Funny Transition Stories?

[Brian Krisler]

Does anyone have any funny transition stories?

Something that after the race, you thought, what was I thinking?

I am putting together some transition tips for newcomers to the sport and would like to include a
story or two of things that people did (or saw happen) in the transition.

Thanks for any replies

Brian

 

[Warwick]

I remember doing a mini tri and a friend of mine was doing the same tri and it was her first ever.
I gave her this solemn advice about making sure you remember where you parked your bike. She had no
problems, but I came into the compound and took so long to find my bike I thought it might have
been stolen!!

"Brian Krisler" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Does anyone have any funny transition stories?
>
> Something that after the race, you thought, what was I thinking?
>
> I am putting together some transition tips for newcomers to the sport and would like to include a
> story or two of things that people did (or saw happen) in the transition.
>
> Thanks for any replies
>
> Brian

 

[Old Timer]

This one is transition "related".

I managed, somehow, in one of my early triathlons to find myself in the front of the pack off of the
bike. While dismounting from the bike I was considering the possibility that I might actually be in
the lead of my age group. This thought led me to abandon my earlier decision to put socks on my
feet. The run was a 10K. It was pretty hot that day, and I was dripping with sweat. A couple of
miles down the road on foot I started to feel significant pain in one of my feet - a blister of
course, from not wearing socks. At about mile 4 I realized I was going to have to remove my shoe -
effectively reducing my pace to a walk and eliminating any chance of a medal. It was so hot that day
that from nearly the first few steps of the run I was wiping sweat off of my forehead, and only at
the point of abandoning the race did I realize that I was wiping my brow with THE SOCK I had picked
up at the transition area. Problem solved! The solution was in my hand the whole time.

No, I did not earn a medal that day.

 

[Old Timer]

Another one - this happened to a good friend of mine, and it is poetic justice at its finest. I'm
laughing just thinking about it!

This friend of mine is a ladies' man. He is happily married, but he loves the ladies. He's a
charmer, a super nice guy, and the girls like him because of those facts and that he's married - and
safe. He's a very cool dude, and makes efforts to ensure that he's cool. We'll call him Joe.

Anyway - Joe arrives in the transition area off of the bike just a little bit behind an attractive
female that he has been trying to catch for the last part of the bike ride. Joe wants very badly
to catch up with her for the run. Joe manages to have a very quick T2 - probably his fastest ever.
Joe is successful in his attempt to catch cute girl just out of the gate. He strikes up a
conversation with her from the start because he is very cool. A mile or so down the road, cute
girl says "Can I ask you a question?" He says "yeah, sure" Her question.... "Why do you still have
your bike helmet on?"

That always reminds me of the guy from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Brad, delivering take out food
dressed in that big goofy hat trying to impress some chick while he forgets he has the hat on.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[Cow Parsley Man]

In my first Tri I wanted to make sure I was comfy after the swim, I couldn't get my over-the-head,
too tight surfing wetsuit off, couldn't get my earplugs out, then I thoroughly dried my hair, put my
running socks on, drank 2 bottles of drink. My wife had to stop filming she was so stressed, I took
6mins in T1! which meant that I could have walked around the lake quicker. At the finish line my
wife wasn't there, she had taken our daugther to the loo.

 

[Angelcats]

[email protected] (Brian Krisler) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> Does anyone have any funny transition stories?
>
> Something that after the race, you thought, what was I thinking?
>
> I am putting together some transition tips for newcomers to the sport and would like to include a
> story or two of things that people did (or saw happen) in the transition.
>
> Thanks for any replies
>
> Brian

Ah, finally I post I'm an expert on.

Tip #1 - Make sure your gels are in a sensible place. Thinking I was just so smart, I tucked a gel
under the side of my tri-suit (swimsuit style) at the hip in T1. I didn't need that gel on the bike,
but for the life of me, couldn't find it when I came off the bike. It was no longer tucked at my
hip. It had slipped down to a certain unmentionable area. Not the most graceful thing to have to
remove coming into T2 . . .

Tip #2 - Make sure your bike shoes don't have anything in them when you put them on. My 2nd race, an
Oly, I got on the bike, and it felt like SOMETHING WAS in my shoe, really uncomfortable, but I kept
going. As it turns out, I had stuffed a whole bunch of tissues in my shoe (in case I needed them
during transition, for my nose I guess?) and forgot to take them out.

Tip #3 - Make sure you place your bike race number in a sensible place. I used to have a bike with a
toptube gearshift. I had taped my cardboard race number over the top tube, and didn't realize until
I was ON the bike that I had taped the number over the gearshifters.

Tip #4 - Make sure you secure the tops on your bike bottles. Nothing worse then going for a drink
and having sticky, vital sports drink spill down your front and legs . . . .

So there you go! If there was ever a clutz of triathlon, I am it.

 

[Warwick]

Enjoyed your stories.

One thing I find a little amusing when reading posts from Americans is how you guys mix your units.

Australia made a hard and sudden change to metric in one go and now for the most part, imperial is
just a memory. I have seen so many American's talk about stuff like being 4 miles into a 10k run.
It's kind of like you are stuck in limbo with a foot in both camps. Completely changing to metric
isn't as hard as detractors would have you think.

Anyways, this is a bit off topic.

