Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Ironman France

It's taken me a bit longer than planned to get around to this, and no pics at present (will be added later!), but finally got a few minutes to write a report. [Edit: OK, it took a bit more than a few minutes, sorry it's so long!]

Build-up
Training had more-or-less gone to plan (see previous post), with a focus on cycling given that is by far my weakest of the 3. Had some good long rides at the Tour of Wessex, Chiltern 100 and other weekend rides with the "Uperstars".

Alex and I decided to drive down (I hate taking a bike on a flight) and meet Matt, Heather and Andy in Nice where we had booked an apartment in the old town from the Thursday to Tuesday. So Alex and I left on the Wednesday afternoon, stopped in Chaumont for the night on the way (amazing thunderstorm while we were there) and got there on Thursday afternoon. Parking in Nice was "interesting", particularly given the size of the car (which became known as "Butch" for reasons I can't quite recall!). But we eventually got to the apartment - great location right in the heart of the old town, although I did worry that it might be a bit noisy - not a major problem for me as I sleep through anything.

On Friday we went for a short swim, registered and then the 5 of us drove part of the bike course - basically cut up to Coursegoules and drove down the descent. This made me feel a bit happier as it wasn't really technical at all, and I wasn't too bothered about seeing the climbs (I had been assured that they were not steep). Had lunch and then went out for a short spin on the bike with Andy just to check everything was working OK. As expected, the strength of the sun in the middle of the afternoon was a bit worrying, but nothing could be done about that!
'The Tri Force Three'
On Friday evening we were treated to a Samba band outside the apartment, which was quite entertaining and drew a huge crowd. They left after a while, but then returned just as we were trying to get to sleep! I got to sleep anyway, but the next morning I was amused to hear that one of our party (those of you who know all of us might be able to guess who!) had gone outside to tell them to move on, as there were Ironmen trying to sleep! Amazingly they actually listened and left us in peace.
Matt's make-shift bike rack
Saturday morning was a short easy run with Heather. The rest of the day was spent mainly relaxing, except for the time at the bar when George North scored that awesome try, which got my heart rate up a bit! Plus bike racking etc. in the afternoon. We had dinner in the apartment, some pasta with tomato sauce and chicken (exactly what was needed) very kindly cooked by Heather. Then the obligatory ice-cream - we went to the same gelateria (or whatever the equivalent French word is) every day I think, mainly as it was the only one with rhubarb ice-cream, and Matt became addicted.

Sunday morning
I managed to get to sleep early on Saturday night (9:30ish I think) but woke around 2am, started thinking about the race and gave up trying to get back to sleep. Pretty soon the others were getting up anyway. For some reason I didn't really feel nervous, and that was the case for the whole time - the main part I was worried about was the swim start as I'd heard some interesting descriptions.

Down to transition around 5am, pump up tyres, go to the loo, find Alex, go to the loo again etc. The queue for the loos was quite long, so I was still in transition after 6am (6:30am start time), but Alex spotted me on the way out and we said goodbye through the transition fencing. Everywhere was rammed with spectators and competitors, but I got down to the beach around 6:15am. The info said no warming up after 6:15, but there were still people in the sea, so I jumped in and floated around a bit. I'd head over to the left of the start by the slower pens, figuring if I start at the front of them I might get a clear-ish start (although I imagined lots of others would have a similar plan). By "warming up" I was able to get on the front of one of the slower pens - a bit cheeky, but I was fairly sure I wouldn't be annoying others as I should (in theory) be faster than most of the others in that pen.

The swim
We watched the pros start (5 mins before us), and eventually they were counting us down. I got a pretty good start and didn't really have anyone around me - fantastic! In fact, I couldn't even find anyone to draft for the first 200m, exactly the opposite to what I was expecting. I was quite far left, but seemed to be on line with the first turn (which was a km out to sea). Eventually the arrowhead narrowed and it got a bit "interesting", but nothing too excessive. I felt like I was swimming OK and wasn't in any difficulty, just occasionally getting annoyed with one or two guys stopping in front of me to sight or swim in random directions into me.
I'm in there somewhere!

The first loop is 2.4km, then a short beach exit and a second loop of 1.4km. If you not familiar with the "beach" in Nice, it is made up of large loose pebbles which shelve off very steeply into the water, and I was slightly worried about the exit given I had virtually had to crawl out on the practice swim! As expected as I tried to get out I stumbled a lot and I think I got cramp in my calf. On the way back in, the pebbles slipped a lot (basically skied into water!), and I got a full-on cramp in my right hamstring. But I was now well out of my depth due to the slope of the beach, so I flipped over to try to stretch it, saw I was about to be mown down by hundreds of swimmers, and decided I'd better just get moving! The pain was really bad for a minute or so and it felt like I was swimming with one bent leg, but then it started to ease off. It did feel like there was still a knot there though and I was concerned about how that might affect the bike and run.

