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IM France Race Reports
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And so to the bike, didn’t see my family as they were still looking for me in the water, but did see Candy at start of bike so shouted abuse at him.
First job was to settle heart rate at between 135 and 140 and then start on nutrition, found myself heading towards airport at around 19 mph but was being constantly overtaken by a stream of uber bikers on their flash carbon steeds with their deep aero wheels and their woody woodpecker hats never mind I’m sticking to my plan which hopefully get me round bike course in around 7 hours, this may seem slow but I am not a strong cyclist and needed to save something in my legs for run. I had some malt loaf which was really nice, not too sweet and had used this a lot in training so all was well. I had planned using each hour, one gel, one lava salts cap and one cereal bar, plus bananas and energy drink from aid stations.
On to long 21 km and it’s getting very hot, nobody is talking; just hear the sound of silence as people are working hard up hill, heart rate obviously high but not too bad, still thinking about saving something for run. The descents were fantastic, high speed swooping bends, but some sharp and dangerous turns, some people unfortunately crashed and ambulances were called into action. Got passed by loads of cheery Pirates who always had something encouraging to say, like “ Crap cyclist” so I told them to get swimming lessons!
It got a bit windy heading into town but still felt fine as I covered last few miles , eventually getting back after 7 hours 8 minutes with a total elapsed time for swim and bike of well under 8 hours 30 minutes, far from a disaster for me on a tough bike course.
Quick race (ahem) report from Calf.
Got to France winner!
Opened bike bag, no damage, amazingly the only time so far I have managed to get a bike out of the UK without damaging it. I was soon to change this
Fri afternoon I was on the bike path on the sea front checking all the gears were working etc. When at about 25mph sprinting out of the saddle the chain gave up.
I didn't realise this at the time thou, one min I was sprinting down a deserted flat bike path next I was flying (literally) thru the air. Thankfully I used my back to cushion the landing and avoid damaging the tarmac with my bike.
Finally having come to a stop leaving most of my back on the cycle path Emmilou caught me up and immediatly checked on my bikes health. Dustboy not far behind checked on me. Emmi knew I would be more bothered about my bike than myself..
After picking myself up and sorting myself out I set out an hours walk back to the hotel upon arrival I was greeted by a number of inquisitive pirates who all had a smiliar reaction to my as unkown to me rather spectacular road rash.
Also at this point Dave inquired about my helmet (ahem) and established not only did it (we are talking about my bike helmet here)have a number of scratches on it but had 4 rather large cracks in it.
So saturday morning it was a trip to the local bike shop to relieve me of some cash. 330 quid later a new chain, front mech, saddle and helmet were in my possession and an attitiude of well I can hardly walk and no idea if I can ride a bike, but having shelled out for all this kit I'm bloody well gonna finish.
So back to the race report. Sunday morning in transition I'm trying (badly) to get my wetsuit on whilst keeping the patchwork on my back in place. Needless to say I got a number (everyone who walked past) of funny looks.
Anyways onto the swim, wasn't looking forward to the salt water on the cuts considering how much it had hurt in the shower but amazingly it didn't hurt at all. This could have been the 6 ibuprofen I'd had at the start mind.
Swim itself was ok, I dont like swimming, not scared of it just don't like it, had goggles kicked off twice and nearly a punch up with someone who was trying to use me as a float, he didn't like it much when I decided to use his head in return.
Out of the swim in 1:21, not bad for me but as usual most of the bikes were gone.
Struggled in T1 as I was trying to get my long sleeved skins topon to stop the sunburn, I was in there for 11 mins, but I think the make up looked perfect so it was time well spent
Out onto the bike, lovely flat start and started to pick people off, not going to dwell on the bike too much as quite uneventfull. Thought I was drinking lots but didn't need to wee so not quite enough, passed lots and lots on the uphills but got passed alot on the downs, my usual kamikaze style had been blunted by fridays incident a little. I was also having trouble with my knee and back. I was ok with my hands on the top of the bars for the climbing but on the aero bars my back and knee were killing when I pedalled so I pretty much rolled down most of the hills. Bike was 6:21 should have been quicker to be honest was just over the moon I hadn't had any incidents.
