Race day disasters

Mark, you must have an incredibly generous stomach to allow you to run for miles, sample a show, run to a train station, board a train etc before it's unleash time.

Some of us don't get a 30min warning, it's more a 30second warning!

Or even like that Utube clip. Dog shits all over owner. No warning at all!

Don't think that'll make the mag either, Ric

For me, I have had quite a few race day disasters....missing the coach in Waterlooville, Hants for the VLM in 2010 on mistaking the time as being a 6:30 pick up when it was 5:30am (this was a club place too so made it all even worse!).....Needing a plan B and quickly, I ended up driving in a frenzy to Croydon and somehow managed to get to the start line with 30 minutes spare in the end via a few train stops.....then with 8 miles or so to go my left knee gave up on me (probably ITBS which I had experience in the run up to the race). So I had the lovely experience of both hitting the wall and a knee problem.

The Brighton marathon last year was even worse on the injury front...coming back into running with a year of hardly any running up until January 2012 and a few stone heavier, I thought it would be a good idea on race day to set off at 8-9 m/m pace. Not the best of ideas when considering that my training had been in the region of 10 m/m for my longer runs...13.1 miles passed by and I felt ok...passing through in approximately 2 hours...I saw a few running colleagues supporting from my club who were cheering me on so had a brief adrenaline rush...then after running westward out of the centre of Brighton seafront towards Hove, I felt a pain in my knee slowly set in. I had not had this problem since I started up running again and knew straight away I was in for a nightmare. In summary, it was 13 miles of complete torture...hitting the wall as well as having both my knees in the end in great pain is not something I ever want to experience again. I will never forget this particularly for running/walking around Hove Powerstation where I had never felt so lonely and demoralised in a race! At about 21 miles I stopped at a St Johns Ambulance area where I got an ice pack strapped to the knee which was most troublesome...my final time was about 5 hours 27...so the last half took almost three and a half hours to complete.  I will never make the mistake ever again of setting off at a pace I have not trained for (what an idiot)...and to be honest, I think I could go through quite a few pain barriers after the physical and mental torture of that day...

Somehow later that evening, I decided I would run it again this year....nothing like righting a wrong is there? I have done a fair few races since with no preparation/injury type disasters and I hope that continues.

Hello Annie RW

i'm amazed your list does not contain de - hydration,

Shoe lace came undone TWICE this morning during parkrun, ARGGGHH! First time ever, soooo annoyed . First time was just after the start as well.

Disasters would be having a heart attack and being helicoptered to hospital or falling and breaking a bone and waiting two hours for medical assistance. Shitting yourself in front of lots of people may be the one non life threatening mishap that could be described as a disaster. Anything less surely has to come under the heading of inconveniences or annoyances.

My gel burst and my hands got sticky? Oh, come on!

I did an event got s**tf****d 'cos it was a brutally hard course. Next year came back took the first half easy and then flew back at a similar speed to the winning runners. Clearly I had gone too slow this time. Third year I trained hard, practiced over similar terrain, tried starting fast, starting slow, by race day I was pretty pumped. Checked and re-checked my kit. Drove 90 miles; but I had forgotten one thing, one little thing, to enter......  No entry on the line. I was sure I had entered.....

did they let you run when you said your hard luck story SideBurn? I'd have probably raced it anyway, give them the choice of whether they let you pay to enter, or not get your money!

I've driven to races 30miles away twice and not found the actual start pre owning a sat nav! Those were stressy experiences!

Ok a race I used to organise we did have a bloke drop dead at 5 miles, it wqs a heart attack I believe, luckily St.John had a Dr. on hand and revived him in the ambulance.

That was a close one but hes ok and back running

Stevie G . wrote (see)

did they let you run when you said your hard luck story SideBurn? I'd have probably raced it anyway, give them the choice of whether they let you pay to enter, or not get your money!

I've driven to races 30miles away twice and not found the actual start pre owning a sat nav! Those were stressy experiences!