From then on, the rest of the second loop went fine, until the last 50m when I got cramp in my calf. But I was close enough to get back (and calf cramp is not as bad as the hamstring!). Again, I nearly fell trying to get out, but I guess everyone had similar problems. Once I was properly on my feet I glanced at my watch and was pleased to see 58:xx - I was expecting more like 62 given the lack of swimming training, so far so good. Then I heard Alex cheering me, which was great, and shouted at her as I ran past her in T1.

Offical time 58:55 to the mat.

T1
No real problems except that I couldn't find one of my socks. Turned out it was still in the bag after I'd put the wetsuit in there, so had to empty it all out and put it back in again! Probably cost me 30s or so, but never mind. I think Heather gave me a shout at the exit of T1, but it was all a bit of a blur!

Official time 4:54.

Bike
I was actually looking forward to this as the course looked awesome and I'd done some good training. However, immediately there were people flying past along the flat section, mainly on TT bikes. I was on my Felt AR4 with clip-on aerobars (and Zipp 303s kindly provided by Alex's brother Nick!) and in hindsight I would have used a TT bike - I think I was on my clip-on aerobars for well over 50% of the time, and probably wouldn't have lost much on the descents on the TT bike, but who knows. I was trying to hold back, but my competitive nature meant that I probably went out a bit hard on the first 20km flat section.

After the flat, you turn sharp left and there is a steep climb (the only steep bit on the course) - probably averaging 10% for nearly a km. I loved this bit as I overtook loads of people without really pushing it - in general I overtook people on climbs and lost time on the flat, which is a bit weird for someone of my size. It then continued rising slightly for the next 10km or so and somewhere there I caught Andy. We had a bit of a chat about how fast everyone else was going and we stayed in sight of each other for maybe 10km before I started to pull away.

Up the main climb I just kept a nice tempo going, not pushing too hard, and overtook quite a few people (I think only one person passed me on the climb). I really enjoyed it - some great views and it wasn't too warm. The top was actaully slightly in the clouds, so as we descended I got a bit cold. I didn't enjoy the flat section around 90km and was actually looking forward to the next climb - I just find I can't keep pushing on the flats and get uncomfortable after a while. Not enough time spent in TT position I guess, and also our weekend training rides tend to be easy with hard climbs, rather than longer efforts, so might need to do a bit more training on my own unfortunately.

I wanted to be out of T2 by 6:30 to give myself a chance of 9:30 overall (which I thought would be a "safe" Kona slot!). I needed to average about 20mph to achieve that, and at the top of the final climb my average speed was 17.4mph. But the next 40km were virtually all downhill and my average went up to about 19.5mph. The descent ended with about 20km of flat to go, and I was really not looking forward to that bit. Fortunately at that point a massive pack (probably about 20 people) came past, most of them not even attempting to move out of the draft zone. I dangled off the back, keeping more-or-less out of the draft zone, but you still get a good advantage following a pack of that size even at 10m off the back. That got me back to the seafront and then it broke up - I was happy to sit up at that point and try to get my legs working for the run.

As we approached T2 my watch was already past 6:25 so I knew I was going to have to have a good run. But my legs felt better than in Austria, so I was still optimistic, although the sun was now out and it was pretty warm.
Rolling into T2

Official time 5:22:11.

T2
No real dramas, although I wasted a few seconds trying to find where to drop my bag - I'd put my shoes on where I picked my bag up rather than at the seats, then couldn't find the right place and a couple of people I asked didn't know!

Official time 2:53.

The run
As I left T2 I glanced at my watch - 6:29 exactly. Hmmm, basically need a 3 hour marathon. I heard Alex shout something like "you've got some running to do" (she knew I wanted to be out of T2 before 6:30), and thought "yes, I do"! It's 4 out-and-back laps, so 5.25km each way times eight. So I knew I needed each leg to be about 22:30.

At this point I should say that it was awesome having Alex and Heather on the course cheering us on. Heather was at one end and Alex at the other, and given how loud they were shouting, I could hear one of them for the majority of the course! (OK, a slight exaggeration...) Knowing they were there really pushes you on.
Let's do this!

As usual, it felt like I was running really slowly at first, so wasn't sure whether to be pleased or alarmed to do the first "out" leg in close to 20 minutes (under 2:45 marathon pace!). Kept telling myself to back off, just cruise the first couple of laps. The return leg was still too fast at 21:45ish. I told myself I could really back off the next lap and then start to work on the 3rd. I was still overtaking everyone - one guy came past with a big bushy beard and we ran together for a bit. It was getting really warm and I remember thinking it must be horrendous with a big beard. I had a gel but that gave me a bit of a stitch so decided no more of them. I was drinking quite a bit of water, pouring the rest on my head, but nothing else, and no walking at all. I promised myself I could have coke on laps 3 and 4, but not before, which gave me something to look forward to.

