Ironman France 2007

Once up I dragged myself to the shower for a quick wash before breakfast! 3 Weetabix, 1 Muller rice, and 1 Nutrigrain bar washed down with a bottle of Powerade and a bottle of water later, it was into my tri kit and hoody and out the door with my special needs bags. At transition it was a case of dropping off the special needs bags, getting body marked, inflating bike tyres and numerous toilet breaks before heading down to the beach for the swim, in the thankfully flat and calm sea.

The swim start is divided into loads of corals with predicted swim times and you choose whichever one suits. As I’d swan 1hr 21 last year, I thought I’d go into the 1hr 20 coral even though I was hoping for a 1:15 swim. This was mainly because the 80min coral was out on the left hand side of the beach and in theory shouldn’t have been as crowded at the first buoy. Once the race started it seemed that everyone had the same idea as me because it was impossible to get clear water. Well I suppose that 1500 swimmers bottle necking to get round the first buoy could also do this!

The first lap of the swim was the roughest I’ve ever swam/fought in my life. I’ve never been punched and kicked as many times in such a short space of time! About 200m from the exit of the first lap I got my goggles kicked off, but lucky was able to grab them before they were lost. There’s about a 30 metre run along the beach before you start the second lap. This allowed me to put my goggles back on and take a look at my stopwatch. 32mins!!!! Bit on the fast side so tried to take it easier the second lap. Thankfully things had spread out a little at this stage and eventually managed to find some clear water, making the second lap uneventful. Out of the water in 1hr 6mins, a lot faster than I’d planned but happy to have the first leg over and done with.

Ok, I know Colm Quigley and Mc Caffs will be shaking their heads at a 12 minute transition but let me explain!!! Firstly its one bloody long transition (you must have to run nearly a km from when you exit the swim till you mount your bike!), add yet another toilet break plus making sure that every visible part of exposed flesh had about 3 layers of factor 30, and messing around with a heart rate monitor trying to get it to work, and those minute tick by!

Out on the bike course and you can already feel the heat starting to beat down on your back. The first 15 miles are pan flat so you get a chance to ease yourself into the ride. All the 3000m of climbing are between miles 15 till 70, then its downhill for 30 miles and 12 miles flat into T2. The main hill is at mile 39, where is goes up for 12 miles. None of the hills are too taxing as they are all gradual inclines, and seeing as I’d spent the last 4 months training on the Mamore and Grainia’s Gaps I was more than ready for them. The descents on the other hand were a different story! As most people know I’m a big girls blouse on the bike! I love climbing, but hate the descending, and technical side of things. Add the two of them together and you have one nervous Paddy having one hell of a white knuckle ride down the side of one bloody big hill!
To make matters worse, at every hair pin turn you could see down the 3-400 ft drop were you’d fall if you missed a corner, and there was mad Germans bombing past you doing at least 50mph.
About 50 miles into the bike leg, my stomach was starting to let me know that it was starting to get fed up drinking warm High 5 4:1 and melted PowerBars. At 60 miles I got to the special needs station and was handed my 2(now boiling hot) bottles of High 5 and more melted Powerbars. They had left the bags laying out in the direct sunlight! One sip of energy drink and I knew it was pointless taking anymore. Thankfully I’d throw in some energy gels into my transition bags as an after thought before leaving them in yesterday and I’d stuck them into my back pocket during my 12 minute transition! These gels were a saving grace during the second half of the bike leg, as I just used them and started drinking the coke from the aid stations, along with plenty of water. So after 6hrs 41mins of cycling in the baking heat I gladly got my bike and entered T2.

A swift 8 minutes later, I emerge from T2 ready to run the world’s most boring marathon in 34 degree temperatures. The run course is simple, run out the long straight Promenade De Anglais for 5.25km, turn round a cone and then run back up the opposite side of the road (all completely open and exposed to the sun). When you get back to the start you turn and repeat another 3 times.
I was running well on the first lap, covering the first 10.5km in just over 48mins keeping my heart rate comfortably in zone 1. However, every time I drank or took a gel at an aid station my stomach would cramp up for a few seconds but would pass.
The first half marathon was done in 1hr 50, but I was starting to struggle badly with my stomach at this stage. Also point to note, when people start hosing you down to cool you down, make sure you don’t get your feet wet. The blisters came out within a mile and just made me more miserable!

I met my girlfriend towards the end of the second lap, and I told her to walk out the course a bit. About a mile into the third lap I met her again and stopped for a few minutes hoping it would give my stomach a chance to settle. It did for awhile so off I trotted again. It didn’t last long, and at about mile 16 the wheels came off completely! The next 5 minutes was spent leaning over a fence dry-heaving and feeling like I was going to faint! Somehow this seemed to settle things down and I felt a lot better afterwards. Off I trotted again, and even managed to load in a few calories at the next aid station. I met Emma again on the return leg and stopped again. I walked with her for about a mile making sure I was back on speaking terms with my stomach. Apart from being bloody tired, I wasn’t feeling too bad and was able to run (well more of a shuffle really) the rest of the marathon to clock a time of 4hrs 24, and have an overall time of 12hrs 32mins and 17 seconds. Once I got my medal and finisher t-shirt it was straight into the athletes’ garden where I lay under a tree in the glorious shade for about 10 minutes before heading for a massage. Also found Big Sean Doherty lying under the same tree. He had a good race to finish in 12hrs 20mins.

Thankfully our hotel was just across the road from the finish line so I didn’t have far to crawl for a nice relaxing shower. Then it was straight to Mc Donald’s for a much deserved Big Mac, and to watch the finishing party. One poor sod missed the 16 hour cut off time by 30 seconds. Overall I was happy considering I was expecting about 13hrs for the tougher course compared to Frankfurt, but boy did I suffer during that marathon! Have to find an Ironman with expected temperature of about 20 degrees max for next time!