Ironman France 2010

[IronABS]

I've signed up to IM France 2010 for my first IM. I keep on hearing how tough it is, has anyone else signed up for it or did anyone do it this year and have any tips...

[KidStardust]

i know a guy who did it last year. a fantastic and picturesque race, but hard as a hard thing. that was his first and he loved it. if you're gonna go for it, may as well pick a proper event. good luck.

[fattaff]

I competed in this years and loved it, dont listen to all the hype re the mountains get your training in and you will be fine.

It was my first IM and previous I had only done 2 sprint and 2 olympic distance tri's so dont worry about it being your first one.

The whole set up is fantastic, the weather was beautiful, even though it was 35' on the run, the city is great, and the crowds and support second to none.

We flew easy jet Bristol to Nice and I hires a bike box from triuk, catch the bus into Nice 4 Euros rather than 40 Euros in a taxi. We stayed in the Hotel Fleurs which was a self catering appartment only 1 mile from the start finish line, it had everything we needed and a supermarket was only 5mins walk down the street. We ate in most of the time to keep costs down, but if you do decide to eat out it is expensive, especially on the Prom de Anglaise.

Registration was easy in the IM village and took about 10mins, you can do this from the Thursday before, bike racking and transition bags go in on the Saturday and takes a bit longer, every bike and owner are photographed prior to racking which was a good security touch.

The morning of the race was nuts, up at 4am, breakfast, double check I havent forgot anything, double check again, and again, walk to the start, get changed, hand in street wear bag, down to start pens and wait, pee, chat, pee, bang and your off.

This is a mass 2500 person start so stay out of the way as I did, I completed the whole course side by side with my mate which really helped, we drafted each other during the swim taking turns and it was a relief he was there when we turned back into shore for the first time as I was blinded by the sun which was rising low over the mountains, first tip wear mirrored or tinted goggles to prevent getting blinded. The rest of the swim was uneventful.

The bike, now this raises a debate in itself, on other forums this goes on page after page, TT or road, this was easy for me because I only have a TT bike, I put on a 12/27 rear cassette and away you go. I did get a few long rides in prior to going, 2 over 100 miles, but I managed to do a fair bit of hill work, even though there are no hills in the UK that compare to the Col de l'Ecre 21km. The first 20km is flat then you start climbing, firstly up a nasty little 500m incline which caught a few people out, I even saw people walking their bikes up this part, after this you climb and climb and climb, it is quite gradual with no real steep sections but expect to be in the saddle for a good few hours depending on how good you are.There are feed station every 20km and a cracking 30km down hill section which is really fast, if you are poor at going downhill or nervous get out and practice, to finish there is a 20km flat stretch going back into transition. Beware travelling along the Prom de Anglais, this is a fast stretch and the crowds are huge, watch out for people crossing the road and not looking, I heard some horror stories of crashes due to this.

The run consists of 4 x 10km laps along the Prom down to the airport and back. It was 35' and people were dropping like flies, sort your nutrition and drinking out and you will be fine though. There are showers on the route but avoid them, the amount of people who run through them getting wet feet and suffering from blisters was unreal, I just poured water over my head making sure it didnt wet my feet, I finished with one small blister on my right foot. The run did get boring lap after lap but the support was fantastic, eventually we finished and got into the post race area, a quick massage and some food (which was terrible) and off to collect bikes, get transition bags and meet up with family. It was probably 11pm when we were back in the apartment.

I celebrated with a kebab, IM finshers t shirt and medal.

You will love it, its not easy but IM's are not designed to be thats why we do them.

Dont get stressed, dont set a time to go for just aim to finish in the 16hrs, when this one is out of the way then you can start thinking of beating times, just enjoy your first and you will have those memories forever.

If you need any more advice just pm me,

all the best Fat Taff

[IronABS]

Cheers Fat Taff - It sounds amazing and i'm already starting to get excited - I've booked my hotel already!!

I'll be out there by myself - unless i can persuade some mates to take a hol at the same time. I have been debating roadie or TT as i do most of my long distance training on the roadie, but i am tempted by taking the TT - I'm doing a Half IM distance at the end of August and was going to do it on the TT so i'll see how that goes before making any big decisions.

