T1

Out of the water, I run up the ramp and through the shower (helps wash off the salt). I stripped my wetsuit to my waist on the way. As I ran into the transition area, I was unsure what to expect. All the stories of other Ironman races included lots of volunteers, wet suit strippers (or peelers), other helpers. There was none of that here.

I managed to find my bag off the rack and ran into the changing tent. The tent was a mad house with hundreds of people everywhere trying to change. I plopped down in an empty chair and struggled to get my wet suit off my legs in my swim daze. I dumped my transition bag out and started grabbing my bike stuff. I tried to be deliberate -- forgetting something before a 112 mile bike ride was not worth saving a few seconds. I applied chamois cream (very important) and body glide to many body parts. Then grabbed my bike shoes, helmet and sun glasses. Shoving all my swim stuff back in the bag, I went to find my bike. At this point, I realized there was no volunteer applying sunscreen, but there was random bottles of sunscreen. I grabbed a bottle and lathered some on.

I headed out of the tent into the sunlight. A volunteer took my bike bag and clopped (in my bike shoes) to my bike. I paused for a quick kiss from Heather and then headed out on the bike.
T1 time was a leisurely: 10:02

The Swim

Race day started at 3:30. I actually sleep well, but I had no problem waking up. The hotel was full of racers, so the hotel had a special breakfast at 4 for all the racers. All week I had been eating a lot. Breakfast was no exception. To me, the pinnacle of French cooking is the chocolate croissant. I had maybe 10 for breakfast. Along with some cheese and ham for some protein to fill me up.

After breakfast, we had a leisurely walk down to the start. The streets where strange in the before 5 am. Racers spilled out of the hotels in multi-colored spandex and headed like lemmings toward the start. The leftovers of the evening revelry stumbled home as we headed out for the day.

The morning setup was quick. I pumped up my tires with a borrowed pump (one less thing to lug across Europe), put my bottles on the bikes, and filled my bento box my food. I was surprisingly calm.

The swim course was a confusing two loops. After the first loop of about 2400 meters you run up on the shore (over a timing mat) and back into the water for a second loop. However, the second loop was inside the first loop and looking out into the bay the swim course made no sense. Everywhere people where having animated discussions (with a lot of pointing) and in many languages about where to swim. I was not too concerned. There was going to be a lot of people in front of the me.

The beach swim start was sectioned into starting corrals by approximate swim time. I did any easy warm up then found a spot in my corral. The clock ticked down to show time. The helicopter overhead added to the drama of the day.

At 6:30 the gun sounded and the French announcer yelled something. All 2300 of us gingerly (rock beach!) and quickly rushed into the water. I was racing Ironman France.

Once in the water, I tried keep my pace nice and easy. I had heard a lot of stories of the roughness of an Ironman swim. For me, it was not that bad. I got into a group and followed. People are everywhere, under the surface the water is churning, and above the surface orange swim caps and wet suits are all that is visible. Early in the swim, I simply follow and do not even bother looking for the buoys. As the group approached the first orange buoy the crowd swelled and you had to shorten your stroke. My group was actually well outside the first buoy, but there was really no choice on which way to go -- you followed the herd of neoprene.
After the first turn, the crowd lessened and I concentrated on an efficient stroke and staying on someone's feet to save energy. I settled into my Ironman pace -- whatever that meant. After rounding the last buoy and heading back to shore, I learned that saltwater and a sleeveless wet suit is not the best combination. Both my arms started chafing against the wet suit -- that was going to hurt later.

Eventually, I reached the shore for the first time and run up through timing mat and right back into the water. I glance at my watch and it reads 45+ minutes. I have no idea if that is good or not. My mind can do much math at this point. Heading back into the water, I pass several people that did not want to get back in.

The second lap was more of the same. I saw the diver filming the swim. I hope my form looked good. By the end of the swim, the chafing on my really hurt and got a lot of my attention. Then it was over. I ran up the carpet out of the silence of the swim on to the beach. I was out of the water in 1:16:12 and swam 2.4 miles. This was my longest swim ever and faster than the hour and half I had guessed.

Pre Race

The race is on Sunday. Here is a short run down of how to combine a relaxing beach vacation combined with an Ironman -- or not.

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.

Getting There

"The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry" -- who knew Stienbeck had done a lot of international air travel.

The trip to France started off with lines in Austin. Bad weather in Dallas canceled all American flights for the rest of the day to Dallas. At the American counter, we waited an hour while the airline ticket agent worked on finding a new set of flights. Our Austin-Dallas-London-Nice trip had changed to Austin-Chicago-London-Nice and the connection to Nice was oversold, so we were only confirmed for a day later. The flights to Chicago and London were uneventful, but long. Arriving in London, the fun started. Since our connection to Nice was unconfirmed we had to get our checked baggage (including my bike box) and carry it across the airport. After trekking across the airport with the bike and all our other luggage, British Airways informs us that there was really no chance of making any of the connections to Nice on Wednesday. The flights where oversold and the stand-by list had 15 people ahead of us. So with a flight confirmed the next day at 9, we headed back across the airport to get a hotel voucher from American Airlines.

Resigned to spending the night in London, we stopped to drop of the bike and a large suitcase at luggage storage shop. Back at the American desk to get our hotel room, the guy behind the desk assured us that he could get us to Nice. He booked us on new flight from London to Paris with an Air France connection from Paris to Nice. So... we turn around and go back pick up and pay for our luggage storage. Finally, we check in for a flight to Paris at leaves at 4. Originally, we had supposed to arrive in Nice at 1 and we have been in the London airport since 10. Mostly standing in lines and walking back and forth between airline desks. Finally, we board the plane to Paris. It pushed back for departure, and we proceed to go no where. After traveling for 24 hours, your sense of time gets a little poor. Eventually, we actually take off.

