Home Chat General Chat

Forum section in the magazine

Afternoon all

James 220's ed here.

We're launching a new section in the magazine and we'd like your input.

Each issue we'll be asking you a topical tri-related question and reprint a selection of the answers.

So, up this month is...

What is/was your greatest fear prior to your first event?

Mine was having to be pulled out from the Thames due to non-existent OW swim training. That and getting DNFed for forgetting one of the many transition rules.

We'll be printing the repsonses in issue 250, out July 27th.

Yours in sport, James

Comments

  • AvoneerAvoneer Posts: 174
    Hi James,

    How's about wondering which time group to put your name in for the swim.

    Do you play it safe and overestimate and get stuck behind people, or underestimate and get left behind and shouted at?

    Pat ;-)
  • 101SUSY101SUSY Posts: 53
    Oh my ! I cried before my first triathlon and had to get a pep talk (i.e. shouted at) by my brother ! I only had a mountain bike with 5 gears on it and the bike course was relentlessly uphill. I drove round the course in the car the night before and would have completely bottled it without the fraternal encouragement !
  • GHarvGHarv Posts: 456
    For my first trik it was coming last.

    Got up last years times and looked at how i was performing and saw i would be last. Imeediatley bought an race bike and got my finger out and finished closer to midfield.
  • shadowone1shadowone1 Posts: 1,408
    Hmmm

    My fear seemed to change as i got closer to the event and on the day. It was this forum that I stumbled upon triathlon and decided to take plunge convinced I could do it.

    having to estimate my swim time - bloody hell had never even swam 750m before so called it 16mins... think it took me nearer 20mins....but I did have to stop half way through the swim as I realised I had left my run shoes with the wife!!! haha

    In my mind I knew I wasn't fit enough so that was my main fear not being able to do it when I had built myself up to family and friends. Then you see all these fit people with the trick bling bikes and you think what am I doing here???

    Looking back.... christ soo many mistakes!!! but loads of bloody fun!!
  • MrTimMrTim Posts: 13
    My biggest fears were getting lost on the bike route (which from the description and map was a rather complex three-uneven laps) and being disqualified due to inadvertently breaking the "no drafting" rules whilst trying to overtake!
    Luckily it turned out the bike route was well sign posted and marshalls, and (slightly less luckily) the only people I managed to overtake were on mountain bikes and going half my speed!:lol:
  • dhcmdhcm Posts: 67
    Blenheim 2009. I was recovering from fracturing my shoulder two months previously in a bike crash. I had not been on the bike since the crash so most recent cycling memory was flying over handlebars into a lampost. The Blenheim bike course has several downhill sections with corners at the bottom. It was pouring with rain. Biggest fear? Another crash and another fracture. If there was a time split for the downhill sections on the bike I would have been slowest by a big margin.
  • Not making it there on time! The guy giving me a lift pulled out at very short notice and my housemate grudgingly agreed to get up at half six on a Sunday morning to drive me there instead. Needless to say I bought him a few pints to say thanks!
  • BopomofoBopomofo Posts: 980
    Nice and straightforward... my biggest fear was simply that of being completely and utterly humiliated by a bunch of super-fit uber-athletes who would all be laughing at my supermarket trainers and tatty old mountain bike and roundly taking the mickey as I crawled across the line in a distant last place.

    One of my mates even said he'd watched the race the previous year and while he was applauding me for having a go he said "I'd just hate for you to make a fool of yourself". Blimey. Thanks, I guess.

    So, I was completely astonished to find the most friendly and helpful bunch of enthusiastic people I'd ever met, all milling about in transition. They weren't all Olympians - there were all shapes, sizes and abilities. I got advice on how to arrange my kit, had people telling me not to panic and just to enjoy it and heard a load of stories about 'my first race' with people telling of even worse kit than I had rocked up with!

    Seven years and countless races later and I'm still enjoying it just as much as that first race. And no, I wasn't last!
  • md6md6 Posts: 969
    My biggest fear was drowning or being sick in the pool. I am not, and never have been a swimmer, and the thought of swimming 750m against the clock, then having to do anything after that scared the life out of me. Particularly as the furthest my feeble attempt at swimming had managed before the day was 600m, and i was sick after that. In fact I don't really know why i thought Tri would be a good idea (but that's a different question)
  • Getting duck $hit on me.
  • largeadelargeade Posts: 166
    (Nice matt...)

    Got to be the swim mass start. It takes a few goes before you realise that rubbin' is racing.
  • TesseractTesseract Posts: 280
    My first ever race was London, standard distance - no sensible start with a sprint for me!

    Thinking back my biggest fears were
    a) the swim - never having swum in open water, and reading all the info about sighting, going off in the wrong direction, the washing machine at the start, being unable to do 25m as crawl...
    b) the bike - going the wrong way
    c) the run - just being able to do it after the swim and bike

    It was all good though, although I did the swim breaststroke I still managed to beat my hoped for time by 20mins. The best thing I remember was how friendly & supportive everyone was, marshals and fellow competitors.
  • My biggest fear?

    Would I be able to do it?!

    :roll:
  • SilverbackSilverback Posts: 131
    Would I have a bowel movement before the race and not during...

    Still my biggest fear to this day
  • J WittsJ Witts Posts: 13
    Thanks for all your help with this chaps and chapesses. Much appreciated.

    Cheers
    James

    PS Hopefully the orange border that appears to have contaminated the forum will be erased today!
  • shadowone1shadowone1 Posts: 1,408
    I like the orange border.....
  • largeadelargeade Posts: 166
    I like the orange too. Unfortunately it doesnt go with blue and red. Can we change the banner?
  • shadowone1shadowone1 Posts: 1,408
    Yeah change the banner, keep the orange!!

    Least this change isn't as catastrophic as the last one.....
  • Morg007Morg007 Posts: 54
    I did my 1st race (london full olympic) in 2007 for charity so I had one simple fear - not finishing and letting all the people who had sponsored me. I struggled with the swim but finished everntually with my own private canonist. Then bike started well but had a puncture with about 10km left... I tried changing it but had never done one before on a road bike (which I had borrowed off a mate at the last minute) so I think I pinched the inner tube as it wouldln't pump up! A mixture of running then riding on the rim got me back to transition. The run went better than thought but due to my long long delays I was cought up in the elites. as I was coming in finish Tim Don took over me on the way to winning but still found time and energy to tell me to keep going and I'm doing well. This was the point when I realised this was a sport I want to do more of, as even the elites find time for the amateurs and everybody is friendly. Due to where I was when this happened I "technicaly finished 3rd.
  • BexHBexH Posts: 226
    The thought of running out of arm strength and doing a beached whale in lycra impression trying to climb out of the pool...
Sign In or Register to comment.