I totally agree about the challenge of it all IM's are supposed to be tough so why not challenge yourself instead of trying to take the "easier" option (if thats the right word) - If IM France is a toughie then it should be all the more sweeter to finish.

[fattaff]

With a TT you can only really get into the aero on the first and last 20km which basically is the out and back section leading into the mountains, also on the 30km descent, if you want comfort on the hills use a road with tri bars, in total you will probably be in the aero for 1.5 - 2hrs max, whilst you will be going up hill for anything upto 4hrs. Get out there and put the miles in, you will know what feels right for you.

I have been on a few other forums and there are quite a few brits going out and doing it next year, have a brows and make contact with them, a few of us met up in the pasta party on the friday night which was nice. I went out with 2 other mates and our families so we had a large crowd, we had a scream and it made the experience all the better. One girl in the room next to us paid to take her coach out with her F4T, its worth having someone with you just to take care of you if you bonk big time after.

We met up with 2 lads from Cardiff tri whilst out there, one ended up pulling out on the bike with ruptured tendons in his knee after a competitor fell on him coming up the pebble beach out of the swim, the second collapsed on crossing the finish line and ended up in hospital for 24hrs.

Dont let this put you off though, as I said before all I had was 1 blister.

You will be fine, all the best Fat Taff

[LifeofRiley]

Just dug out my race report from last year's event (below). It's a terrific event that I cannot speak highly enough of, despite my bad day. I have entered it next year nad will also concur with the advice about the blisters - I didn't follow it last year and still suffer with the damage caused sometimes even now!
************
Just got back from South of France - here's my race report - it a tale of disaster!

Friday morning awoke after 3 hours sleep following a 570 mile drive with the phone ringing - it was my sister to tell me my Dad had died. This pretty much ripped the arse out of my race before something else managed to finish the job - more of that later.

Got to the start and as I stood waiting I simply did not want to race at all - my head was all wrong. I told myself that Dad would have wanted me to race so off I went and posted a terrible 1:20 for the swim following some apocalyptic wind. This turned into a bout of diaorreah in T1 and I posted an 11 minute transition!

The bad wind continued during the bike (sorry anyone behind me) until 1 hour in, I again experienced some violent diaorreah followed by excrutiating stomach cramps. After a long 30 minutes I finally managed to find somewhere to stop, scrambled up a ravine, pulled down my nastily soiled trisuit and let nature follow its course. I had to use one of my cycling gloves in the absence of tissue, which proved mighty ineffective and caused considerable discomfort for the rest of the day an on into the week.

Unfortunately, this story continued for the rest of the day although I managed to hold out for restaurant toilets for the rest of the bike. If you saw a lardy bloke called Lee in a blue trisuit pass you about 5 times, that was me!

By the time I got to T2 after an atrocious 7:07, I was still having cramps but managed to keep a lid on things there on in, but by then I was so dehydrated and demoralised from all the squits and the sh*t times I posted for the swim and bike that I could only manage a 5:21 marathon, which involved lots of walking.

Still, I finished it, got the medal and Dad would have been bragging about it down his club the next week.

Sorry of this is a negative race report - don't let it put you off because it really is the most brilliant race you can enter - absolutely gorgeous and the weather is beautiful too. I will be back again to do it properly and enjoy it more the next time.

LoR

[mnelson]

This is really useful for me. I am an IM virgin and have been putting off getting my entry in for a week or so, although in my mind have committed to "just do it" Still a big commitment.

Anyway after reading this the next site I will log in to is Ironman France to do what I need to do - so hopefully I will return on the 28th June 2010 with a positive experience, and of course the tattoo!!!

Any advice welcome, and also the opportunity to meet up

[IronABS]

Nice One mnelson - looking at the entry list there will be a big UK contingent out there next June - I'll be out there by myself so any opportunity to meet up, swap advice/worrys would be welcome...

[UPR]

Hi all,

I'm going to do Ironman France 2010. Any suggestion for a flat to rent during the week of the race.

Thanks.

[crisswinhoe]

Hi I am also doing Ironman France and it is interesting to read all the comments. I am arriving in Nice on Saturday 19th and plan to hire a car to drive round the bike course. I would be happy for anyone to join join me on this recce sometime after the 19th.