Humility Reinforced

The sport of triathlon has a way of slapping you down to earth right around the time you're thinking you've got it all figured out. This is yours truly at the start of the bike leg at the Prestige Half Ironman at Norbury Lake Provincial Park, B.C., July 2005. While mounting my bike, my foot slipped off the pedal and I crashed hard on my right hip. The embarassment hurt a lot more than the gravel abrasions. (Fortunately my loving wife was there to capture the special moment.) The brain cramps continued later, when I missed the right turn at Ft. Steele and nearly ended up in Cranbrook, adding 12km to my bike split. Nearly thirty races into my triathlon career, and I had turned into a complete dumbass. I wallowed in self-pity for a few minutes, then got back on course, and resolved to go hard and salvage something out of the race. Things took a serious turn for the better after that, including winning my age group in the last 500m that day...