Iron Man France
Over the past few years I have been raising money for Teach Africa through one endurance event or another and I thought I had hit upon the ultimate challenge when I ran the Marathon of Britain last year.
However, in the IronMan triathlon I found something even more daunting even though this is competed in one day. The IronMan follows the normal swim, bike, run format but the distances are extreme. 3.8 km Swim, 180km Bike and 42.2km run (a marathon).
The event I chose to do was IronMan France which took place on 22nd June, 2008 in Nice. The swim section started at 6am with the 2500 competitors making their way to the beach meeting people just returning home from the nightclubs!.
A calm sea (well as calm as it gets with 2500 swimmers thrashing about) made for a pleasant enough swim which takes in two loops, 2.4km after which competitors leave the water for a short 50 meter run and then back into the sea for the final 1.4km.
The first 15 – 20 km on the bike was on fairly flat roads in the relative cool of the early morning but at about 25km that all changed and for the next 50 km we just climbed into the mountains behind Nice as the temperature rose steadily into the mid 30s.
From 75 to 120km we rode across the ceiling of Nice on what was a fairly undulating course, the temperature rising all the time and no breeze to offer any cooling effect. However all that climbing was rewarded with an incredible sleigh ride out of the mountains with the bikes consistently exceeding 65kph onto the last faily flat run in to the finish.
And then to the marathon which was four laps along the Nice seafront - back at sea level the temperature really made its presence felt with many competitors suffering from heat exhaustion. The only strategy with the run was to take on as much fluid as possible and tough it out, which is what I did and eventually the finish.
The mix of emotions at the finish were something I had not previously experienced, the event may have only lasted the day but it certainly felt longer! Releif, elationation, humble joy – they were all there but ultimately just a real sense of personal achievement.
My thanks once again to all those people that generously supported the effort by donating to Teach Africa, more than £1000 will have been raised as a result for which I am very grateful and ultrimately what makes doing these events a rewarding experience.
