Foo - Your greatest competitive/athletic accomplishment(s)

Including on a bike, whether it be a long distance tour such as crossing a continent, a race against a pro, or on a pro team. Or a mountain climb, snow skiing, hang gliding, dog sledding, badminton, checkers, Go Fish...

Probably my first best accomplishment was at age 11 and being the only one of 5 (including my brother and cousins) to get up on water ski's on the first attempt. See, in our family, water skiing was a rite of passage. My Dad and his brother's were HS and college sports stars, and all were excellent skiers, so we kids had a lot of pressure on us to do well. Leading up to that day I had read an article in Boys Life about how to water ski. I practiced the seating and step-by-step positioning that was recommended in the article. On the way to the lake that morning I told everyone I would get up first try. "Oh really! And what makes you say that?" "I read about it in a magazine." They all laughed. Being the youngest of the group, I was vindicated by doing just what I said I would do after watching all four before me struggle and fall on their face and asses. Had I known about head nods and gangsta hand symbols, I would have been nodding and flashing at them behind the boat that morning. "Yo fools, look at your boyeee!":D

Another would have been my first single day century+ ride at age 15 on a heavy Schwinn touring bike loaded with 20+ lbs of camping gear. The last 30 miles felt epic. Wracked with soreness and exhaustion, there was no question of reaching our lakeside destination. It was either that or death! We finally reached the Great Lake shore as the sun was setting. We sat in the sand wordlessly for a long time before washing up and finding some food within walking distance, then plopped down in the sand and fell asleep like dead dogs. Within a few hours of waking up the next morning we were back on the road for another 50miles to where one of the rider's older sister was camping along a lake with friends. Can you say crazy teen beer party? :p

My Go Fish story just happened this past Thanksgiving when I taught the 7 yr old daughter of friends how to "properly" play that simple card game. She beat me 8 out of 10 times. Not a personal best, but a proud moment of watching the birth of a true competitor.:)

Wearing my trackie dacks backwards at some gippsland tennis tournament back in the day. They all laughed so hard I reckon they considered giving me a trophy for it. That or the time I got to pull on the Big V to smash the croweaters. :)

Glory days. My senior year in HS I scored 8 pts in the final quarter of the state basketball championship, helping my team complete an undefeated season. In an earlier tournament that year I had a reverse dunk in traffic and two game-saving three point goals.

I have to admit that since I quit playing basketball competitively, I've been a pretty average athlete.

Won a heat at Florence Motor Speedway, 3rd in feature in Mini-stocks.
Won a heat at Myrtle Beach Speedway, in a street stock. I wrecked severely in the feature and haven't raced cars since.
3rd at the local military base bike race. I still can't figure out how I beat 245 Marines. The starting field was 260, but only 15 civilians, and civilians took the top 6 overall positions with the worst finishing civilian coming in 22nd.

I won the 6th grade Frisbee golf tournament and 7th grade bike rodeo (can't believe I used to be able to trackstand on my SS coaster).

Not a sport accomplishment, but a competitive one: I won first place in my 5th grade's book-writing contest. It was, by the way, a story about sports. :p

I ran track in HS, mostly 110 and 220 sprints and hurdles (and some high-jumping). I ran my first and only ever 440 in 69.9 seconds. No, not a great time (I won my heat, but took 4th or 5th overall, so no ribbon), but I was told it was pretty good for someone tapped to run it at the last minute....

I was 13. It was my first speed skating meet with my new. kangaroo hide skates. I had got them earlier that month but the coach didn't think I was ready for them until this day.

My first event was a 3 lap race followed by a 5 lap and then a 7 lap. I killed everyone.
My next event was a mixed relay - we won.
My next event was a two man relay - we won.
My next event was a four man relay - we won.
My last event was an open race. 25 laps, 25 guys going all out. Me and three mates were up front. I led the race for several laps. But on the last lap my two mates passed me and another guy followed. I was holding fourth and we were at the last corner. I suddenly heard a whistle and saw the third place guy foul out and I crossed the line in 3rd. THAT was the greatest race I had. All the other wins didn't hold up to this one. Mainly because I was the youngest and shortest in the field. It was awesome.

When I was probably around 12 or so I once caught a fly ball in right field with my eyes closed since I was afraid of it hitting me. Pretty pathetic ;)

[ed]Actually I did do a solo kayak trip up the Damariscotta river in Maine (~20 miles). Longest trip I ever did solo and studied the lay of the river for about three days before I left. Had seals swimming with me, running ahead to point out the rocks, chatted with the lobstermen. Awesome time.

Whoa. Three meant the most to me.

One has to do with a show/competition in martial arts with my kicking - another part of it was sparring/grappling.

The other one has to do with racing autocross.

The third one has to do with pursuit driving.

Dang. Good memories. :o

39 beers in 16 hours...

