Wednesday, September 16, 2009

7 Is Not The Luckiest Number Of Them All

When I received my bib number for last weekends race the woman said, oh you have the luckiest number of them all - 777. As soon as she said this, I knew that triple 7 was going to bring me anything but luck; really I'm not superstitious at all! The next morning when I showed up for body marking, the guy marking me made the comment, "oh you're going to have a lucky race," as he wrote 777 on my arm - really this is why I'm a huge fan of ipods so I don't have to freak out over comments like this.

I quickly forgot about the "lucky" comments, got into my race groove and was happy coming out of the water:
Then the crash happened, which turned out to vastly more unlucky than I had previously thought. Not only did the crash screw up my overall time for the Patriots International, but its going to turn out costing me a cr*p load of money. I cracked my freaking frame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I was cleaning my bike off on Tuesday and about to load it onto my trainer for my recovery ride; I noticed some sort of mark on the top tube - upon closer inspection this was anything but a mark, it was the most evil sight any triathlete can see on their beautiful carbon frame.












So my options are to use Orbea's crash replacement program which allows me to purchase a new frame and fork for retail cost; which 3 sports in Richmond can have for me built up this weekend. Or can I go with a company in California called Calfee which repairs carbon frames; this will cost about $1,000 less than the replacement frame (including shipping) but I will miss the South Carolina Half as the turn around time for a Calfee repair is 30 to 50 days. I'm not sure whats worse, missing a race and being without one of my favorite things or spending a bit of extra money and not missing a beat.

This decision has me feeling like this:



full disclosure: I've been making faces at cameras in races for a while - I finally timed it right!

5 comments:

Mary Eggers said...

awwww geezzzzzzz. i don't know which is worse. i would love to see you have a day when EQUIPMENT didn't give you a problem.

but looking at the big picture.... you could send your bike away and have coach E torture you in the pool and on the run.... maybe replace the 1/2 IM with a 1/2 marathon?

either way you will turn it into a positive!

Anne Findlay said...

oh I'm really sorry to hear about your frame. But how is your body? I hope you weren't injured in the crash.

PJ said...

Oh man that suuuuucks!

Sorry, Ed. Huge bummer. Let us know what you decide to do.

Senorita said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog. And because of this post, I know know that 777 does not guarantee anything.

Missy said...

That face looks like you're crapping yourself, I'm just saying! SUCKS about the frame. I have an Orbea TT bike too, carbon. While I love, love, love a carbon bike, it's stuff like this that makes me think I may change it up in the future. Keep us posted. I'd like to know which way you go. Repairing carbon would lose strength, I would imagine, wouldn't it?