Ironman 70.3 France Race report

bryangiggsy

I signed up to do this race in July as I was late starting training this year and want to get a bit in before the race came around. The race was held in Aix en Provence about 15 miles from Marseilles and 90 miles from Nice. Because Aerlingus stop flying to Marseilles at beginning of September I went down the Nirvanaeurope.com route and flew into Nice. I booked my own flight however the hotel and transfers Nirvana took care off. Transfer time was about 1hr 40 min s from Nice and my hotel Saint Christophe was in the center of Aix about 200m from the finish line. The race organisation was excellent. Very professional from start to finish. It was run by triangle events who I believe run IM Austria & IM Nice so anyone who has done these events will know what to expect. I registered fri night and on Sat morn rode my bike about 23k out to the lake. It was a split transition with T2 in the center of Aix. Race morning we were bussed out to the lake with no problems at all.

Race start.

Carnage. There was no gun at all. Tape went up and people entered the water busted thru the canoes and started swimming. First few hundred metres were brutal. I moved out right and got some open water in front of me and put the foot down. Pretty uneventful from there apart from a few smacks in the face. Exited the water in 27.47 which was a little on the fast side for me. I normally swim 25-26 mins 1500m so I feel the swim may have been a couple of hundred short.

T1 was long as there was an 800m run from the lake to the transition. Got in and changed quick enough and out on the bike. T1 5.48


The bike. Quite possibly the hardest bike course I have ever rode. The first 10 k I was moving along well on the flat at 35k an hour and thought if this keeps up im in for a good time. My hr dropped below 150 and I though perfect but then the climbing began and kept going and kept going….. Average grade was 8-10% and on one of the climbs it hit 14% for 500m. It was carnage. All the climbs were very long Its very hard to describe but I have never encountered climbing like it. The descents were insane and extremely technical and I just could not make the time up. Overall over the 90k the climbing profile was 1302m altitude change. To put this into perspective IM Nice one of the hardest IM’s in the world climbing altitude over 180k is 1800m altitude change. We went over 1302 m in just 90k going over 5 cols . My hr on the climbs was 171 which was not good and I had no more gears left. I got off the bike in 3.04.59 and got ready for the run. HR average on the bike was 155 about 7 bps higher than what I wanted and I did not feel fresh for the run unlike Frankfurt last year

T2 was also long from bike drop off to bag pickup but I managed to get out as quick as I could . I started of at 4 30km pace and held this for as long as I could. The run was a 7k 3 loop course with 2 climbs on each loop. By lap 3 I was hurting and walked thru each aid station to get nutrition on then started running again. I buried myself on the last 3k and left noting out there crossing the finish line in 5.15.46 with a run time of 1.35.

Overall I was delighted as even though its not a pb course I have not done a harder triathlon . Again the race organisation was second to none and if your looking for a challenge this triathlon is the one to sign up for. Myself been there done that and got the t shirt I wont be back.
Bryan H
www.ironmanpaysdaix.com