Your DNF? (Page 2)

IM 70.3 Fl got pulled from the course with 1.25 miles left to go on the run. lack of training (volume) and nutrition did me in. Headwinds on the 2nd half of the bike didn't help. Started off training fine had a good plan to follow and was sticking to it. two months before the race the overtime at work went thru the roof 60-70+ hours a week didn't leave much time for training. Went to shorter more intense work outs rather than longer. since i didn't do long work outs never got to try out nutrition for longer rides/ runs. Day of race decided to just live off the course, even though i had never used any of the products. Plan for race day was simple eat off course and keep the heart rate around 10 points higher than Z2 Swim went a little slower than I expected but with six turns it best was described as WWE in the H2O lots of contact. (Need to swim wider next time might add a couple of yards but cleaner water should help my time.) Bike leg started of fine was planning on a 3-3:15 bike leg, went well thru the half way point average around 18+ , when the ride hit the hills and head wind things started to go down hill. I was only drinking water and eating bananas, forgot my salt sticks at home so no sodium intake. First half of bike course 1:30 hours second half 2:45. I was hurting so bad during the second half of the course that I was praying for my bike to break, I told myself if I can make into T2 I'm done going to grab a beer and find some shade and sell this damn bike. Finally made it off the bike course after 4 hrs. Some how from the time I entered T2 until I made it to the bike rack I decided to at least go down swinging got my running shoes on and headed out on the course. Up until now all I had to eat all day was a banana with peanut butter and honey about 2 hours before the race and a handful of nuts while setting up transition, during the ride I consumed 6 bottles of water maybe 2 bananas and 2 small bonk breakers bars, The sugar in sport drinks upsets my stomach so I normally take salt sticks with water I should have taken1 or 2 with each bottle of water. The run was more of a shuffle. My plan had been to start off with 1min run 1min walk right from the start. Finally started to take in some sport drink but it was to little to late, with about 2 miles to go was told the course would close in 20min tried to push harder but just had nothing left in the tank. With 1.25 miles left to go I was pulled off the course due to it closing.
What am I doing different for Miami man, volume longer rides especially, also working on on bike nutrition. I already know we are going to get hit with the O/T again soon so I'm planning on how to work my training around work, already started the early A.M. workouts. I'm trying out nutrition on my longer rides to see what works for me. I'm singed up for Miami man in Nov. and I'm going back to Haynes city next April got a little unfinished business with a certain race course.

At Austin 70.3 last year, I hit a cone and went over my handlebars about 48 miles into the race. I started to get back on the bike, but noticed something was out of place. It turned out to be my collarbone. I sat down on the side of the road for a minute only to stick both feet in an anthill. Finally, caught a ride from a nice family that was passing by before getting a ride from the ambulance. Not too worry, though, my bike suffered very little damage!

Had my first DNF this past weekend. I was doing an Olympic distance triathlon (which wasn't my first). For the swim they had us jump in and tread water for a couple of minutes and that was our only warmup. The water was cold and I never really got used to it even with the wetsuit on. After the horn blew I started to swim and I immediately had trouble breathing. It was almost like my lungs collasped. I've done about 8 triathlons and have never had this happen before. I went on my back and floated for a minute or so to get my breathing under control. As soon as I thought I was good I flipped around and tried to swim. However, after a couple of strokes I still felt like I couldn't breath. This continued for like 10 minutes. At that point a lifeguard must have seen me struggling and jumped in to save me and threw me on the boat.

I was taken to the swim finish but my chip wasn't taken away so I thought I would try the bike course. The bike course was super flat and was four loops and in the middle of the first one my breathing was out of control and my legs felt heavy. I was averaging 11mph, where normally I would average 17mph so I knew something wasn't right. At the end of the first loop I told a race official that I was dropping out and then I turned in my timing chip. I was totally bummed but knew if I kept going something serious would have most likely happened.

I went to the medic tent just to make sure I was ok. The medic thought that the combination of the cold water, no warmup swim, and the tightness of the wetsuit caused my breathing issue. He told me it was a good thing I knew when to stop otherwise I probably would have ended up in the ER. After hearing this I'm glad I was smart enough to stop. No race is worth risking my health for.

I have a half ironman in three weeks and I am planning to wear a larger wetsuit and fortunately they are letting people warmup so hopefully that will solve the problem.

BoneIsland 140.6 last year...A stress fracture in one of my feet that I've had off and on for years went into open revolt during the marathon. I bailed at the 15mile mark. I'm pretty sure I could have walked the last 11 and if it had been my first IM, I probably would have muscled it out. I think my rationalization at the time was that there would be other races later...As fate has it, that might have been my last full courtesy of an unhappy knee. Oh,well..One must be philosophical about such things.

DNF is never part of the plan but if you do this stuff long enough, it's bound to happen. Sometimes bad luck strikes early(maybe that's a good thing - you'd be kind of pre-disastered and karma would be on your side thereafter).

Stopped for nearly a minute puking today... still ran 21.30 for a 5k. Swam ~1.10\100 easy for 500m and rode a hill 20.3 k in 37km/h.

