Life is an ultramarathon

As you might know, I spent last week-end in Antibes, behaving as what some would call a "marathourist". That is mixing marathon running and tourism (I bet you didn't guess). I've done that in the past, but this year I reached a whole new level, with an average of one training session per week in the last two months before the race!

In order to load properly on carbohydrates, we had a massive lunch at "La Voglia" on Saturday. I can't remember having seen such an insane amount of food in a single course in a restaurant before. The seafood pasta plates had the size of canteen trays (about 10cm deep). The desserts were served in what would normally be considered as salad bowls. But all good quality. Nice! The same evening I carried on with my marathourist philosophy as I drank a Leffe beer kindly offered by Mathieu's flatmate Aurélie. This brewage was specifically selected to top up vitamin B levels and other minerals considered as fundamental for long-distance running... Thank you for that! And for the pasta. And for the chicken. And the rice pudding. They might have helped too.

The start was given on the iconic "Promenade des Anglais" in Nice at 8am on Sunday. Considering that 10,000 runners were about to run a marathon, the amount of spectators was ridiculously small, and the start was fairly quiet. We'll blame it on the "bad" weather and the early time of the day for a Sunday. Thanks to the generous width of the Prom', the start was rather fluid for such a popular race.

If the sky was depressively grey during most of the race, at least the temperature was set at a relatively low 12°C, an ideal temperature for running. I felt just about OK for the first half of the race, keeping the 3 hours 30 pacemaker in sight. Simply enjoying the seafront view. Getting used to run on concrete again :)

Things changed dramatically at Antibes (21km). For the first time in the race, there was a decent atmosphere, with spectators shouting and clapping. The views on the Alps woke me up. The lovely winding narrow streets of Antibes old town centre were delightful. But most importantly, there were a few gentle ascents to break the otherwise deceptively flat course :) . I started to feel playful and caught up with the pacemaker in the ascents. But I eventually and wisely decided to keep it easy until the 32km mark, as we were still early in the race. Everything could still happen.

I felt good at the 32km milestone, so I left the pacemaker behind, hoping to push for a 4'30"/km pace on the last 10km, which would give me a finish time of 3 hours 25. I gave everything in these last 10km, but didn't managed to keep that pace all the way. I felt really good and focused on my race during that time, with the kilometre marks falling one after another. Retrospectively, I think I could have started to push 2 kilometres earlier and manage 3 hours 25. Oh well!

Although there were a lot of people in Cannes, and we had to run in a narrow corridor in the supporters crowd, it was dead silent! There's no other way to say it, the atmosphere was just rubbish. Basically, everyone was there to encourage the one runner they knew, and only him/her. The speaker had a hard time, constantly asking people to get their hands out of their pockets, with very little effect. As compared to similar sized Dublin Marathon (set in much colder conditions last year), the atmosphere was that of a funeral. I eventually finished in 3:26:21, my new PB!

After completing the marathon in front of the famous "Palais des Festivals" steps, I had to queue half-an-hour in an ever growing crowd to collect my drop bag. Some people were cold, hungry and weak and didn't appreciate too much this episode. It was clearly poorly organised, but I didn't care at all at that point. I had just made a PB, with an awesome negative split, great feeling... and with a very minimal training!

After a quick swim in the Med' to chill out and get cleaner, we had an (expensive) Guiness to rebuild the minerals lost during the race :) . What's up for next year?

Ultra quick marathon, not ultra marathon

In short, I went around my first Ironman in 14:35:06. Swim and bike went as good as my best expectations. But the marathon was a calvary: with about 30°C on the Prom', I was dehydrated, in hypoglycaemia and unable to eat/drink properly.

Leg	Time	Pos.	Pos. cat.
Swim	1:17:46	1554	151
T1	9:05
Bike	7:04:30	1704	154
T2	10:28
Run	5:53:17	1693	160
Final	14:35:06	1700*	159*

Before the race

Triathlon is a bit of a hassle logistics-wise. Indeed, you have to carry your bike along with loads of equipment with you, hoping it doesn't get crushed in the plane. That's when my box-moving skills acquired during para-academic activities get handy ;) My local bike shop kindly gave me a bike cardboard box that I reinforced a bit with sheets of plastic at strategic places. I removed both wheels and put them on the sides, I also put the rear derailleur where the wheel normally sits. I padded the fork, the back of the frame, the chain rings and derailleurs with pipe foam.
Then I was off for a 10-minute walk carrying the bike and one hour and an half in the tube/DLR. Great fun! The extra fee to fly the bike with Air France was only £32 one-way (not so much compared to the standard extra weight fees), but they didn't know exactly how to do check the bike in. All this stuff stressed me quite a bit before the race. Anyway, I eventually arrived in Nice with my bike in working order.
On Friday we went to Nice to register, collect my bib number and the transition bags. On Saturday we went to Nice again to leave the bike in the rack, drop the transition bags and get marked on the arm and legs. From that point, not much could be done any more.
On Sunday, I had to get up at 4am to get there at about 5:30am. Needless to say I didn't sleep well. Once in Nice, I quickly checked my tyres, got changed, dropped my street wear bag and off I was to the pebble beach.

