Race Report Ironman France 2008
Author: Brian Neville
Ironman France 2008 Race report
OK well I better jot down most
of the points here while they are still fresh in my head.
Arrived in France on the Friday
morning before the race. Flight was fine, pretty uneventful check in
etc which was a nice change from the debacle of last year. Early start
mind, the flight was at 6:30 am. At that time of the morning the airport
in Dublin is lethal. Probably better to get a later flight and pay more
I think!
Got a taxi from the airport
to the hotel. First impression – HOT! I don’t know what the exact
temperature was, but it was 10 o clock in the morning and prob 25C I
would say. I checked into the hotel and I assembled the bike straight
away and left it in the room. Went out then to explore the town and
register.
Again my overriding impression
was the heat. I knew from that point that the race was going to be tough.
TOUGH TOUGH TOUGH! The registration was painless and completed in 5
minutes. The expo wasn’t great and at this stage I have everything
I will ever need and have no interest whatsoever in gear and bikes and
suchlike.
Ate at around 7pm I think and
went to bed early that night and got a good solid 10 hours sleep. It
wasn’t hard to do as I was wrecked from being up so early. Air conditioning
was stuffed so that wasn’t great so opened the window instead. Wasn’t
feeling great, put it down to tiredness and the travel, but that wasn’t
to be it seems…
Next day, was up early enough
and had breakfast. Went for a short spin on the bike then with Dan and
Kieran (two irish guys I knew doing the race) to check everything out.
Man it was hot! Good road surface. Went for a very short swim afterwards
then to check out the start. Tore the wetsuit! Not a huge tear but big
enough not to be reparable. Ah well as long as it got me through the
race I didn’t care. Must say at this point far from being fired up
I was very apprehensive and questioning what I was doing here and whether
I was capable. Not the attitude I had last year at all and without a
doubt a huge contributing factor to my overall performance on the day…
Race day
Got up at 4am. Put on the P20
and sunblock and went down for breakfast. Ate as much as I could handle
which wasn’t an awful lot, was still feeling ill and listless. Grabbed
bags and headed down for the start then. It was still dark but the sun
was coming up – it was kind of surreal but actually beautiful. Nice
really is a gorgeous spot. Met Kieran at the bike, we put on the wetsuits
and headed for the start. Picked a spot on the right (slower) and at
the edge of the water. Gun went – OFF! It starts!
Again I have to say I was either
lucky or brutal at the start as I didn’t get kicked or climbed on.
Once or twice some people attempted but I actually kicked back and that
was that! There is no love lost at the start of these events that’s
for sure.
Navigation was a disaster.
The course was set in two loops, one clockwise, then an exit-re-entry
and then an anticlockwise route. In their wisdom the organisers 1) never
put up the buoys until late the evening before the race so was not possible
to even get a look at the course until the morning 2) made the buoys
orange and then gave everyone orange swim caps too! So every time you
looked up to sight all you saw was orange swim caps and no buoy! I just
followed the crowd. I’m sure I swam a lot more than the length of
the course in the end…Anyway, I had an uneventful (which is good)
swim and I drafted a guy for most of it who I spotted was sighting and
a little faster than me. So when I exited on 1:17 I was delighted. A
full 13 mins faster than last year.
The run to transition was not
too bad. The change tent was a bit messy. Luckily enough my bag was
near the entrance, so I grabbed it and tipped the contents onto the
ground at the entrance. Took my time getting my stuff together, took
the shoes in my hand and ran to the bike. Swift exit from the park and
was onto the bike leg.
The first 20K or so were flat
and fast, a run out along the prom into the foothills of the Alps Maritime.
I took it easy enough though to allow myself to warm up. Well it wasn’t
cold, far from it! But to allow my leg muscles to warm up and to take
some food on board. The first climb and steepest of the day was at the
20k mark and was 10% for about 500m. It was ok, knew it was short and
steep so took it handy enough. The road went gradually (and sometimes
not so gradually!) uphill then pretty much for the next 50K up to the
top of the Col D’Ecre. An amazing route. I remember looking down on
Nice at one point and it must have been 600 to 700 metres below me.