Back into transition and 8 mins. Now all I did was put my trainers on and put suntan cream on so not a clue where that went
Onto the run course and had just under 4 hours to get sub 12. Even my primary school maths could work out an hour a lap. So off I went, first lap went ok, saw lots of pirates and the support was superb. Everyone has written it but its true, the people shouting and screaming at you make such a difference. first lap was under an hour and all ok. 2nd lap started ok but at the turn around I started to cook, struggled with the heat from then on, the walks at the aid stations got longer, the running slower. Usual thing that most experience, bad guts, being sick etc but determination to get round. It didn't help my longest run had been bala due to a knee injury I have had for over a year so its no surprise the 2nd half of the run turned into mainly walking and not much running, even with the best efforts of hollywood (cheers mate) On the final lap caught up with bassy and Crash who were doing their 3rd lap. Had a good laugh with them and even the occasional run but not far
.
Past the pirates for the last time and down the finish shoot. Over the moon I'd finished and 12:49 was an ok time, I'd loved sub 12 but the run was a shocker and well lets be honest I aint gonna run a sub 4 mara on the back of 108 miles cycling on cock all run training.
Post race party was great, brill to talk to everyone and see how they all got on.
Thou back in blightly is a bit crap. Stopped taking the pain killers and back and knee well and truly goosed. 5 days on still can't stand properly and damn scabs are still leaking some manky yellowy fluid
LOL Calf... great report... you'd make a great writer!!!
Bloody hell Calf! Talk about the walking wounded. I'm v impressed that you raced all the same and hope you heal up soon and that there is no lasting damage.
<waits for Foggy's run bit>
Melissa don't hold your breath it'll be along about 1930 if Sunday's anything to go by ;o)
Azur were.
hmph
how do you get proper li'l smilies, CRABby? I just get the
)
Hi Everyone.
What a difference a day makes eh! Sunny Nice yesterday, pissing down 25mph windy West Cumbria today.
I'm back at work and people keep expecting me to actually do something, so I will try do a report once all the day work loafers dissapear.
All I will say is, if your thinking about IM don't! as thinking is wasting valuable training time. Sign up Now, train hard and you will be hard pushed to have a better day out.
The moment I stepped off the bike, I knew I was in trouble!
I could hardly walk. I managed to push my bike to racking position. I felt incredibly hot, I needed a pee, so walked to potaloos, the heat and smell was horrible but I just managed to get out before I threw up, I sat under a tree for a while thinking about about how the hell can I get round the marathon course. I really though t I was gong to pull out After a few minutes I did not feel quite so light headed, so went over to transition tent and had a cool drink and put my running gear on. I realised that I need to get out and get walking and hopefully would come round a bit, so that’s what I did, most of marathon was a walk but did jog a bit when supporters shouted at me, bur as soon as I was out of sight I would walk. Feet got wet and blistered because I was throwing water on my head to cool down.
I never really managed to run much at all which annoyed me because I had trained more this year, but now on reflection Im not too disappointed, just pleased to have finished. Did tell my self never to enter another Ironman.
My T2 time was about 15 minutes so overall spent over 25 mins in transition, my marathon time was around 6 hours 45 mins giving me a finish time of around 15 hours 20 mins.
After beating Jalabert by 50 seconds on the swim, he then beat me by 3 hours 20 mins on the bike, and 3 hours 30 mins on the run, I bet he was well chuffed!
Thanks to supporters I finished, without them a DNF was most likely. Thanks to people who helped after race as I was in a bit of a daze until I got some beer and ice-cream
What date is Switzerland next year? Lanzarote is too hard!
Oh, and one last thing...
I'm convinced Nice is the most expensive darn city on the face of the earth.
£7 a pint on Monday??!??!
So if anyone is thinking of doing an IM, but is on a budget, find somewhere else. Even chewing gum was twice the price it is in the UK.
China is cheap as chips, once you are there!
Gotta budget in for pollution masks thou
Race report as promised. Maybe slightly long.....
