Ironman France - Triathlon

Ya....so....First things first...If you are not a strong swimmer....do not run into the water as soon as the shot goes off...wait a couple minutes...that's all I will say.

Once I got myself down to my swim corral I had a few minutes to relax and try to find a comfortable position on the rock beach. (Don't go to Nice expecting a sandy beach...it's all smooth rock) I kind of had to balance so I was standing on the flat side of larger rocks. I knew that whatever I did once the shot went off wouldn't matter but in the few minutes before the mass start I wanted to be comfortable.

The pros started in the water and head off. We had about 10min and the announcers were getting everyone pumped up in a variety of English/French/Spanish...etc,etc,etc. It is the most multilingual ironman I've done to this point thats for sure. They had a fancy little helicopter camera that was flying around the crowd. It was a sea of wetsuit people (well...men mainly from what I could see...not many pink caps in the group...more on this later).

The shot went off and OMFG...CHAOS...CHAOS...CHAOS...I have never done a more brutal mass start ever. 1) You have to run with bare feet over rock....slippery, wet rock...to get into the water. 2) 2500+ trying to run into the water at the exact same time over probably 100-200m, 3) Wave swells=crazy sighting, 4) 2500+ people running into the water= VIOLENCE!!, 5) 2500+ people trying to figure out what direction to swim in= VIOLENCE!!

Anyways...it was an insane washing machine for around 500m...I got kicked in the nose....chest...run over multiple times...This one dude I nicknamed "red wetsuit man" kept running me over. I tried multiple times to get away from him, but no matter what I did I couldn't get away!!

With the ocean swells it was really tough to sight for the buoys and people had no idea which way they were swimming. I generally knew the direction and eventually got to the first buoy but my parents and aunt said that there were people who must have swam way off course and needed to be re-routed multiple times. I knew the shape of the course and was rounding buoys, but at one point I kind of lost what direction I was swimming in and I thought I was swimming in a different direction but was heading back to shore...it was a cross of relief and confusion at how I ended up heading back to shore. There was a buoy we had to exit the water the go around and they had these strong dudes volunteering to help everyone up the steep slope of rocks...I would not have been able to exit the water very effectively without them.

Few OUCH OUCH OUCH, steps on rock and then ran on the carpet towards the water again...some more OUCH OUCH OUCH and back into the water to swim a shorter, reverse loop to the finish.

By this point everyone was more or less going in the right direction, but red wetsuit man was still banging into me occasionally....BAH....I ended up next to a guy and we swam the final 500m or so back towards the finish line together. We were somewhat sympatico and didn't have any collisions.

Exited with the help of the volunteer strongman and had a quick shower and headed up the ramp towards transition.

Nothing. Come up with a better strategy for escaping crazy red wetsuit man. I wanted to be under 1:05 and I was.

So longest transition ever and because I was #61 I was on the far side. I didn't have to run with my bike very far...but I had to run pretty far from one side to the other to get it.

Had a quick view of my parents and then I was on my way.

Think it went pretty well.

So started off leaving the flats around Nice. Settled in to a comfortable pace for the first 10-15km before the hills started. I didn't have a chance to pre ride or pre drive the course but I figured I had a decent perspective of what it would be like....ya...no.

We will split this up into the hills:

Just before 20km there is the Col de la Condaime. It's a 12% grade for about 500m leading into 5-6km at 4-5%. I don't think I've ever done a 12% now that I've done that...even the death hills of California (see the RR for Cali 70.3) have nothing on that sucker. My god. Anyways...got up it...kept moving...Col de Gattieres. Done.

As we started climbing more a chill started to creep in. I understand why in the TdF the riders have to put newspaper into their shirts now. It was overcast as we started the long 20k climb of Col de l"Ecre. AKA. DEATH DEATH HILL. Honestly...Once again the bike gazelles were passing me...and the odd thing was that they were all men...rarely a woman. Odd? So starting up Col de l'Ecre....starts off with a nice 6km at 3.5% and then 3km at 7%....UGHHHH. The thing about it was that you couldn't really tell you were climbing unless you saw the curve of the road and how it went up...but when riding up straight it didn't look like a hill..felt like a hill...so it started messing with me to a point that I could have sworn something on my bike was rubbing...eventually I got off to check. Brakes rubbing? No....something up with axles? No...okay back on the bike...grind grind grind..."Something has to be wrong here"....Got off again....nothing rubbing...Got on again.

