Ironman France - TriathlonFull Ironman

Never swam in the ocean until this trip, and obviously have never swam in such a huge violent crowd. My buddy said it was way more aggressive than his IMCan race - not sure why.



The wetsuit slashed my neck to ribbons even with a TON of body glide. I will definately use a piece of duct tape on my neck next time.

Normally I'd say I have extremely fast trans - I do the flying leap etc. But this was such a long race I figured 1-2 mins wasn't going to make a big diff.

Getting out of the water was a traffic jam as people were actually lining up to get under the showers to rince off the sea water. This trans was also extremely long as it was crammed into a boardwalk so from end to end was over 500m. And because it was narrow when you're in a crowd, you can't really run. I also took extra time to dry off and put on a crap load of sunblock since this race did not provide it (!!!)

I didn't even change my shorts as I used the same tri shorts for the whole race. I was flipflopping even up to race day about whether I'd change into bike shorts or not.

If I'd known there was no sunblock I'd have brought spray instead of my beach cream. I will also ALWAYS clip my shoes to the bike as I can move a lot quicker barefoot than in the horrible cleats.

Mentally I was expecting to pull in a sub-6 hour bike, based on my buddys previous race and our usual training speed. However there was twice the amount of climbing and the downhills had such hairpin turns you couldn't make up 100% of the speed back. I definately see why many recommended a road bike setup. Other than the few flat sections coming in/out of town and near the halfway point, you'd probably be just fine in the drops rather than aero.

There were also dozens of very serious crashes where people had cornered too fast and ended up plastered into the walls. My buddy was only about 30 seconds behind me before the long climb but got stopped by the police for 10 minutes while they landed a helicopter on the road to evac a guy. They were going to hold up the whole race until the guy was gone but the french bikers are insane and were screaming at the cops to let them pass by on the far side - cursing and spitting and just going wild. Eventually the cop did let everyone by. I was wondering why virtually no one was catching/passing me and now I know why.

For nutrition, I've been training with infinat all year so that wasn't an issue. If they had mixed a bottle too strong I just took smaller sips and washed down with water. I kept my aero bottle full of inf, a water bottle on the downtube and a bottle of inf on the back cage. Worked perfect. Also took my 4 gels, 1 per hour. They were duct taped to the top tube. I also had about 9 cliff shots dipped in icing sugar that I kept in my bento box. Oh and 1 full cliff bar before the 50k mark (big climb from 50-70). I probably should have taken a bit more liquid as I only peed once (and yes I pulled over).

Never having done a marathon, much less an IM my primary goal was finishing so I was trying not to burn out the legs. Next time = more effort. :)

I had to use the potty at this point as there were NO portas on the entire bike course (talk about a female-unfriendly race!!).

I also had to change my shirt and redo my sunblock as the boardwalk is pretty much completely shade free. Still, I had no idea this took as long as it did. I didn't stop and have a nap or eat dinner. :P


Sunblock spray, quick laces, run barefoot instead of running in bike shoes.

I'm a Canadian who runs in shorts and a t-shirt when it's just barely above 0. I'm very pale and the sun/heat is my nemesis. My issues were not about muscles or food, it was heat and sun and heat. And yes, I know this race wasn't even that hot. I don't think I could ever do hawaii or AZ for this reason.

So the first lap I just sucked it up and went for it. They had showers at 2 places on the course to run under, but I knew I didn't want wet feet right at the start so I did things like soak my hat or just my hands. Then it was still causing grief so I went under it on the second lap. Shortly after I started to get serious chills to the point I was shivering. I assumed this was an early sign of heat stroke or shock so I stopped running immediately. Nothing would have pissed me off more than to get pulled off the course by medical. So I walked about 1K on lap two along with the aid stations, and lifted my shirt to try and try it off and warm up again. After getting into the 3rd lap I started feeling better, stayed out of the showers and the sun went behind a couple of rogue clouds (also it was getting later in the day). My last lap was about the same pace as my first and the last 5k was pretty much at my 10k race pace to try and make up some lost time.

I read somewhere that as a guesstimate you take your HM time, double it and add 30 mins to get your marry time. Then add another 30 mins to get your IM marry time. Not far off for me this time.


Try and get more heat training.

>>> Heat stroke is typically caused by a combination of hot environment, strenuous exercise, clothing that limits evaporation of sweat, inadequate adaptation to the heat, too much body fat, and/or lack of fitness. <<<

6/6, yeah!

I would like to do IM-Canada next and while it doesn't have the humidity it's just as hot if not hotter with even less shade. So I'm not sure what I'll be able to do for it.

Collapse, then some walking around with stretching. The following days I noticed a few small blisters and stairs hurt but we were able to walk around Nice and do sight-seeing.



The fact that it was unknown. I absolutely didn't want to screw up and not finish. Next time I won't be as concerned.



The swim and the bike were fun. Long, and tiring but not painful. The run is the actual hard part and it hurt bad.

When my buddy and his friend Dan finished IMC 2 years ago, they did nothing the following year and Dan still has no interest in ever doing another IM (he was sub 12 for IMC). I had no idea how I'd feel about it after the race was done. Well, I'm already planning for the next IM (definately one I can drive to) in a few years (it's hard on the family) but will definately do some 70.3s and such in the meantime.