Ironman France was not to be a repeat of the amazing experience I had in Ironman Austria last year, when I achieved a 10hr 44 mins in my first full IM. As someone who has suffered greatly from heat exhaustion/heat stroke - 3 times in the past few years I have ended up keeling over and on a drip in medical tents, including the finish of IM Austria last year – I always had a concern that the heat of Nice might prove a bit tricky. Not to mention the extrememely hilly bike course.
And they were. Whilst the swim went reasonably ok, the heat of the bike leg in the never ending hills was a climb too far and in the blistering 30C+ run along the Promenade de Anglais, I lasted just 10km before collapsing from heat stroke again. Ambulance and Medical tent with drip followed shortly after, race over.
Depsite this it was a fantastic event. However I'm done with Ironman races in the heat and am now looking for a cool and flat bike course Ironman in the next few weeks - I'm too heavy to be a climber (on bikes. not climbing) but am reasonably fast on flat time trials. Watch this space!
Thanks to Daniel and Pauline Rudge for hosting us so fantastically in their villa above Villefranche.