The organisers were fantastic (so not too much of a disaster) they let me run as we did not know who had fouled up.

goldbeetle wrote (see)

Ok a race I used to organise we did have a bloke drop dead at 5 miles, it wqs a heart attack I believe, luckily St.John had a Dr. on hand and revived him in the ambulance.

That was a close one but hes ok and back running

How many people would know what to do in this situation? As in know what to do AND have the confidence to do it? Remembering the incident involving the pro footballer; there appeared to be reluctance and confusion as to what to do. I know you do not expect a footballer's heart to stop beating correctly, but I have seen CCTV footage of people standing doing nothing or too paralyzed with fear to act when someone collapses. Please; if you do not know what DR ABC means and how to apply it.... learn. Lecture over

Except http://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/how-we-help/training/heartstart-training.aspx

Now it is over; honest

St.John were on him like a shot they love real casualties I didnt even have time to get my stethascope out

Sticky88 wrote (see)

Shoe lace came undone TWICE this morning during parkrun, ARGGGHH! First time ever, soooo annoyed . First time was just after the start as well.

Proper disaster!!!

This doesn't qualify as a true disaster (before anyone starts getting their knickers in a twist over the semantics) but it was an annoying end to a good race.  It was my first stab at my local 10 miler, and I knew there were challenging hills at about 6 and 9 miles.  Halfway up the first one I passed a woman walking up the hill, and was most put out half a mile later to have her run past me.  On the second hill I ran past her again as she walked the hill, but this time she didn't catch me up until we turned the final corner on the approach to the running track and the finish.  Determined not to be beaten by someone who can't run the hills, I sprinted for the crowds and heard my name and number being announced as I hurtled through the funnel on to the track.  I stopped and bent double to catch my breath, and at that point simultaneously saw my nemesis trotting past me and the announcer saying "You've not finished yet - you've still got to go half way round the track!"  I had to start another sprint, and just managed to beat her to the line with seconds to spare - before collapsing again....  I don't think she even noticed it was a race!

Not so much a disaster as a salutory tale about pride and not looking where you're going!

Snap, it was the Portsmouth Half Marathon, and the course was a bit short, with the route having to be changed.

Snap, yes I was there and ran the Portsmouth Half many times. I believe the race to which we refer was the last time it was held, due to high costs of policing etc. It was way back in the year 2000.

I got my half marathon PB of 1.20.58 on the Portsmouth Half in 1993. Happy days indeed

I entered the Lanzarote Ironman in 2008 - I had trained for 10 months for it and I was excited and nervous.  

I got to the start line (7am) feeling actually quite calm and excited...I lined up near the back as I was expecting to be quite slow and didn't want to get trampled to death in the rush forward.  I got in the water and completed the two loops in 1 hour 23 mins - I was chuffed with that.

I got to the changing area and there was this woman yealling and kicking up a massive fuss for the girls to get her the sun tan lotion - she was creating quite a scene!  I looked out and it was completely clouded over - I thought I can either wait here for the lotion or depend on the stuff I had put on myself before we left the apartment...well I went for the second option.  (d'urr!!)

So I ran out got on the bike (still more than a third of the bikes were left...again I was pleased with that!)  So I head out the road and riders are passing me (I'm dead slow on the bike) and (if anyone knows Lanzarote) the wind picks up and the clouds clear.

To cut a long story short - I ended up at 95 miles with sunstroke and severe sunburn...in my head I was calcluating the distance I had to go and I felt I was going to miss the cutoff...so when I saw the guards I called them over and said that I wasn't going to finish.

It turns out that with the sunstroke I was completely miscalculating the time and the distance - I could have finished inside the cutoff...but as it was I ended up with second degree burns on my face and hands - my ears were so bad that I couldn't lie in bed on my side...it was a nightmare.

(And it was 6 weeks before my daughter's wedding so you can imagine the comedy tan lines I had to deal with!!)