I think everyone probably has a story about heading off on the next leg of a tri/du/aquathlon still
wearing a piece of gear from the last leg!! We just had a duathlon last weekend in Canberra,
Australia and one of the guys jumped on the bike at the mount line in his runners with his bike
shoes still clipped in. He still had another run to go, so had to go back into transition to drop
his runners off.

"Old Timer" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> This one is transition "related".
>
> I managed, somehow, in one of my early triathlons to find myself in the front of the pack off of
> the bike. While dismounting from the bike I was considering the possibility that I might actually
> be in the lead of my age group. This thought led me to abandon my earlier decision to put socks on
> my feet. The run was a 10K. It was pretty hot that day, and I was dripping with sweat. A couple of
> miles down the road on foot I started to feel significant pain in one of my feet - a blister of
> course, from not wearing socks. At about mile 4 I realized I was going to have to remove my shoe -
> effectively reducing my pace to a walk and eliminating any chance of a medal. It was so hot that
> day that from nearly the first few steps of the run I was wiping sweat off of my forehead, and
> only at the point of abandoning the race did I realize that I was wiping my brow with THE SOCK I
> had picked up at the transition area. Problem solved! The solution was in my hand the whole time.
>
> No, I did not earn a medal that day.

 

[Harold Buck]

In article <[email protected]>, "Warwick" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Enjoyed your stories.
>
> One thing I find a little amusing when reading posts from Americans is how you guys mix
> your units.
>

Um, most of us keep our units unmixed, but there are operations for those that want to mix them up.

--Harold Buck

"I used to rock and roll all night, and party every day. Then it was every other day. . . ."

- Homer J. Simpson

 

[Alan And Paula]

Some time in my early triathlon days (before I learned that I could put my running/biking shirt
under the wet suit) I came out of the swim in a tired and dazed state. Wandering around looking for
my bike my brother who was already in T1 came to my rescue and pointed me in the right direction. OK
now off with the wet suit and on with the shirt. What does this thing feel so tight??? I had pinned
my race number to the front and the back of the shirt! Rip, tear, $@#^%#%!!! Finally off to the
bike. I'll be more careful next time.

Alan

Brian Krisler wrote:

> Does anyone have any funny transition stories?
>
> Something that after the race, you thought, what was I thinking?
>
> I am putting together some transition tips for newcomers to the sport and would like to include a
> story or two of things that people did (or saw happen) in the transition.
>
> Thanks for any replies
>
> Brian

 

[Dave Andersen]

Alan and Paula Levin <[email protected]> wrote:
> Some time in my early triathlon days (before I learned that I could put my running/biking shirt
> under the wet suit) I came out of the swim in a tired and dazed state. Wandering around looking
> for my bike my brother who was already in T1 came to my rescue and pointed me in the right
> direction. OK now off with the wet suit and on with the shirt. What does this thing feel so
> tight??? I had pinned my race number to the front and the back of the shirt! Rip, tear, $@#^%#%!!!
> Finally off to the bike. I'll be more careful next time.

] Clipped previous poster's story about taping their race number ] over their gear shifts.

Two words: race belt. Wear under wetsuit, or clip on at T1. (Unless race requires that number be
attached to bike, of course, but quite handy if there's a front/back rule, or just to avoid annoying
pinning problems). Desoto makes 'em; they're affordable, and one should last pretty much forever.

-dave

--
work: dga - at - lcs.mit.edu me: angio - at - pobox.com MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
http://www.angio.net/ (note that my reply-to address is vaguely despammed...) bulk emailers: I do
not accept unsolicited email. Do not mail me.

 

[Roofi]

Tip for the day:

It is very embarrassing to sprint through T1, passing loads of competitors, perform a flying
bike mount, only to then stop and put the left shoe on the LEFT pedal and the right shoe on the
RIGHT pedal.

"Old Timer" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]... This one is transition "related".

I managed, somehow, in one of my early triathlons to find myself in the front of the pack off of the
bike. While dismounting from the bike I was considering the possibility that I might actually be in
the lead of my age group. This thought led me to abandon my earlier decision to put socks on my
feet. The run was a 10K. It was pretty hot that day, and I was dripping with sweat. A couple of
miles down the road on foot I started to feel significant pain in one of my feet - a blister of
course, from not wearing socks. At about mile 4 I realized I was going to have to remove my shoe -
effectively reducing my pace to a walk and eliminating any chance of a medal. It was so hot that day
that from nearly the first few steps of the run I was wiping sweat off of my forehead, and only at
the point of abandoning the race did I realize that I was wiping my brow with THE SOCK I had picked
up at the transition area. Problem solved! The solution was in my hand the whole time.

No, I did not earn a medal that day.

 

[Webmaster]

I have some pictures of great cameltoes from races on my website: They're pretty funny.

http://www.cameltoe.org

Check 'em out.

Joe Camel

On 25 Jun 2003 08:20:38 -0700, [email protected] (Brian Krisler) wrote:

>Does anyone have any funny transition stories?
>
>Something that after the race, you thought, what was I thinking?
>
>I am putting together some transition tips for newcomers to the sport and would like to include a
>story or two of things that people did (or saw happen) in the transition.
>
>Thanks for any replies
>
>Brian