Tell us about your worst "people think you're rude" during a race

I had this in my race report.  Maybe I over reacted...  Not sure.

I had a brief incident on the bike with a runner. There are jerks, even in triathlon. The run and the bike shared a portion of the same route, so I was flying into T2 (about a mile yet to go) and had to pass runners. They were the sprinters finishing up their race. This really was not a problem because they looked out for me and I looked out for them and I would tell them I was comming. However, a couple guys were chatting and running side-by-side about 3' apart and moving from left to right and were going to cut me off. I couldn't go to the right because there were other bikers/runners and couldn't go left into oncomming traffic. The whole time I was yelling "HEAD'S UP!!!! On the left!" - even another runner started to say "look out!" to these two guys for what they were doing. They were just off in la-la-land. So I had to brake and yelled "WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, COME ON GUYS!!!!" and zigged though them at the last possible second.

So, one of them yelled back mockingly "WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, the course is open to us too!".

I was thinking, "Yeah, but you HAVE to look over your shoulder if you are going to run into the middle of the bike lanes". If I would have hit one of them at 20mph because I wasn't sure what they were doing, we could have BOTH, been seriously hurt.

I hate it when someone else pulls off an A-hole move, and I say something and they think/call ME an A-hole! Am I out of line here? I know I need to look out for those in front of me when I pass, but come one, they have SOME responsibility to look before cutting right into the bike lane, no?

I get annoyed when runners pass  in the shoot in a race where they collect the strip from the bottom of your number. I called a runner on it once when I was standing in line in the shoot. The girl elbowed me and said leave me alone!! Ha! Neither of us were winning.

The worse thing I've ever done is yell out "roadkill!" to my van mates at RTB the first time I passed someone in the race. The girl said "hey that's not very nice." I apologized and said "sorry its the first roadkill Ive had." I felt so bad I slowed down and let her repass me at the end of my leg.

I don't recall being yelled at but I have done my fair share of yelling at others. I'm a slow swimmer and relatively fast biker so in sprints I often pass lots and lots of folks.

Often newbies don't follow the rules of riding on the right and passing properly and moving back over to the right. They end up blocking and sometimes there are 3-4 people riding side by side and I'm not going over the yellow line.

I will yell you need to move right or something along those lines.

I recall this one race where each up hill they would pass me, and each down hill I could pass them but they blocked me in so there was no room for me to pass safely. 

I get extremely frustrted when folks don't follow the rules riding and their breaking the rules hurts my race.  I guess I need to become a faster swimmer.

One of the things that turned me off of ever going in another estrogen fest race - at SheRox PA, I yelled on your left - (like Kathy I am a slow swimmer but fast biker) and yelled it again, and then something a little more like you are blocking -

at the turn she got all snarky with me....

I worry that I'm offending people when I pass in the finishing chute, but I'm really not trying to pass, I'm just running my race as fast as I can. After the half way point in the 5K of a sprint I am redlining the whole way.

In this case it sounds like you are talking about after the finish line, I don't do that.

forgive me if I should know this,   whats the problem with passing people once the race is over?  At the end of NYC Marathon, it was like the walk of the living dead.  I passed several people to get out of Central Park as I need an ice bath, BAD.  Sould I have just walked at the current pace, not passing anyone?   I do not pass people to get my chiped clip off, or anything like that....just curious

If it's chip timing, it doesn't matter.  But if it's NOT chip timing, as they mentioned, then they would get your time and you get theirs (in some cases) OR, they will move up a spot when you were ahead of them.  That's what they are talking about.

Other than getting the finish times in order, you can sprint to the massage tent, food tent, whatever as far as I care...

that was it!!! like all offended!!!

the run had a better feel but the bike just annoyed me....

It was a shoot after the finish line; there were about 10 people standing in it waiting to have their numbers collected. The few people behind me said nothing as she was pushing people aside to get to hand off her strip. Im a middle of the packer  but etiquette is etiquette and if you are going to elbow past people, I'm saying something regardless of whether it makes a  huge difference. 

You're joking, right?

OHHHH....thank Goodenss.  Yeah, that makes sense.   I dont think I could tolerate that, for one second.  however, the offenders probably have no clue what they'er doing

One time, I was going up an incline.  I'm pretty strong on the hills, but I couldnt get past this guy, so I called on "On your left" several times.   He didnt move, so I shoved him out of the way.  He got an attitude, so I said, "Rubin is Racin."  just kidding...haha.

In this case no. They are ignorant of the rules, creating a dangerous situation for everyone, and on top of that are being jerks about it.

I've been kicked, spit on, cut off, elbowed, cups of water thrown at me, you name it... but I brushed all that off with a smile and sometimes a joke cause it's part of racing. If someone steps in front of me when I'm going 20mph that is unacceptable and risking real injury. They deserve to be DQ'ed, I'm not going to be nice to them.

confession time....

Comming into T2, the sprint was finishing up and I'm running with my bike on the rack.  There is a teen(early 20s maybe) kid with his mom standing and talking right by my rack.  I start yelling to move from about 20 yards away.  The don't move.  They finally hear me but instead of moving away from my rack, they move right where I'm to put my bike!!! yikes.  I finally have to stop and wait for them to move until i could rack my bike.  I was so POed that I slammed my bike onto the rack.  The worse part was that the leg of the rack fell off when i did this.  I must have lifted the rack top bar and it feel off the triangle.  I then let out a JC or maybe an F-bomb.  I can't remember, I was pretty hot.   The whole 10K i felt bad how I handled the whole situation....

Awww I feel better now

At the Wilmington, NC sprint this year two racers were sauntering across the T2 entrance just as I had dismounted my bike and begun running it in.  It had been a tough bike split and my adrenaline was pumping, so I began shouting "'EXCUSE ME EXCUSE ME -- MOVE!!!"

 Happily, they apologised and probably only cost me a few seconds.  Still, why do people hang out on the course during the race?  I was racing as a novice, so I sorta got the idea that people thought the race was over and only n00bs and the "for fun" crowd were left on the course.

You guys should all see poeple who don't even know when a high school XC race is gonig on and don't realize there walking on a big fat white line.

 I also hate the people who can't hold their line gonig up a hill.  I was slow in the swim so I got on bike and basically killed most of the people on the bike.  Some short steep hills and people were swerving all over the place.  IT was hard to pass.  Iw as like 100th out of the swim and 33rd out of the bike.