Thursday
Arrive around noon. Get bags and meet the arrange car for transfer to the hotel. The Nice hotel was booked through Premium Sports and it included transfers. I called early in the morning to tell the about the previous day's fiasco and the new schedule. It was a little concerned about my non-existant French getting correctly interpreted over the phone. Apparently they figured it out because we got picked up. We checked in to the small hotel Grand Hotel Le Florence. The hotel room was small, but big enough for a bike and two people. The people at the hotel were very nice and a lot of racers stayed at the hotel. The start line was a 10-15 min walk. I would stay there again. We head down to the beach area to look around and stop by the race expo. Racers check in starting on Thursday, so I went had and got my packet. Luckily, I had my USAT card. Otherwise, they had doctors on site to give a physical. At the expo, I sign up for a pre-race/post flight massage (1 EUR per min). The massage was nice way to flush some of the jet lag out of the legs.
That afternoon/evening I assemble my bike.
Friday
Bike course tour by van. The travel agency advertised a race course tour led by an athlete. I expected the athlete maybe to have Ironman France previously. Oddly enough our "tour guide", did not even know what an Ironman was. The only way we found the route was using the map of the course from the expo! The tour got even better when the driver realized he was going to be late for his next gig and tired to make up time in the mountain roads. The driver even apologized for turning our tour into a rally as raced down the mountain. Even so, I was glad to get to see the course, and I would highly recommend driving atleast part of the course before the race. However, our particular tour was not quite what I had in mind!
That evening was the official athlete dinner at a convention hall area. The meal was included with your entry. The food was good and they introduced some of the pro racers competing. We even meet another couple from Austin. They noticed our Hill Country Running shirt.
Saturday
I finally ride my bike and swim! Later that afternoon, I check in my bike, bike bag, and run bag. They even body mark you the night before! Now, I feel extra cool. Beside my fashionable orange prison bracelet, I have 722 on both arms and both thighs along with my age written in Sharpie down my calf.
All the days involved a lot of eating, but it was harder to stay hydrated. You could not go in any convenience store and buy Gatorade. I ended up drinking a lot of Power Bar drink and Power Aid. I also brought a few packets powder to mix with water. Next time, I would bring a lot more of those. Eating was fairly easy. Nice is close to Italy, so there was a ton of pasta and pizza places.
In the end, the race consumed basically our entire time in Nice. We walked around town a bit and went to the beach for an hour or so, but we did not make it to any of the tourist attractions like the Matisse museum or even Monaco. In terms of race preparation, I was happy with the getting there on Thursday. I would have been a lot more nervous about transportation issues arriving later than that.
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