Ugg First DNF

Sorry to hear about your DNF. Sucks. Seems like a tough day and you know you showed lots of tenacity just getting to the run. 

Sometimes the day just gets the better of you - hard swim, high temps and lack of fluids. They'll get the best of anyone. 

All i can say is make sure you let yourself be whatever you are: mad, sad, frustrated, etc. Then move on figure what best to do for next time. Don't let it beat you into not lining up for your next race.

Sucks to DNF, but hopefully you learned some good lessons from the race.  Be able to brush off a bad swim, make sure you know where the aid stations are going to be located, and most definitely bring enough fluids/nutrition with you to get from one to the next.  Once you're behind, you'll be hard pressed to get back on track. 

One aid station on the bike?  No special needs?  That'd be a tough 100 mile ride.  No hat in T2?

What is the underlying reason for the "not knowing the course" and "forget essential equipment" errors?  Just plain forgetfulness? I know I do that stuff all the time, so I use a checklist and get all OCD about it.  Or something else like not taking the race seriously enough?  I know I've shown up at a local race thinking "Just a half marathon, how hard could it be", and didn't study the race details and ran into problems. 

How do you plan to come back from this?

Thanks for sharing the experience as maybe it will be a lesson to others here. 

As brucemorgan mentioned above, checklists a great. For longer events like this one, or IM,  I'll write them out-- like if there are special needs bags, morning bags etc. For shorter races I just do a mental check list. When setting up transition I go through what I'll need for T1 and T2 in my mind. The hat not being there on a hot day would have been a glaring problem. Running shoes and a hat for T2? Check.

This is a hobby for 99% of us, and it should be fun.  17 miles of cramping in the hot sun doesn't sound like very much fun at all.  Thanks for sharing though.  Will probably make me think a bit harder about the details of aid stations when doing a longer race I am not familiar with.

I find the longer I am on BT the more post I read that sound almost like I am writing my own experience.  

I very nearly had a DNF at my debute Triathlon.

I had a really good swim and despite getting calf cramps about 1500 yards into the 1.2 mile leg, getting disoriented when I stopped to work out the cramps and swimming backwards for a short distance before continuing on, I finished the swim 3 minutes under may goal time.  The bike started out well and I was on pace to beat my goal on the bike by a similar percentage as my swim but got a flat at mile 29 and then a second flat at mile 41.  The second flat was a devastating blow because I only brought one spare tube. I was facing the reality that I may have a DNF.    I really didn't want a DNF.  I was determined to find any way possible to not have to pull out early.  I am a strong runner and after running all the bike cut-off times through my head came up with a crazy idea that I could run the bike the last 15 miles to complete the bike leg.  I only got about 3 miles down the road before the SAG wagon caught up with me.  I got the tire fixed, but sitting on hot asphalt in 90+ deg temperatures and running a bike dehydrates you a lot faster than spinning in you bike saddle with a 20+ MPH air flow to cool you down, so I ran out of water with about 10 miles left in the bike leg.  With out water I started to get cramps in my quads a few miles before I got to the T2.  For the run it was back on the hot Asphalt in 90+ deg temperatures where, despite stopping at every aid station for water and sodium, I got cramps bad enough to stop me from running twice.  

Note:  I have been running for almost 30 years and very rarely ware a hot.  I ware a hat on rainy days because I used to ware glasses and the hat kept my glassed from getting too wet to see through.  I don't like them on fair weather days though.  Hats especially bug me  bug me if you get any wind or are springing down the last 400 meters they can blow off.  Going hat less is just one less thing that I have to think about.  :-)  

While that sounds like a rough day and an unfortunate turn of events, the lessons learned are invaluable.  Thanks for posting about this.  I have a hot HIM coming up on Saturday and this is such a great reminder for me.