Swim

I positioned myself on the side, along with the weakest swimmers. At 6:30, 2500 swimmers ran into the sea. It was a bit messy, but not quite as much as I expected. Of course I got kicked and smashed in the legs, the arms and the face, but that wasn't too bad. And at least that wasn't meant.



On the other hand, some guys pushed me strangely on the side and one even grabbed me to pull himself forward. How stupid is that? I was so angry I thought about kicking that idiot.
Anyway, the water was pretty warm and there weren't any waves, so it was a real pleasure to swim at sunrise.

Swim
loop 1	2.4km	46:52	1:57/100m
loop 2	1.4km	30:54	2:08/100m
overall	3.8km	1:17:46	2:02/100m

After the first loop (2.4km) I realised I was going faster than expected, although I wasn't pushing it. This is due to the high floatability in salty water combined with the good buoyancy of the wetsuit.

Bike

After a relatively quick transition (less than 10 minutes), I took the bike easily. 50km of warm-up to start with. Then started the 21km ascent (a 1000m climb). It wasn't too steep (5 to 7%). I took it easy at about 10 to 15km/h, got overtaken quite a bit. The scenery in the back-country was awesome, the roads were good, not many cars, no navigation involved, reasonable temperature above 1000m, it was all good.



During the descents, I tried to follow some guys in order to improve my cornering technique, but honestly it was often way to fast and scary for me.
The only annoying point was people dropping stuff everywhere, bottles, discarded tubes, pressured C0₂ cartridges, and other litter on the side or even in the middle of the road.

Bike
split 1	23.3km	49:51	28.04km/h
split 2	46.7km	2:25:24	19.27km/h
split 3	48.7km	4:15:51	11.42km/h
split 4	25.3km	1:05:04	23.33km/h
split 5	36km	53:44	40.20km/h
overall	180km	7:04:30	25.44km/h

My bike was clearly in the top 10 worse in the park. I guess the profiled frame and wheels have little impact at a slow speed like mine. But a lighter carbon frame would have helped in the ascents. On top of that the handle bars weren't tied up enough after the plane trip, and ended up a bit low. That could have cost me a fall during the descents.



When I realised I would finish the bike in between 7h and 7h30, I became (too) optimistic. That would leave me at least 7h for the marathon.

Run

With no wetsuit to remove, the second transition took surprisingly longer than the first one. I didn't cover properly the back of my shoulders with sunscreen. With about 30°C on the Prom', that was a big mistake I'm still paying for now. The run consists on going four times to the airport by the "Promenade des Anglais" along the the seafront (without any shade at all) and back to central Nice by the same way. My shoulders got badly sunburned, covered in blisters and the skin got ripped off easily before being properly dry.



After only 10 minutes running and despite the overwhelming heat, I started to shiver. Hypoglycaemia was already on its way, just as it happened so often during training. I took it easily, as ultrarunners would do: walk, drink, eat and be patient until it gets better. I alternated running and walking. At the end of the first-of-four loop, I got my first, white, wristband. But I didn't feel any better. While everyone looked very hot and willing to be showered, I was still shivering. A real calvary.

Run
loop 1 out	5.25km	35:35	8.85km/h
loop 1 rtn	5.25km	42:23	7.43km/h
loop 2 out	5.25km	43:05	7.31km/h
loop 2 rtn	5.25km	51:23	6.25km/h
loop 3 out	5.25km	41:29	7.59km/h
loop 3 rtn	5.25km	48:17	6.52km/h
loop 4 out	5.25km	46:46	6.74km/h
loop 4 rtn	5.25km	44:19	7.11km/h
overall	42.2km	5:53:17	7.17km/h

At the end of the second loop, I got the red wristband and started to feel slightly better. Unfortunately it didn't last long. After a couple of kilometres I realised I couldn't eat or drink properly. Everything got stuck in my stomach. At the end of my third loop, although I was happy to get my last wristband (the black one), I was feeling quite bad. I think that was quite obvious on my face, given the way people were looking at me. On the last loop, there were suddenly not many people around any more, as the finishers' peak stand at around 12 to 13 hours. Supporters became sparse and volunteers started dismantling food points (they were still manned, but had less choice). It was really hard, and I'm not sure where I sourced the energy to walk. At 5km from the end, I decided to take a 5 minutes nap. It didn't really help, but as I stood up I threw up all the blocked water. I was a sudden relief. The last 5km were at least enjoyable!



