Friday Funny 1111: Race Day Fails

Active.com recently shared 11 "race-day fails" that were pretty funny:

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Fail: "I worked on my bike gears the night before a criterium. My front derailleur didn't align right and I ended up not being able to shift to my big chainring during the race. I couldn't stay with the pack and ended up getting pulled."


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Fail: "I accidentally packed un-tinted goggles for an open water swim on a bright, sunny morning. It was awful. I couldn't sight for about a third of it and couldn't breathe to the right for a third of it unless my eyes were closed. It felt like I did most of the swim blind. To make matters worse, my armpits got chaffed."


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Fail: "I didn't read the weather report before the San Diego Gran Fondo and it was cold and rainy. I had to wear my arm warmers as leg warmers so they only came up to just above my knee and I had this gap of skin exposed on my thighs that was so so cold. And I looked pretty darn silly....embarrassing."


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Fail: "The gray shorts incident of 2010 is my ultimate favorite. I wore these super cool gray running shorts during the San Diego RNR marathon. June=hot=sweat=dumping/spraying water on us at every mile past 13. FYI: gray shorts darken in color when they become wet. I finish the race, very happy and get my link to pictures the following day. Every single picture shows me smiling with this giant wet spot in the middle of my shorts, as the sides have dried in the heat. Every. Single. Picture."


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Fail: "I had a pedal lose a bolt during a tri and I couldn't unclip as I came into T2, which led to a sideways, on the ground Janean. There was some bruising, but honestly, it was my pride that hurt the most!"


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Fail: "I was escorting a friend on the bike leg at the 2011 Challenged Athletes Foundation Triathlon and I left my water bottles in the fridge at home. I had to beg and borrow water bottles from exhibitors! I got one from the Tri Club, and another from a friend who was there to do the Spin bike event. I kept the Tri Club bottle but returned my friend's to her full of Hershey's Kisses as a thank you.


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Fail: "I didn't prepare a proper nutrition plan for my first 70.3. It was 100 degrees that day and I was forced to walk a lot. I made the same mistake again training for my second 70.3 a year later. This one was at altitude and again the temperature reached close to 100. After all that training, I only beat my first time by 3 seconds! It turns out a good nutrition plan is so hard that even the Active editors don't always get it right."


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Fail: "I stopped to pee during a 5K once. A 5K! My wife still makes fun of me for that one."


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Fail: "Traveling for a road race, I botched the setup of my trunk-mounted bike rack. When I got there, my front tire was melted. I'd unwittingly placed it too close to the exhaust pipe of the car. Did I have a spare wheel and tire? I was never a Boy Scout, but yes, one. Did I get a flat in the race? Of course."


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Fail: "At the So Cal Ragnar Relay race a few years ago, my team didn't make it to the finish line in time to cross with our last runner. She showed up, stopped short, looked around, and didn't know where we were. We had spent the previous 36 hours together...running, sleeping, hanging out in a van, only to miss the crowning moment."


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Fail: "I had a squirrel run out right in front of me as I was going downhill in a race once. I had to hit the brakes so hard that my rear tire exploded. Not the tube - the tire. That's called screwed."


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