Carbo-loading at Heathrow

About 24 hours after leaving our house we finally land in France. Unfortunately, we are in Paris not Nice. In the Paris airport, we head through customs/immigration and start to look for our gate. We literally run through the airport trying to get to the Air France terminal. Arriving there the Air France attendant politely informs us our flight is leaving and there is no way we can get on. Of all our flights, this one actually leaves on time. And sorry Air France has no more flights to Nice tonight. Spurred on by unreasonable optimism, I run back across the airport to the British Airways desk to see if they can find us another flight. Nope. They do book us a room with meal vouchers at the Paris Hilton (insert joke here).

By this point of the trip, we just want a shower, change clothes, and to go to bed. However, our luggage is somewhere in the checked luggage dungeon not possible to access by mere mortals. It is now almost 9 at night in Paris (on Wednesday we think...). Now we have a confirmed flight first thing in the morning to Nice, our luggage already checked, and even two boarding passes.

We head over to the Paris Hilton via the shuttle bus. I check in and ask for basically anything they can give us: bath robe, shave kit, tooth brush, etc. The hotel personnel were very nice. Our airline vouchers get us a ridiculously expensive Italian buffet of mediocre quality (50 EUR per person). Thankfully, the next day is much smoother and we are in the Nice-nice sun by midday Thursday -- only one day late.

If getting there was half the fun, this race would be quite the saga. At least we made it safely with all of our luggage. My bike made it unscathed and unlost!

Recovering

I am recovering nicely in Paris. When, I get back I will write up a detailed account of the race. It only took a few days to start feeling normal physically. I hear the first run afterwards always sucks no matter how long you wait. I am also surprised how fast you forget about the rough spots. I catch myself thinking about what I would do better next time -- then I the rational part argues "what do you mean next time?"... I guess we will see which side wins.

For know, I am wandering about Paris.

Finished!

I made it. It is now late afternoon the next day and I am recoverying. The race was harder than I had imagined, but it seems to be a common experience. All the races at the hotel, talked about it was the hardest race they had done. The weather was hot, the wind was in the wrong direction, and the French apparently outlawed ice. One racer from the UK was on his third Ironman and he did not make it inside the cut-off time.

I will post details later, but the swim and bike went well. The bike course was a killer. The climbs were very long and the descents were a little crazy. A lot of people did not finish the bike. Once I got to the run, I could not keep any fluids down. I ended walking most of the marathon just to finish with going to the medical tent.

Thanks for all the well wishes. Everytime, I crossed a timing mat I thought about everyone watching back home. It was great to have the virtual and real support here (thanks honey ;)). I do not know if I would have made it without them.

I packed my bike to be shipped bck to the US this morning. I think it will be a while before I miss it. Tomorrow, we leave for Paris. I will post details about the race and racing in France when I get back.

Ironman Eve

The big day is almost here. I can not really believe it. It is like the night before Christmas with more restrictions. I do not have much to do today -- just drop off the bike along with my bags of equipment for the bike and run. That way at 5 in the morning you just show up with your goggles and swimsuit and you are good. What sucks about today is that you have free time, but you can't use it! I am in a cool new city, but I do not want to eat new things or walk around too much. It is like my life is on pause until tomorrow morning -- no new experiences until then.

This morning, I finally rode my bike. It survived the trip and reassembly. Riding in Nice was interesting. Normally I would have embraced the challenge, but today I just wanted to test my bike and loosen my legs. I got up at 7 and just went for short ride down the run course with a guy I met at the hotel. This morning the streets where wet and mostly empty. The main street has trams running through the center of the road along with broad walking and parking areas. In Nice, the parking/driving/walking areas are not always clearly separated. As we rolled down Avenue Jean Medecin, the other guy found the seperation between the road and walkway as he crashed only about a minute into the ride! I just heard the clatter behind me -- that helps wake you up in the morning. The avenue was lined with a different rock that created a small lip (1"). He was just moving over and did not see the lip. Luckily, he and his bike were fine -- a small bit of road rash on his knee and hand. The rest of the ride went with out incident, but we were both glad to finish without getting taken out by a car or pedestrian. It was not that it was dangerous, but this close to the race you become paranoid about doing something stupid. A guy I ran with this winter, said this time before a race is when you need to wrap yourself in bubble wrap.

After the bike, I walked back to the sea with my goggles and wetsuit. One of the sponsors, had booth done by the water for people to test their wetsuits, so there was a bunch of races in a that spot swimming. I wrestled my wetsuit on an tenderly picked my way to the water. (The beach in Nice is made of rocks.) The water is clear and bright blue. The waves lap at the shore quietly but with strength. There are no big breakers, but the swells are there and you can hear the rocks getting sucked back out to sea with each wave. I am not complaining about the water temperature. It is a little cold on your face, but nothing compared to what my friends are going to face tomorrow. My swim felt good and strong. The salt water and wetsuit make you float on the surface for a fast swim. I do not think tomorrow will be quite as calm with 2499 others trying get to the same place as me!

Time to go relax before dropping of my bags and bike at 5 tonight. Then tomorrow it starts early. A 3:30 wakeup with breakfast at 4 am. Stroll over to the race site by 5. Drop off your food for the run and bike in the morning. At 6am, hop in the water for a brief warmup. Then at 6:30 it is showtime! You can follow along in the fun at Ironman Live. (Make sure you are looking at Ironman France -- there are two other races tomorrow!) Nice is 7 hours ahead of Austin, so I suspect I will be well on my way before most of you wake up.