Many runners (and even volunteers) went back home in ambulances. And some even fell after the race. It was a bit scary, and I'm glad I didn't push it harder.
I lost loads of salt and water by perspiration (I was covered in salt dust at the end), and I think a salt unbalance blocked my digestion. I'm just a bit disappointed I didn't realise that whilst running. I could have tried to eat savoury stuff. Anyway, during the next 24 hours, I was craving for cheese, as if my body was asking for salt. Before going to bed I drank a glass of water with a bit of Roquefort and Comté. Not the easiest stuff to digest, but that's what I wanted. In the middle of the night I ate a "Crottin the Chavignol" with 2 slices of brioche. At breakfast I felt more like a four-cheeses pizza than a pain au chocolat (I eventually got one for diner, though :) ).

Conclusion

My only surprise is that there weren't actually any :) The swim went well and so did the bike. And although I knew the transition with the run might be hard, I haven't trained enough for that.

I've proven that it is possible to finish an Ironman with little preparation. Whilst my plan included 6 to 7 sessions per week, I've done 5 in average. My weekly training time was between 8 and 10 hours. There is no real need to go progressively through sprint, Olympic and 70.3 distances before attempting an Ironman! And the thrill is much bigger that way. The stress as well... Obviously, performance-wise, it may not be the best approach!

I've already been asked whether I would do a double, triple or deca-Ironman. I don't think so. Note that this is not a definite answer. Firstly, the logistics is a bit too much, I prefer simpler things. Just take my shoes and go running. And secondly, I'm not impressed by the behaviour of some triathletes to say the least. The swimmers that meaningly pushed and pulled me. The cyclists dropping their bottle in front of my wheel (or everywhere else). The runner that angrily pushed a child away as he was crossing in front of him, and who would have fallen badly on the ground if not holding his dad's hand. All these things disturbed me. Of course there were also loads of amazing people among the volunteers and athletes. In particular the Pirates Ship of Fools, a British group of triathletes, were very supportive and friendly. But well, it's not quite the same atmosphere as in ultrarunning. Not a surprise, though.

So now I can follow the last part of the motto coined by the Ironman creators "Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life" :)

Last but not least, I'd like to thank everyone for their support in my periods of doubts, and more particularly Bastien for hosting me. I don't think I would have made it through without a bit of help, my currently weak mental would have lost me.

More pictures here, and even more here.

Ultra triathlon.

* These are final results. I'm not sure why they differ from the live tracking. Maybe because of disqualified athletes?

I had the feeling that the Nice Ironman was much harder than the UK one. That was confirmed by some posts on the Runner's World forum.
However, looking at the facts, it's not that obvious. Surprisingly, there's more ascent on the UK one, for both the bike and the marathon. I thought the nice backcountry would be more hilly. On the other hand, the temperature in Nice will be much higher, particularly on the run, well exposed to the sun. As for the swim, the waves in Nice maybe a bit of a problem, but that should be compensated by the higher water temperature...

		UK Ironman	France Ironman
General	Location	Sherborne Castle, Dorset	Nice, Alpes-Maritimes
	Date	August 2008 ?	22nd June 2008
	Cost	?	330+10+40 = 380€
Stage
Swim 3.8km	Laps	2	2 with a land exit in between
	Start	In water mass start	6 starts sections
	Time limit	2 hours 20 min	2 hours 15 min ?
	Environment	Lancelot Brown Lake (15.5°C)	Mediterranean Sea (24°C)
Bike 180km	Laps	3	1
	Ascent	2287m	1800m
	Time limit	10 hours 30 min	10 hours 45 min
	Water points	9 ?	8
	Environment	English countryside	Southern France backcountry - may be warm
Run 42.195km	Laps	2+2 ?	4
	Ascent	773m	Totally flat
	Time limit	17 hours	16 hours
	Water points	18 ?	24
	Environment	English countryside	Seafront (Promenade des Anglais) - may be hot

Overall, the website of the Nice Ironman is much better than the UK one. I know it may not mean anything about the actual race, but it gives a bad impression...

Ultra choice to make.