Leading up to the night before, I was genuinely relaxed. Even racking the bike, I was excited, but not nervous. I did have ‘a moment’ which was lovingly shared with bassy along the seafront when we all popped out to check the bikes were in working order. I knew mine wasn’t when we started because the gears were screwed (in technical whizz speak). After cycling for a while, I decided there was no point in continuing until I could get them fixed, but I’m a numpty and have no idea what to do. Started fiddling with screws and cables until bassy rode up alongside me. I greeted him with a pleasant ‘there’s no fucking point in me fucking carrying on, because my fucking gears are fucking screwed.' (ever the optimist) Luckily bassy took this in the manner in which it was meant to be received, and started sorting them out. Love ya bassy.In the morning I went to breakfast and ate through tears and the tears continued to the beach...
Great race reports everyone
Inspiring stuff
I am pleased to report that I only cried once on the bike – at the aid station two thirds of the way up Col de l’Ecre where, as I pulled up one of the helpers exclaimed with hands it the air ‘ disastre’. They had run out of water, sports drink AND gels. I needed water. My nutrition strategy was based on gels, water and sports drink and so far they had coke to offer me. Nothing else. I know I couldn’t help the water situation, but why hadn’t I brought all my gels with me? After crying in the face of a marshall, he part filled up my bottle with some of his water but I had to stick with coke for my second bottle. It smarted somewhat seeing elderly French women walking along the side of the road with bottles of water from the bike stations and bottles with 2 or so gulps taken or small amounts poured over speedy peeps hot heads, littered all over the side of the road. Thinking my life depended on it; I stopped and filled up the stolen water with more water from a discarded bottle at the side of the road to stares from the locals.
Whipped off my shoes for the long walk to rack the bike, then into T2. No drama, filled my pockets with random food stuffs ‘just in case’ and headed out onto the run. For some reason T2 was 11 minutes but I put that down to the very long walk to the bike rack
Going up the finish chute was fantastic. High-fiving the kids, I stopped in front of the pirate crew, but couldn’t see oxy anywhere. How? Where was he? I wanted to tell him I’d done it. I looked round at the clock and saw 15:27 and for some reason got it into my head that the 27 was seconds and I desperately needed to finish in the next 3 seconds otherwise it would be past the half hour! So ran to the arch, not really relishing the moment as so many people had told me to! Muppet. I’ll have to save that for next year.
Run – 5:27:33 (with a marathon pb of 5:05, that’s not at all bad!)Overall time – 15:27:59
Incredibly pleased and I couldn't have done it without the support of many people leading up to the race and on race day. My only problems have been blisters on my hands from the downhills, blisters on my fee from getting them wet on the run and my back which keeps seizing up. My legs have been fine since, which suggests that perhaps I didn’t try hard enough! I’ve had a fantastic time, put a few people through some stressful times, and am proud to have finished such a hard race, and thrilled to hold the Novice Pirate 145 award. It has already taken pride of place alongside my medal. Pirates rock.I was worried you were dehydrated before the start with all that crying ; - )
well done on your run time - that's fantastic!
Great stuff!
Welcome to the club.
only read holly's report (will read back later) - top race holly and very worth novice 145.
OPERATION NICE, started not long after IM Austria late last summer after my second Ironman attempt which ended
with a few grey hairs and some much needed pacemakers for those on the sidelines and at home.
We got to Nice on Thursday lunchtime and orientated ourselves, ate a bit and drank a bit more.
Friday was a rest and relaxation day and we hoofed down to the beach for the majority of thee day and
to check out the expo again. Had a dip in the sea and it was vile, there was a fair amount of swell and
I didnt like it at all ... and so started the wibbles. I have only swum properly in the sea once before and that
was in Eastbourne a few weeks ago, I couldnt think how I was going to get through SUnday morning and the doubts started.
Having spoken to Flyaway and Cougs who had been down for a swim earlier we decided to do an early swim on Saturday morning
as this would be closer to the conditions we were to expect, luckily it was much much better and the confidence went up a
little.
Saturday our times for racking were not until later in the day but by that time I really wanted to have racked and be back
up at the hotel and eaten so we took the chance and went down early and joined the queue. I know others have said already
but the transition area was huge, 2,500 bikes give or take a few and luckily as an old woman mine was not far from the end
and easy to place. Saturday night came and went with not a lot of sleep but that was expected.
Sunday morning
I had some goals in mind and had broken down the time to 2 hrs, 8hrs and 6 hrs for the 3 disciplines knowing that I could
borrow time from one to feed the other, in short I need to lose an hour from last years time to make the cut off.