Athletic? Not really...

Competitive? Yes... (I didn't win, though)

won a club race, 43 miler, there were some pro's with us. I was cat4. stomped them at the line. t'was good. my first year racing. I was already strong as hell I guess.


I was going to be on my way to fast track up to cat 2, but a quadriceps muscle severing crash in another race ruined my aspirations to become a pro.

39 beers in 16 hours...

Athletic? Not really...

Competitive? Yes... (I didn't win, though)

well done!


must consume more beer than guy on the internet......

I was the first girl to ever pole vault for my high school. After I graduated I then coached for 2 years at my high school in sprints and vault.

I won a board game once when I was seven.

Squatted 400lbs once...will never do that again. I walked around like I had a corn cob up my bunghole for about 3 days afterwards.

I got out of bed this morning. Does that count?

I ran a mile in 8:30.

I don't have too many sports accomplishments but here are a few.

Ran HS track.
Played HS hockey.
Played for the University club hockey team
Scored 2 goals in one game at the NC State Games

Played centerfield for 4 City of Raleigh Championship softball teams (out of 250 teams)
Could throw a football 60 yards on a line. (never played organized football though)
Set my HS record for distance in baseball throw (as a freshman)

Won 2 Whitewater Slalom races in my C1
Won 1 Whitewater Slalom race in C2

In cycling, I have never raced but have completed 2 tours of the Blue Ridge Parkway and 3 times the Assault on Mt Mitchell. Plus numerous other century and organized events.

Finished 8th out of 20 in my age group at my first TT on a standard road bike.

Beat my 7 yo daughter in a toothbrush race. Slowest one wins. ;)

third place is apparently the best I can do.

third place swimming national championship when I was 19
third place was my best time for 10k's ( 2001)
third place was my best time for duathlons ( 2007)

I was 3 minutes under my estimated time for the Boston marathon( 2002), does that count?:p

Im sure I'd be first at a pie eating contest though:D

Nah, you're #1 in my book! :D

I've got three that I can remember:

Won the CIF-San Diego section championships in volleyball as a 5'-7" starting outside hitter.

Completed my first century...the PIE ride...100 miles with nearly 10,000' of climbing, including Palomar Mountain.

Hiked the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim in a day. 24.2 miles...the last 5 have about 4,000' of climbing...with my 63 year old dad.

Nothing really stands out.

Losing 9-11 in foosball. Oh, to the defending house champions where my partner was one of their girlfriends who only touched the ball 2 times in the entire game.

Winning the conference consolation championship in the 200 butterfly when I was retired from competitive swimming but came out of retirement and did this on 2 weeks training. (Close meet, every point counted and the guy who would have swam this tore up his shoulder 2 weeks before the meet).

Cycling, endurance, the land rush. Back to back doubles.

I also have a teammate who claims I threw the best dummy he ever saw. That is a Rugby term for faking a pass. Honestly it was either going to be great or disaster. I actually had intended to pass until the last second when the Islander marking me moved across to take the guy outside me. If I had made the pass he would have been killed. As it was I scored by the posts. Not bad for a prop. Oh I also once scored 2 tries for 8 points in a match our side won 8 to 4. Also have a few matches long long ago where I was hooker and we won every set scrum. Hopefully there are enough guys from outside the States who can appreciate this.

OH Wait I've got it. I toured New Zealand on my own. Playes one match for Hora Hora Rugby club. Won man of the match. I still hear echos of this over 20 years later. I did not know at the time, but it seems the Kiwis were not expecting an American to be able to play a proper game of Rugby.

Won a state meet 100m dash in middle school.
Won intramural badminton title in college.
Ran a 5.34 mile.
Warmed many benches on basketball teams.

Hit a homerun in 5th grade little league after going hitless the entire previous year. Not my only home run as I continued play through HS but definitely the most memorable.

I ran a mile in 8:30.
Killer! :beer:



Ran track in high school and was fairly fast. One year at the state meet I got 2nd in the low hurdles and 5th in the high hurdles. Now my old ass would just have to walk around them. :lol:

Invite to try and qualify for 96 Olympic team.

Invite to try and qualify for 96 Olympic team.

wow!!! what happened?




and Stacey, thanks:)

1984 State American Legion Tournament: semifinal game. We were up by a run late and in the bottom of the eighth, the other team had runners on first and third with no outs. I came in and retired the side on six pitches. I still remember the sequence:

1) fastball for a taken for a strike: 0-1
2) curveball taken for a strke: 0-2
3) slider on the hands, swung and bounced right back to me for a 1-6-3 DP, runner held on third. 2 outs.
4) curveball taken for a strike: 0-1
5) fastball swung and missed: 0-2
6) circle change with a little backdoor movement swung and missed: strike three, side retired.

wow!!! what happened?




and Stacey, thanks:)

Swimming, blew out my knee before trials. At least I got the invite though as the pool trials was at that year, while maybe one of the fastest in the world, I always had my worst races there.

