Ditto…
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World LD Champs in Fredericia was boiling hot one year…but the next time we were there it was snowing…the queue outside the bike shop to buy arm warmers etc was looooong…
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Ah, suddenly the true meaning of that weird dream I had a few months ago is revealed. You should have popped round, we could have fed you 
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I forgot about the time difference in Europe and arrived in Klagenfurt an hour after the hotel reception had shut. After 18 hour of driving the last thing you’d want to do is drive around looking for a hotel room.
But that’s not really a triathlon misery, that’s me being so engrossed in the route, maps, refuelling, eating and driving on the wrong side of the road I forgot about time difference. 
Anyway, found a lovely hotel, far better than the one we’d booked. Reception was only open because their cat was giving birth.
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IM Oz always used to be on the same morning as the clocks had changed.
Much hilarity!
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If only I’d known…. I was starving
I did enjoy that Sherborne course…
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I was there that day, as a volunteer. Think it was 2005? I remember feeling sorry for all you guys in the pen waiting for the lake fog to clear, it took forever and looked pretty cold first thing
in fact IIRC the fog hadn’t really cleared when they set you off, but someone must just have thought if we don’t start soon we’ll be here all night
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We waited an hour all suited up then they got a helicopter to fly over the lake and clear the fog, we got in the water ready to start but it came straight back and so we got out and got very cold. When they finally set us off you couldn’t see the buoys and so just swam and hoped….
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been thinking more and rather than just my 3 bad races, lets split it down a bit
Swim, worst swim was Forestman 2011. Delayed due to fog, we started unable to see 100m, if that. “just follow the canoes” we were told 
. After about 10 minutes I took a kick to the head , proceeded to be sick and proper scatty after, all over the place, didnt know where I was, the fog didnt help either. I was ready to climb out at the end of the 1st lap (3 laps) and though just finish the lap and get out. Well the lap seemed to go on for ever, sick again a couple of times, dont know where I am, where Im going, just follow the person in front. until I realised I was already half way around the second lap. Went 1:06 something in the end. As I lost the front pack I was unlucky enough to follow the full course, the canoes had become lost in the fog and led the front pack on a massive shortcut it transpired (to the point some people swam sub hour that had no right to swim sub anything 
)
T1 Hyde Park 2009 as above, pricks being pricks A over T over a barrier lying under my bike covered in sticky energy drink
Bike - Bastion in 2014 where I spent 8 hrs bent over a bike in agony with a dodgy back, had to climb off multiple times to stretch. Was lying on a grass verge at one point.
T2 - first ever tri, Came steaming out and had a 90deg turn to get onto the course. My legs had other ideas and the marshal had to catch me to stop me going over the barrier
run. or runs, all of them The worse was Windsor 2009, dying for a tom tit after the bike, but no porta potties so spent the run hoping I would get to the finish without shitting myself. Surprising how slow you go when you really need to just “get it done”
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Brutal is in the same lake as slateman and is savagely cold, I wasted quite a bit of time standing next to a heater in the tent trying to warm up and I was only doing the 70.3! Can’t imagine what the triple iron must have been like, especially at TC’s pace 
It did warm up to be a nice day though.
The run would be in my top few favourites and best races, lap round the lake with a short technical session then up and down Snowdon! I was fell running quite well in those days and overtook quite a lot, and more going back down. Would probably have been second overall if I hadn’t lost time in T1 trying to warm up!
I really struggle with cold water
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In my first IM (TLD 2005), I was targetting sub 11 and knew I started the final 10km run lap at 10:40 elapsed time.
The wheels somewhat came off on that lap but I obviously didn’t pay enough attention to time (wasn’t wearing a watch) and had a pee about 0.5km from the finish.
Went over the line in 11:00:25 
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Meh, paging jorgan and his 7 seconds 
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Michelle Lee (former runner, former tri/duathlete) stopped for a pee at London marathon and missed the olympic team qualification by less than a minute…
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T1: IM Bolton 2015. Just rain, mud and misery - really hard to leave the change tent.
Shout out to everyone else who smashed the first half of the bike just to warm up, and then paid for it later. My people
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A few years ago a Tri Club friend wanted to take part in an Olympic distance tri, but her swimming was (is) very weak, so she wanted to do a relay. I don’t like relay triathlons as the whole point is that you do more than one discipline. If you’re in a team you’re doing a straightforward normal race. Clacton Tri was selected. A friend who is a strong swimmer did her bit, then I did the bike. As soon as I set off it started to hammer down. It was the most unpleasant bike ride I have ever done. The standing water was so deep I couldn’t see the road. On a 2 lap course I would have stopped after one lap, but I had my team mates depending on me. So I ploughed on. As soon as I got off the bike and friend started her run the sun came out. Arse. (for @TROSaracen’s benefit - Sheila and Moira)
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Ah, I did those 2 IMs in the opposite years - Bolton in 2014 in good weather (actually quite hot on the run) and Wales in 2015 with a bit of swell but nothing like the feared rogue/washing machine of the previous year.
I had moments of misery in my first iron distance, Outlaw 2012: warming up ahead of the swim I got back to the line following the advance hooter but was right in the middle at the front of the pen. As a relative novice I was swum over, biffed and near-panicked. Took me the first third of the swim to settle down. Two-thirds through I had violent legs cramp, mostly from being freaked out rather than from undertraining. On the bike I was massaging my calf with suntan cream as I pedaled. Dug in, got through it and loved it in the end, the beginning of 5 wonderful years of iron distance.
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