I didn’t find the climbs hard at all and I had the HRM set to beep
above 165 BPM and I stuck to that pretty much all day. My stomach wasn’t
great though and I couldnt really take the bars on board at all so I
was relying principally on gels and drinks. I stopped twice. Once to
apply sunscreen and have a pee. Another time to pee and stretch out
my ITB which started to flare up about 3km from the summit of the 1200m
climb. I had been having problems with this all season and had been
to the physio a few times with it The aid stations were well done, had
enough of everything and it was easy to grab.
Once on the summit, the road
was far from flat as advertised! Undulating would be a better way to
describe it and there was a breeze up there too, unfortunately in the
face. The roads were not closed however and frankly it was a pain. Couldn’t
cut the corners on the descents and a couple of times got stuck behind
cars. Frankly it wasn’t good enough for a race. Unfortunately too
I was feeling worse and worse as the cycle went on and mentally it was
taking it’s toll and I was becoming despondent and listless. The last
60K or so were principally downhill with some very technical descents.
I really enjoyed this part. The final 20K or so was back in along the
road we came out and into a very stiff breeze. The breeze was roasting!
I knew I was in for trouble on the run.
We came back in along the promenade
to the sight of runners coming against us. It was interesting and somewhat
disconcerting to see a lot of people walking already. Not good. The
run seemed to go on forever. I was actually questioning whether it was
2 or 4 laps! I got to transition handed the bike off and sat down to
change. At this point I was feeling really bad. I had done a good bike
time, almost 29Km/hr on a tough course, pretty much what I had expected
though, but I was not at all looking forward to starting into the run.
I took my time in transition to take on some water, apply more sunscreen
and generally psyche myself up for the run ahead. I stepped up and stepped
out of the tent into the heat and glaring sun..
I started off fine. I didn’t
experience any stiffness or bike to run malaise that afflicts a lot
of people. I never really do anyway. I planned to walk the aid stations
and the first lap seemed to go pretty fast and smooth and I completed
it in a little over 1 hour. About mid way through the second however
the wheels started to come off so the speak. The heat started to get
to me, but it was principally my feet that were killing me at this point.
They had been quite sore toward the end of the bike with a “hot spot”
but now I was in agony with them. I started to slow down considerably.
I guess the heat was taking it’s toll too. I was dousing myself in
water and keeping cool with sponges and taking on plenty of fluid but
it was almost impossible to stay cool in that heat. Another factor was
the lack of ice – liberally available in Germany in conditions that
were not nearly as hot, there was NONE available here. The water for
the sponges was lukewarm so the cooling effect was negligible overall.
Sheer willpower and stubbornness
got me through I think and I was of course delighted to see the finish
line, though not as elated as last year. I guess completing a first
Ironman is a great experience anyway and repeating it will never have
the same effect. Initially I was disappointed that I had fallen apart
on the run and posted a time an hour slower than last year, but after
a little while when I saw the carnage around me I re-evaluated and realised
I did well to finish and the time was relative to the course. As a point
I note now that my position in my division (236) is almost identical
to last year (235)!
Two people died on the course,
one went over a crash barrier on one of the descents, another died of
a heart attack, again kind of puts things in perspective…
What would I have done differently
Again, I did not do enough
running in training. Some of this however was due to a knee injury I
sustained which meant I could not run for almost 6 weeks before the
race so I missed some of my key long run sessions. I knew it was going
to be a problem.
I probably took too many supplies
with me. I took 5 powerbars and only used 1.5 of them. The course was
well stocked, even the first aid station. It was just unnecessary weight
to carry uphill, and it all counts on climbs of 21k! I should have ditched
them of course. I relied on gels and drinks all day as it was all my
stomach was capable of. I think I used probably 10 gels and maybe 6-7
bottle of performance drink and the same of water though a lot of the
water was tipped down my back and head to keep cool.
I think I could have done without
aerobars. I barely used them. They were useful though on the 20 K section
into the wind on the way back. The jury is out on that one!
My sickness and general malaise
leading up the event – well I’m not sure how I could have avoided
that but it was a huge factor in my performance. I guess sometimes you
are lucky and sometime you aren’t and everyone has a bad day. Hopefully
that will be my last!
Have recovered rapidly though
and feel almost 100% already as I write this (Thursday morning)
Not sure if I will go again
next year yet, will take some time before I decide. Certainly not put
off by the experience. Not a great race but not a brutal one either,
could have been worse J