Highschool: I ran track all 4 years as a sprinter/jumper. My coach decided to screw with the sprinters my sophomore year and he made then all run the open mile.I ended up running one of my fastest miles at 6:28. My fastest was something between 5:45 and 6 min when I ran cross country my freshman year. Highest height I was able to jump was 7'6". For my height and not having a proper vaulting pit I think its not that bad.

Cycling: sprinting 5 miles in 15 min. This was done when I accidently slept in for my 9am Italian class. Since that moment I really wanted to ride on a track and work only speed and endurance.

College: represnting my university two years in a row for 9 ball. One huge accomplishment in billiards was going 8-1 in my region tournament then competing on the national level.

Provincial junior doubles badminton champion, age 19.

After about 70 kilometers of a mix of rock road and asphalt on a hardtail two youngsters (in their 20s) on road bikes passed me while I was tweaking my bike. They were crusing about about 33 KPH. I caught up and passed them at 40 KPH over a stretch that was about 5 or 6 kilometers long. They tried to race me but I crushed them. This was just this last year - when I was 48. :D

Oh, and I nearly beat the champeon ping pong player of Belize when I was in my 30s. Alas, I was much better then than now.

I biked across the United States! (http://www.bikeandbuild.org)
We biked ten weeks across the middle of the US, along the way, our days off would be to volunteer with the local Habitat for Humanity chapters. It was amazing.

I won a couple of pro disc golf tournaments for a paltry sum of money. Qualified for the US Championship and finished mid-pack.

3 sport athlete in HS. Did a triathlon before they got big.

I've never been really competitive at much. Played a lot of stuff, just not well. Biggest accomplishment was making USCF Cat 3. But that was only by accumulating enough pack finishes. Only placed once and that was 12th.

Oh, and I bowled 11 strikes in a row in league play once. Unfortunately it was the last half of one game and the first half of the next so I didn't get a 300.

My greatest accomplishment is getting into cycling altogether. I may still be new here and many may not know me yet but I am throughly addicted to BF and the wealth of knowledge/stupidity it holds.

My worst moment was a many years ago I did a martial arts demonstration with my master along with a few other students from the class anyway my job was to "fake" assault my master and he would demonstrate throws, and I would take them use a break fall and be fine. About half way through my routine I remember getting thrown and landing really hard on my head and from then on remember waking up in my bed with only fragments of the show in my memory. How this is my worst comes later on in the show when supposedly I just walked out on stage and screwed up another performance, the video of it is classic I walk out with a dazed expression and everyone stops and looks at me. I will see if I can find the video and post it.

I shoveled a foot of damned snow from my driveway last night.... and didn't have a heart attack....

I shoveled a foot of damned snow from my driveway last night.... and didn't have a heart attack....

:roflmao::roflmao::beer:

I played football and basketball in HS. Plus I ran track and did one year of cross country in Jr. HS (although I kept up with distance running on my own until I got to college :beer:. Of all of those sports three specific events come to mind...

I went to one school where I played football in Jr. High. I wasn't a "townie" so I wasn't well respected by a lot of the kids. In fact I was picked on by some a fair amount. We moved the year I would have played JV football. The school I moved to was the arch rival of the school that I was at. My dad gave me a pep talk and warned me that if I wanted to start, being new, I would have to be twice as good as the kids that had come up through the ranks in the new school. I worked my arse off and became a starting wide receiver on the team. When we played my old school I was matched up against one of the kids that picked on me a lot in the old school (he was a defensive back). I blew his doors off that game and managed three touchdown catches. He lost it and started a fight with me on the field and got booted from the game. The rest of my season was so-so. I did alright, but that was indeed the bright spot of the season.

My second best memory is with basketball. I wanted to play so bad when I was in Elementary school and Jr. High but I couldn't because my parents would not pick me up from practices after school. When we moved to the new school, they had a activity bus or I was able to catch a ride home with other older kids from my town. I had not played organized basketball until then but I had pretty good skills. The rule for JV in our school was that every player on the team got to start and be captain one game during the season. Again, I worked my butt off learning the plays and honing my "team" skills and luckily I was able to start my game about mid-season. I had a great game and scored like a maniac from the point guard position. From that time on I became a regular starter or got a lot of time from the bench depending on the situation. My junior year I was one of the top bench scorers on the varsity and started my senior year (point guard) where we were able to get to the regional state tournament (and lost to our arch rival - yes, the old school that I came from :D). However, I was hurt (twisted my ankle in warm up pretty bad). I played the first half and the coach pulled me for the second half (to my intense protest). That must be why we lost ;) :D.

