs weren't painless for another two months of no 'leg sports.' I haven't come within a minute of that time since. I honestly don't think I have ever or likely will ever push myself that hard in a race again in the near future. So much pain - maybe someday, but how can I ever find that type of motivation again...

The other race is a bike race where the result isn't as important, but it was good enough just to finish. There was a fast downhill followed by a 60 degree turn back up the hill. I was in a great position in the peleton and it was the first time around the loop down the hill. I guess I didn't pay enough attention when driving the course beforehand because that turn came up way too fast. So in a instinctive (I hope not anymore) gesture of teenage invicibility or who-knows-what, I figured I could go from 50 mph to 20 mph in about 20 feet and make the turn. Well of course I squeeze the brakes as hard as I can go flying off my bike at about 30 mph. Some miraculous acrobatic ability kicks in and I basically do a flip off my bike and do a flip and land mostly on my feet on top of my bike. Not even a scratch of damage to me - I still have no idea how I evaded damage on that one - I have plenty of ugly scars from crashes much less spectacular... And no flat tires either - somehow in my shock, that was the first think that I checked. I waved the course marshalls away and hoped on my bike and of course it didn't work. I broke a couple of teeth off my big chainring, totally smushed my front derailleur, bent my rear derailleur hanger to the point that it completely covered the 4 smallest cogs and the derailleur itself was stuck in my spokes. It took a couple of tries, but after several false starts I managed to get going in my small chainring and my 15 in the back - anything smaller was covered my my derailleur hanger and anything larger and the derailleur hit the spokes (it did a little in the 15 anyways). So I ended up chasing hard for another 2 hours or so up and down that hill 2 more times on effectively a single speed and a rickity one at that. I never caught the pack again, but it exploded enough on the hills that there were plenty of people off the back that I caught and passed and I managed to finish in the middle of the field. The only injury was bruising on my forearms from riding in aero position without aerobars (and on totally destroyed bar-tape on one side of course) and of course my pride.

Ok why am I writing so much... me and my darn tendancy to ramble when I should be sleeping...