Lap 2 was 22 mins out and about 22:45 back, so halfway in about 1:27. Too fast, but some time in hand for the inevitable slowdown. I think it was at the start of my 3rd lap I saw Freddie van Lierde heading for the finish chute - I looked at my watch and saw 8:0x and thought that must be wrong, but it wasn't and he beat the course record by something like 12 minutes - ridiculous.

I started to get really hot on lap 3 and decided to start running through the showers - the danger of blisters was now fairly small with not far to go. They were absolutely freezing - literally took your breath away, but I think it was a good decision. "Just get to lap 4, then it's just 10k". Lap 3 was about 23:20 and nearly 24 mins - my legs still felt OK, but it was the heat that was the problem.

Picked up my last chou chou and decided it was time to man up. I had about 47 minutes to get under 9:30, and I couldn't think of a good reason why I couldn't do that. But I had a slight change of plan and decided to walk briefly in the aid stations to get a proper drink and run fast in between. There was a guy running well just ahead and I managed to catch him, but he kept passing me in the aid stations.
One lap to go....

Out leg was 23:40ish, so a bit quick than the previous, but would need to be close to 23 for the last one. Stopped at one more aid station and then put my head down for the last 4km. I was trying to use my quads more as cramp was starting to come on in my right hamstring (from the swim?), and it felt like I was running quicker. I'd dropped the guy I'd been "racing", and also passed the guy with the beard who had pulled away about 2 hours earlier. As I turned into the finish chute I looked at my watch and it was ticking past 9:30 - nooo! I looked behind and as there was no one close I walked the last 20m to enjoy it.

As it turned out, I'd forgotten that I started my watch 20s before the gun, and my official time was 9:29:56! So lucky that little walk at the end didn't push me over 9:30 - that would have been annoying.

Official run time 3:01:03.

Post-race
Alex was right at the finish waiting for me and she gave me a kiss through the fencing (must have been very unpleasant for her!). I asked what sort of position she thought I was in, but she said quite far down my AG, so probably not Kona. Another Austria - getting a good time, much faster than prior Kona times, and not getting in. But when we got back to the apartment, I saw I'd come 10th in my AG and expected maybe 9 Kona slots, so a pretty good chance.

Just after I'd finished I was shocked to hear about a fellow Brit (from the London area, about my age) had crashed on the bike course and passed away. Really made me think about what I had just done, what our family and friends go through while waiting for us to finish and my aim of get a Kona place felt a bit irrelevant really. And I'm not sure the organisers announcing this while people were still out on the bike course was such a good idea, a certain amount of panic ensued from supporters....

By the time I'd had lots to eat, Andy had finished (10:08) - for a while on the run I thought he was holding the same gap on me, which definitely spurred me on! Matt was struggling on the run and had a way to go, so we headed back to the apartment once we were able to get the bikes out of transition.

Heather was texting to say that Matt was really struggling and was thinking of dropping out. However, some "words of encouragement" from various people, and he stuck at it and made it in under 14 hours. a great effort considering he been sick for most of the run.

None of us were up for doing much that evening - for some reason we were all quite tired, including the supporters, so got an early night.

Monday
Kona allocation was at 2pm, so in the morning we got the train to Monaco for a bit of sightseeing. I loved looking at everything there, although it all seems a bit "Disney".

We got our cash together and checked out the slot allocation on the way to the hall where they'd be allocated. 8 slots in my AG, so I needed two above me to not take their places.

There were some very bizarre rolldowns in one or two of the womens AGs (e.g. any 30-34 finisher could have had a Kona slot), but as usual not quite so many in the men's. In my AG, early on (maybe 3rd place) there was a rolldown, then another at about 7th place, so we're off to Kona! There were 3 rolldowns, so it went down to 11th place.
Kona baby!

Had a good night after that, a bit of champagne, cocktails etc., but still feeling a bit too tired for a really big night out!

Tuesday
On the way back we had a nice stay in Lyons to break up the journey. At some point I realised that I had to do another IM in 3.5 months, which was a bit alarming. But at least I can go there with no pressure (it's not as if I'm going to place very highly) and enjoy it.

Thanks
As usual, there are some people who have really helped me to achieve my goal:
- Andy, Matt and the other Uperstars, it's great fun training with you all and gives me a lot of motiviation to train (don't want to get mocked for being slow)
- Heather for her amazing cheering and the pre-race dinner!
- other friends and clubmates for all their good luck messages and words of advice/support
- most of all, to Alex, for more amazing cheering, being so supportive and basically looking after my life while I spend too much time training. At least the World Champs are in Hawaii and not Tajikistan! (Note I have nothing against Tajikistan, just made up a place not regarded as a holiday destination...)

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