My third best memory is this. My Dad and I used to run in the summer. We had a standard 2.5 mile route we ran. When we first started (probably when I was about 13) we both went out too hard and were gassed at about a half mile LOL. Well at about 15 or so I was so proud when my Dad realized that he was holding me back and said "oh, just go ahead and wait for me at the end". From there I started adding 5 and 10 mile routes to run and could maintain a sub 6 minute mile for those distances.

Ahhh....glory days indeed. Now I'm battling to get down below 200 lbs (5'10"). Although this cycling thing really has gotten me interested. I keep getting faster and stronger (and lighter :D). Are there races for old fat guys? Oh no, not those ugly competitive juices rising again...

Thanks for letting me remenisce!

I tested for my 1st degree in TKD last Friday. I may have passed.

100% score on the two-mile run for the Army basic training.

1984 State American Legion Tournament: semifinal game. We were up by a run late and in the bottom of the eighth, the other team had runners on first and third with no outs. I came in and retired the side on six pitches. I still remember the sequence:

1) fastball for a taken for a strike: 0-1
2) curveball taken for a strke: 0-2
3) slider on the hands, swung and bounced right back to me for a 1-6-3 DP, runner held on third. 2 outs.
4) curveball taken for a strike: 0-1
5) fastball swung and missed: 0-2
6) circle change with a little backdoor movement swung and missed: strike three, side retired.

I got chills reading that. Nice.

When I was 17 I was sponsored by Kniessl, Swix, Salomon, and Bolle for x-c racing. (Free skis, boots, bindings, poles, sunglasses and a guy to wax my skis 15 minutes before the race.)

I scored the only goal in a 1-0 conference soccer tournament final against our biggest rival as a sophomore in high school. The only goal I scored in either season I played.

Won the last doubles match to break a 3-3 tie and cement the season conference championship in tennis my senior year. The only varsity sport I played.

I got chills reading that. Nice.

Thanks. It lasted less than 10 minutes but it was perfect. I made 7 throws, 6 pitches and one throw to the bag, and every single one was pinpoint. I'll never be able to replicate that feeling but I'm glad to have done it just once.

When I was 17 I was sponsored by Kniessl, Swix, Salomon, and Bolle for x-c racing. (Free skis, boots, bindings, poles, sunglasses and a guy to wax my skis 15 minutes before the race.)

Dude thats sweet. Did you race at a national level?

Thanks. It lasted less than 10 minutes but it was perfect. I made 7 throws, 6 pitches and one throw to the bag, and every single one was pinpoint. I'll never be able to replicate that feeling but I'm glad to have done it just once.

Being 'in the zone' is an amazing feeling. When I shot those two three pointers in the final minute of play, it felt like shooting lay-ups. The hoop seemed like it was ten feet wide, no chance of missing whatsoever.

I swam the Pacific Ocean from Arizona to Germany last winter.

I just remembered a few more. Of medium stature, I was never a dominating force on the basketball court or football field. So instead, I worked on what I could do well. Cut to 1988 and I'm 30, just having moved to LA to work in video production. Our building had a number of companies working out of it, with the top floor an indie film company staffed by a gaggle of misfit dudes from across the country. Half I liked, the others, meh. One time we decided to settle a dispute on the basketball court. 3 on 3. I wasn't really all that concerned who won since I wasn't involved in the dispute. So I'm playing, hitting and missing some shots. The usual. Then while defending the punkiest of the lot, the person I least liked, from New Jersey no less, he cracked me upside the head with his elbow. F-ing stunned me! I determined it wasn't an accident. Suddenly it was game on for me. They were ahead by 6 at that point, but from that moment on my intensity and focus picked up dramatically. Everything I did worked - a no look pass assist, rebounds, hook shot, reverse layup, jumper. I ended up scoring the last 8 points and we won by 2. Sweet!

Second related moment was a mixed-gender touch football game with a bunch of film production types, actors and such that included a rising hotshot soap actor who we'll call Mr Chisel Chin, plus Sean Astin. Yes, Sam from LOTR. Chisel, Sean and I were on the same team (must have been 10 to a side), and from the gathering it looked to be more social than competitive. But guys being guys, things quickly turned competitive. Chisel insisted on being QB, even though he wasn't necessarily qualified. Again, it was social, so who really cares? Back and forth with scores, interceptions, fumbles, goadings, laughs. Suddenly the opposition figured out Chisel's patterns and weaknesses and began intercepting his passes with demoralizing regularity. Our team began grousing about losing, so I offered to take over at QB. He objected at first, but the team over-ruled him. I put on a clutch performance with long accurate passes and quick zip strikes, many of them to Sean. I honestly don't remember if we won, but I do remember the look on Chisel's face whenever I'd complete a pass. Priceless.

I swam the Pacific Ocean from Arizona to Germany last winter.

Stop it, you made me spit on my screen!