Without taking the thread completely off topic, strictly, by the rules, are you allowed to lend them a wheel ?
Reading this it isn't clear.
http://triathlon.competitor.com/2014/02/training/ask-a-triathlon-re...
By ITU rules it would be a DQ

It doesn't matter, it's the right thing to do in this case, but useful to know. If I know I will DNF and someone needs my wheel, should I give it ?

Wow! You are an awesome Dad!

By strict definition no you are not, but I have given one, and others have also, an official could dq the person getting the wheel for it, however, it is usally worth the risk since their day would be done without it anyways.

 

It was perfectly legal when I did it...it wasn't a sanctioned race.   

 

Edited by TriMyBest 2014-07-01 7:22 PM

hey Chris, you left out the best part of the story. (Sorry to bomb the thread).

You need to include the November Redemption.

DNFs are meant to make us laugh, but that pic did make me laugh out loud. yep, lovely metro scene after race already in full swing. I DNFed at Eagleman too! I was very happy for to finish the bike race only to find a sticker on my racking spot telling me I was done. And I DNFed at my second 70.3 attempt because the major chop scared me, plus I am a bad swimmer, plus I got kicked, and the guys in the dingy were a little to quick to pull me out rather than say - you can do it! ..ok, really, I was happy to be pulled out. My next DNF was again because I did not finish the swim on time after my eyes swelled to slits because of something in the goggles, and my next DNF was I got really seasick and the woman next to me started chucking, then when the jet ski came to pull us out, they flipped us. oh lord, I didn't realize I had that many DNFs. that dang swim

Then there was the DNS after we camped, woke up in the morning to fridge weather, and our hands froze after getting them wet and walking back to the tent. when we thought of out whole body suffering the same fate as our hands, there was a resounding, oh Hell no. so we went for breakfast.

some of us, including my triathlon mentor, know that cold is no good and sometimes you will DNF. that said, I have also hit the podium a number of times, so you can do well, even if you have some DNFs or breakfast instead.

First HIM (2012). Mile 35 or so of the bike. Went around a corner a bit too quick, skidded on some sand, and next thing I recall is looking up through the branches of a tree. Get up, grab my bike to get back on, and....there's no front wheel. Completely broken off at the head tube.

I'd gone off road, hit a rock and a tree, killed my bike, flipped off it and landed under the tree, and was done. I was mostly uninjured other than some nasty bleeding scrapes, some bruising, and next day soreness.

LBS brought the bike back to life in 4 days. Heros!!!

At a sprint in Panama City... just a routine day but had trouble in the water and called it... the long story in the link below.

Blog link to DNF

IMMT 2013 - my first IM. Had a decent swim (for me - 1:51, nope, not fast!), then set out on the bike. First 20 miles or so went ok, but I was struggling with nutrition - my stomach couldn't handle anything. I was crazy thirsty, but even water made me nauseous, and I know that just water alone is no good, so I tried electrolyte tabs, a GU or two - forget about the solids I'd trained with, nothing was getting down there.

Was not making the time I wanted, but was still managing to make it, got stung by a wasp at about mile 50. My son has severe allergies and I started to swell right away, so I pulled into an aid station to get checked - 10 minutes later we figured I'd be ok, although in hindsight I should have called it a day there.

Got back on my bike and kept going but the lack of calories knocked me out at mile 67 - I was wobbling all over the road!

So I'm back this year for some redemption. Trying some different stuff in training, and have decided that a couple of gravol/pepto bismol tabs in my transition bag may give me some extra security this year!

I've had 2 of them this year.

1. Tempe Int'l Tri - Sprint - Did Not Start - I was having problems with tubes blowing on my rear disc. I went through 3 of them in 24 hours. I borrowed 2 from others at the race. Each time, I pumped up the tire past 70, bam, whoosh. I discovered a sharp area afterward.

2. Dueces Wild 70.3 - I did the swim, then the bike, and just stopped at T2. I wasn't in the right mindset for running. Only to find out, that I was in 3rd place overall. I've learned from this experience however.

I'm looking forward to a better 2nd half of the year.

First attempt at an IM in Texas 2011. Hot day. Started cramping about 60 miles into the bike. Managed to hold them off until i hit the 80 mile aid station. A 10 minute rest turned into 35 minutes. A medic told me I should probably call it a day. I convinced my self if i could get to 90, I could get to 100 and if i got to 100, i could finish.

At 87, i got a flat..took my sweet time fixing it too.

Cramps were getting worse. At 92, the cramps were so bad that even going downhill, i had to put all my weight on my saddle because even putting weight on my legs caused cramps from calves to quads to hams. Got to teh bottom of the hill. Both legs in full on spasms. Slowed to about 1mph, fell over in the grass and layed there stuck in the pedals until a wheel motorcycle came by and unclipped me. He called for a medic.

Medic showed up and said, " I told you that you should have called it a day.". He took my chip while I verbally protested but inside i was overjoyed.

Second attempt ended much the same way. At 55 started cramping, pulled into the 60 mile aid station and stopped kidding myself that i could make it and voluntarily DNFd.

Third attempt...IMAZ 2013...guess what happened at mile 74 (right at the beginning if the third lap)? CRAMPS!!!! I slowed down popped pretzals, salt, and infinate and managed to get them under control by the final turn-a-round. Made it to T2 with no problem. Hugged my buddy, fought back the tears of joy, ran a 5:15 marathon and finished my first IM in 13:41.

Never surrender!