Here’s a list of the top 10 mistakes I made as a brand new triathlete. I hope that you will learn a little from these yourself and also share some of your priceless mistakes, because lets face it, they’re hilarious when you think back on them!

Wait, where’s my timing chip!?

During one of my first races I was all pumped because it was a smaller sprint race without much hefty competition. I was convinced I would place in my age group and might have worked myself into a bit of an overconfident swagger heading down to the lake. Oh, come to think of it some of my college buddies were there as well so I was extra excited to show off my mad skills!

So, anyway, the gun goes off and I scramble into the water zealously and swim away. Man, what a crazy swim! The “lake” was barely the size of an Olympic pool and even shallower so it was pandemonium to say the least. I make it through after much swerving and ducking and pull myself out of the water and into T1.

I do the usual Tri Dance to get out of my wetsuit, get my socks on (more on that in a minute!), glasses, helmet, and run out. Quick check of my person, wait, where the hell’s my timing chip!? So I panic. Quickly run back to my transition area after stashing my bike SOMEwhere and start madly shaking out my wetsuit looking for it – nothing. I searched my ENTIRE transition area. What was I THINKING!? Its not in the 100 assorted band-aid box!

Finally, I get some sense to talk to someone and sprint across the grass in my bike shoes to an official (how cool am I?) who just shrugs and says “Finish your race, they’ll have your time based on your wave.”
Moral of the story: Seriously, how bad is it REALLY that you’ve lost a piece of plastic with dodgy old Velcro holding it on your leg? Finish your race.

Late to Race Start

I think this is my favorite. Granted this was the Chicago Triathlon with over 10,000 participants, but still, late to the start??

Well, it started with me being all OCD and anal about the perfection of my transition area. There I am, setting up the IDEAL position for my glasses in my helmet and perfectly perching my bike equidistant away from the guys to my right and left so as not to have it fall over while trying to position my towel underneath it (hey, you hear all those horror stories about correctly setting up your Transition area so why not make sure that never EVER happens to you?).

Then, Brian didn’t care to notice that the transition area was getting extremely empty and announcers were warning him to leave or they’ll drag him out. Then, he didn’t care to check the time or make sure he knew where the start was. No, he’d prefer to join the line with 35 others waiting in front of a porta potty.

After finishing up I started moseying along with the crowd towards what LOOKED like the swim start. Well, after walking for a little I noticed that it is in fact the swim FINISH! I got a little shiver (partially also because the sun hadn’t even risen yet) and kept walking. This eventually turned into a brisker walk as I began to see the starting line almost a MILE away!

What felt like an hour later I began hearing what the announcer was saying. Guess what I heard? “3…2…1…GO!!” and yes, that was my wave. The first one. At 6am.

So there goes Brian, sprinting, barefoot. Getting more of a warm-up than originally expected while dodging a crowd of absolutely incredible proportions! (Wow, I never realized THAT many people cared! I love Chicago!) He reached the start chute where they actually had to funnel people like cattle because of the amount of racers, shoved his way through and in a frenzy tried to explain to an official that THIS cap color is IN the water already and what on earth should he do?? Once again, a shrug and “well.. GO!”

I leapt into the water and swam after what was already the second wave. The last thing I heard with a quick stroke of butterfly (to hide the SHAME!) was “Aww, give this poor guy some support.” Thank you announcer.

Moral of the story: DON’T BE LATE!! Oh, and the Chicago Triathlon Swim Start is REALLY far from transition.

P.S. Later I found out that I probably would have won my division if I hadn’t been late. Then again, would I have been as fast?

Slow Transition

OK, I’m only going to use this excuse once. It was my first triathlon, so what! There.

Basically I ran up the beach from my swim feeling awesome. I was so excited to be in my first Triathlon and to have my girlfriend (and biggest fan) chasing after me to get some shots of me like catching a glimpse of a celebrity. I felt special!

So here’s how to have the longest transition in the WORLD – or at least as cool as mine. Jog into transition and find your area. Then take your wetsuit off slowly, making sure NOT to let it touch the ground or have the Velcro stick to the wrong part. Put your racing shirt on – only now because you didn’t think it would dry (who knows what I was thinking) and worry about the slew of energy gels that are falling out of the back pockets. Then take as much time as possible to carefully dry your feet (because NOW’s when you should worry about athletes’ foot) and put your socks on PERFECTLY.

I forget what I did after that but I believe it consisted of my girlfriend rolling her eyes at me for being SO slow and me throwing her a proud glance of how quickly I got so ready to race. One thing is for sure – all those gels I took time to re-insert into my shirt were nowhere to be found once actually ON my bike.
Moral(s) of the story: Be quick and ruthless. You don’t have to pamper your wetsuit. It will hold up better than you think. One tip I got (later) was to actually cut a few inches off the bottom so its easier to get over your ankles.

Put all your racing attire on UNDER your suit or wear the “onesy”, or whatever you’re going to wear if wetsuits aren’t allowed from the start. It’s a time-saver!

You don’t REALLY need socks. Ok, if you’re doing an Ironman and you’ve never really ran sockless then you probably will, but a couple small blisters won’t be that bad on a sprint triathlon.

Keep it simple. With all the equipment available for Triathlon its easy to get carried away and buy all the gadgets you could possibly think of. Well, try to be prepared if you must have it all. Strap things to your bike in advance. Have your shoes / glasses / helmet etc. all ready to go. A transition bag is more for transPORT than for the actual transition. Fishing for all those things out of a bag is not going to help!

Removing bike shoes too early

I think I did this for quite a few of my first races. It basically involves a turn with several volunteers pointing the way and some street cones.

For some reason, I believed that an over 90 degree turn meant “I must be really close to transition.” “I think I’ve been riding long enough!?” “They’re making me slow down so why wouldn’t I be?” Well, no, no, and because you’re just turning!!

Anyway, on these occasions I would turn the corner and see at least another mile or two of open road ahead of me. Then I would contemplate the embarrassment of putting my (socked) feet back into my shoes or just ride away from it all as quickly as possible. Well, I always chose the latter and vowed to be more mindful of where to ACTUALLY get my feet out of my shoes.

Moral of the story: Check out the course before you head out so you know more or less what the finish will look like. Try to envision your approach to T2 and be ready to make it quicker than T1!

Check Transition Entry / Exit

This is one of those tips that you’re just like “Yeah, yeah, I’ll know where to bike out and where to run out.” That’s what I thought at least. Well, I learned my lesson the hard way.

This triathlon was known as a “Super-sprint” because it was half the distance of a sprint – 400m Swim, 10K bike, 3k run (or maybe even less). So, obviously, every second counts in a race that only lasts about 45 minutes. This was a really fun race and I would recommend it to anyone who is new to Triathlon or anyone who needs a change of pace from the usual hours of masochistic pleasure.

Accordingly, I was in quite a good mood for this race and extremely motivated to have fun and do well at the same time. I nailed the swim – swimming my heart out because this is my forte – and came out the water first or second (grin!). I ran up the beach and, having learnt my lesson, was ready for a strong and quick transition. T1 was good and I biked hard. I came back in and quickly changed shoes and started running out an exit.

WELL! Let me tell you, these volunteers were NOT having it! They basically tackled me to the ground stopping me from going out of what turned out to be the bike exit.

Embarrassed, and a little angry for wasting that time I turned and ran in the direction the fingers were pointing me. I finished 3rd in my age group.

Moral of the story: Do you have to ask?

Sphere: Related Content

Related Posts:

Pages: 1 2

Tags: , , , , , ,