There are good days and bad days. The good part of June 26th was my 7th anniversary with Brandon. The bad part of the day was the race. The other good part of the day was I finished the bad part; aka the race! Suffice it to say you can’t have your best day every time you race. I was due for a bad day!
Swim: Nice is beautiful; the hustle and bustle is something else! The beaches are packed despite the large peddles and rocks that it is! The start had predicted swim time corrals with the Pro start in the middle. I warmed up, felt good, got back to shore, chatted with another pro and had a panic attack. I suddenly became claustrophobic stuck in the middle of everyone with what felt like no escape. Other male age groups were now in our pro pen and the shrinking room feeling just got stronger. I suddenly felt that I should be in a different corral but it was too late to move. Relax, breathe deeply, I have done this before, just swim, swim, and swim. The gun goes off here we go. It was crazy! Hands, feet, heads, arms, legs, bodies, everything was everywhere there was no room to move, let alone breathe. I briefly breast stroked and yelled holy s@*t! I thought I was going to drown, no joke. I thought no wonder so many people hate swimming; this wasn’t going to make anyone feel good about it! Finally it was over! Out of the water my swim time wasn¡¦t too bad at 1:04, with the run over the rocks, up the ramp into transition it was 1:05. The time definitely did not indicate the hour of discomfort and torture that never let up!
Transition 1: HUGE! It was so long, Placid-like but longer. The volunteers where not allowed to help. My bike was at the far end of the transition, a long run having to dodge those with bikes!
Bike: Beautiful, absolutely stunning! It truly is a gorgeous course, with lots of climbing and great descending! However the whole course was busy for the entire race. We thought the race would break up on the hills but it didn’t the packs were huge until the descents when it spread out slightly. Drafting was everywhere, pretty hard to avoid. For me I just didn’t have the legs, ultimately tired. I couldn’t push the power that I know I can, I just had to be patient and get through it. The descents were awesome, not steep, you could pedal most of it but again lots of people and the corners were often bottle necked.
Transition 2: The bike is done, into transition and off to the port-o-potty. *Note: some of you may not want to read this particularly if you have a weak stomach!! Much to my dismay my female friend arrived while I was riding, what a mess. I started to cry, yep coach was crying. I was so disappointed and disgusted at the mess. What was I going to do??! Sure wish I had a change of shorts! I went to the change tent to figure it out. There was no chance of DNF’ing, I got myself sorted and off to run. Needless to say I had a long transition time and started the run very unhappy.
Run: Four out and back’s on the Promenade des Anglais. Aka 8 laps and no shade and as it turns out only two port-o-potty (POP) options! How ridiculous is that?! The first lap was good; legs were going and thought I could make a good day of it. On the second lap (at 6km) I needed a POP, stopped at the aid station to ask and found out that I had to go back to 5.5km to the other aid station. So I headed there but was tripped by the curb, fell to the ground after rolling my ankle. Got up and fell again because my ankle was sore. Wow, seriously not my day! I never made it to the POP because the medical staff came out and helped me to the med tent. They checked it out, iced it and we waited 10min before I could try to run again. Fortunately I could run, so off I went. At this point I knew my race was not what I had intended it to be. Mentally I was out of the race, but I still had to get myself through 36km to finish the race! Did I want to quit, absolutely, but it was just not an option. When the going gets tough, the tough have to suck it up and get going! My mantra “chest up, light on my feet, keep moving”! Finally the POP stop! And another a few km’s later. With the out and back course I got to see Brandon, Tim and David often. They were all looking very good, running well, passing people, all in all things were going well for the boys. Little did I know two of them were having bathroom issues too! It was definitely not possible for their female friend to show up, so what was going on? French food?!
Finish: I couldn’t have been happier to see the finish line. The time didn’t matter at this point, it was the fact that I had made it through all the trials and tribulations that were thrown at me in this race. I had to dig very deep and conquer the demons of the day, which was truly rewarding in the end! Brandon, Tim and David had great days; however both Brandon and Tim missed Kona spots and have to resort to their back up plan of racing IMC at the end of August. Never a dull moment.
In summary: We all agreed we would not do IM France again unless things were changed. The swim is too violent and aggressive for most of the 3.8km. The bike is too busy on narrow winding roads with nowhere to move. The run is “nice” but hot, no shade and ultimately boring! BUT France is a wonderful place to vacation, post IM week was fabulous. We visited Monaco and saw the preparations for the Prince’s wedding weekend on July 1 and 2nd. Then we rented a 32 foot sailboat and sailed on the Mediterranean for a day, absolutely spectacular!