Had a little break half way up with 4km at 2%...and then 8km at 6%.... :( :( :(....There was a point where I didn't know if I was going to make it up. Then there was a point that I saw a set of switchbacks climbing up the mountain that I almost started crying...pity party on a mountain. NBD. Kept climbing into the clouds...grind grind grind grind grind...

Anyways...finally made it up the mountain (prob took 90min for 20km). I got off my bike and stretched my low back...it was just killing me. I grabbed my extra apricots from my special needs bag because since it took me so long to get up that 20km I figured I would need some extra nutrition. Walked with my bike for a few and noticed when I was mounting that this British guy had 4 rice pudding containers in his special needs bag...(NEXT TIME....NEXT TIME)....I almost asked him for one. lol. I wonder what he would have said??

So left the top of Col de l'Ecre into the valley. I love descending....my mood instantly lifted with the descent. It was during this intial descent that I noticed the lack of women again...I was just surrounded by dudes. As we went by the aide stations and towns people would shout "Une fille!!! Allez! Allez!" "Courage!" SO it finally clicked in that there were hardly any women doing the race...anytime a girl would go by the crowd they would get louder...It was kind of neat...odd, but neat.

We hit the second longer climb around 100km called Cote de Saint Pons. Just before starting to climb I saw this blue thing race by me. This French guy who had a race number was riding on one of those beachside bikes that look the same as the one I rode in Paris....so this bulky, heavy hybrid style. This guy had something happen to his bike and he was riding a rental communter bike to do IM France....and made it up that 20k climb. So I stuck with him and eventually passed him while climbing up the Cote de Saint Pon...but he had all his nutrition and hydration in the basket that was on the front of the bike...of all the things I remember from this race...I remember that basket. That dude was intense. His name was Patrice.

After the Cote de Saint Pons it was mainly descents with a few climbs...but I was fairly drained. There was a mostly flat section after Cote de Saint Pons and I was feeling fairly nauseous and then all of a sudden: BLECH...I threw up while riding...I just had enough time to turn my head to not get vomit everywhere...bizarre.

Kept descending back towards Nice. There were a ton of hairpin corners and pretty much at every single one there was an accident. My hands were cramping by the time I got back into Nice.

It was such a relief to get back to the flats and towards the crowds....

Bring rice pudding.

Ride a 20k death hill before doing IMF.

Had to take my bike shoes off because as soon as I stepped off the bike the bottoms of both feet were cramping...Walked/hobbled through transition. Sat down. Put my runners on. One step in front of the other.

Not really.

So 4 loops along the Cote d'Azur. Starting off I was once again planning for 9:1 run/walk. Started running and hit 3min and my legs were burning with lactic acid. The bike zapped me quite a bit more than I thought it would.

So I settled on a 5:1 similar to IMLP in 2011. Set my garmin to buzz so I wasn't turning my arm over back and forth too much. It was warmer than forecasted. I think around 28-30C so I took the opportunity to use the cold water showers. Saw my parents and aunt pretty early in the first lap. They were decked out in their Canada t-shirts with tattoos and random flags. Maple leafs everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Haha.

My second loop felt better than my first, but by the third loop I was feeling super nauseous.

It was kind of weird to do so many loops but all the spectators and volunteers would remember my name. Likely due to there being less than 300 women in the race out of over 2500 finishers. They all said something "Courage..." and I know what it's supposed to mean but don't know if we say anything in English that translates?

Had a bit more walking on my third lap but kept trying to stick to my 5:1 plan. It was such a relief to hit the turn around for the final time. They would hand us a wristband every time we finished a lap...first was green, second yellow and third red...all I wanted was my red one and all I had was 10km left.

I put whatever I had left into that last 10km....just wanted to be done.

Hit the finishing chute and crossed the line at 14:22:22!!

More running on tired legs? The heat wasn't too bad due to training in Hawaii but it just did not fit all together like I hoped...

Saw my parents and aunt through the fence...took my runners off....wandered around...

I sent my Mom to get my bike because I didn't want to walk all the way down transition. I gathered my dry goods and sat down on a chair to put my Toms on and a nice lady asked if I wanted a massage. I apparently had sat down on the chairs for the line up for massage. YAY MASSAGE. I've never had one post race.

Got my massage. Grabbed some food and walked back to the condo with my parents. SLowly walked.


Surprise. IMF is hard. Haha.