Ironman France 2009 was my 3rd Ironman, and the first where I had to fly down. Therefore I was a extra nervous up front, but everything went pretty good so there was no reason for worries! My finish time was 10:39:10 (swim 1:02:37, bike 5:51:10 and run 3:31:24) and I was no. 65 of 450 in my age group). Was almost half an hour faster last year in Kalmar, Sweden, but with this hard bicycle course and an extremely hot marathon I am fully satisfied.

Last days before the race

Arrived from Paris on friday, after some days on a conference with my work. Didn’t do so much training, only a short morning session each day, running – bicycle and running on friday morning.

On saturday I joined the official swim training from 7-9 am, trying out some new wetsuits from Sail fish. Later on I had to go to the expo close by to register myself, receiving number and all the other stuff.

After a lunch with Einar we went back to the hotel, and I was checking my bicycle and packing both the run and bike bag, that we had do deliver later between 5-6 pm. It turns out that the the time windows didn’t work that well, and everybody was delivering their bicycle at the same time, because when we got down there was a over 100m long line. Luckily I have brought some food, which became may dinner that day, but standing in line is not what you want to use your energy on in the last day before an ironman!

After an hour we finally had successfully delivered our bikes and bags and was heading back to the hotel. When to sleep around 10 pm. Took some imodium pills to avoid to much stomach activity on this last day.

On the raceday

Einar (another from my club) was staying on the same hotel, so we had a deal to check that we both did woke up. So at 4 am we where up, and I had a ready made baguette for breakfast before going down. The transition area opened at 5 am and I checked the air in the wheels and mounting on the repair equipment and the googles I had forgot putting in my bicycle bag the day before.

Then we changed to wetsuit and dropping off our street wear bag, before going down to the beach.

The swim

Even with above 2500 athletes Ironman France has only one start, but they use fences to divide the starters into groups based on swim time. I position myself in the sub 1:10 group, and as we stood waiting for the start to go, I felt very much like the scenes from Save private Ryen before the are bordering France. While the start goes everybody runes into water on the stoney beach of Nice, and in the next minuet the water is boiling of swimmers all over. You better swim with your head high in water, to avoid getting the googles kicked off. But after about 500 m there is a little more space, and I start to swim with bilateral breathing and my head underneath water.

The first lap is 2400 m and we are to run up on the beach, before running out in water to do the second lap. Luckily there are volunteers standing in the water helping us up from the water (you never get used to the stones in the Nice beach). On the second lap there are still many athletes around me in the water, but with a steady pace I even get the chance to enjoy the sun coming up in east.

T1 from swim to bike

While exiting water for second and last time I “lap” my Polar 625s and it display only 1:02:something – new personal best! Running up, there is a huge amount of people thats on both side shouting. I pick up my bicycle bag and carry on into the change-tent where a girl helps me getting the stuff out of the bag and putting sunscreen on shoulders and neck. I also squish some “sitting cream” onto the stuff under my cycle trouser, but this I have do to myself.. The wetsuit and googles are put into the bike-bag, and I drop it off in the end of the change-tent.

Bicycle lap

My bicycle is far down in the bike park, so I have to run a little before picking up my bike and continue to the exit. Accelerating down the “Promenade des Anglais” we are speeding about 40-50 km/h and everything seem fine, but then I my wheel-scum and gass-pump loosen, and for some seconds I think about weather I should stop to pick it up or not. But since its my only insurance if my wheels are puncturing, so I decide to do it, and looses some minutes while breaking and turning. Thanks to a watcher who as found it and throwing it over to me, I soon was back on track.

The first hill

The first nutrition station was after 18 km, and with only
Should had a gel before entering the bicycle, because only one bottle of sports drink before first food station (after 18km on bike) I was almost running empty. Right after this we said hello to the first hill, a only 500m long but 12% climb. My gear ratio was pretty heavy, so there was no way I could take this seated.

A great scenery follow us, while going further up, through small villages with people watching and cheering on side. A more steady climb rate and then some downhill before the real hills started at 50 km and lasted for 20 more. Over this top we where entering this beautiful mountain valley where we was able to speed up again. After about 90 km the sun was one my right side, and we where “going the right direction” again.

Food stations on bike leg

Totally there where about 9 food stations with water, Infinit sports drink, Cola, gel and bananas. Used one of my bottle holder for a spare wheel, so I had only one available. Most often I was empty before entering the next station.

On the first and second food station there was no gel, only bars, but beside from that I was just using gels, the Infinit drink and some coke in the end.

Practice downhill cycling

After 120km there is mostly downhills, they had closed the roads for regular traffic, but some of the turns was steep, and I saw several medics even though there was many volunteers out in the track. Think its possible to cut some time riding this hills more efficient.

Another thing I discovered was that it was hard to find the right pace after long downhill, often I was pedaling to hard right after a hill and then forced to lower speed after some minutes, as my legs gotten tired. Be aware of these hill to flat transitions!

T2 – burning feets

The last part back to Nice was maybe the hardest. We where about 10 riders in a group and everybody was trying to get some free speed by drafting behind one another. And each time the judges was turning up, we just went out to the side, pretending to do nothing wrong. Finally back on the boulevard with the goal area in the other end, these 5km seems so long.

Back off the bike, I was totally unable to run on my cycle shoe and just had to take them right off, before running to park my cycle and pick up my run bag. Also had to pay a visit to the toilet, getting what’s been pushing for some hours out.

Running

I always looks forward to the final leg, and also this time it felt good to get started on the running. Both legs was all right, and throughout the first of four laps I was feeling good.

The heat was great, but on each food station they had also a kind of shower you could run through to cool down, and I saw several running with plain cotton shirts that might keep the water longer. Didn’t eat so much on the running, only one gel. Mostly I changed between Infinit and coke.

Every other lap felt like easy – hard. Especially the last one where a cramp in my hamstring muscle was starting to bother, and I had to massage every time it started to complain. Also had to use the toilet twice while running, cause the pills (Imodium) I took the day before made it hard to get everything out.

This was also my first marathon is so warm conditions and I was a little cautious with speed and hydration.

And finally the end

Crossing the finish line on a ironman is touchy, and laying on the ground with feet up in the air, I always get glossy eyes. It was impossible to try to find some other norwegians, but after picking up my street wear bag, I could phone home telling people I was all right.

Restitution and the days after

Believes that swimming is the best restitution you could have, so in the next days i did several training sessions on the beach of Nice:

• Monday: 45min swim and 40km bicycle on the afternoon
• Tuesday: 60min swim and 75km bicycle up to the city Grasse
• Wednesday: 60min run early before flight back home and a 1h and 40min offroad training back home

Check also out images from Ironman France 2009 here