This is a sort of diary of the days around my 11th attempt at the 2024 Nice Ironman triathlon. Just to clarify the Nice Ironman is a long distance triathlon held in Nice, France each year. First we do a 3.8km swim in the sea, for me about 2 hours. Next it’s a quick change and on to the bike to ride 180km up into the hills behind Nice, for me about 8 hours of pedaling. Finally it’s another quick change and a 42km jog on the 5km promenade (4 laps) between the centre of Nice and the Airport. To be declared an “Ironman” all this has to be completed in under 16 hours.
Some History
I discovered Ironman in 2006 (in Monaco and it was only a half) so I bought a bike and had a go in 2007. I did some shorter distances in 2008 and became a full distance “Ironman” in 2009 finishing Nice in 14h 46m at the age of 52. Now for most people that should have been it. Ironman done – tick. For some reason I completed it again in 2010 (15h 31m). I signed up in 2011 but was just back from a month in the USA and totally messed up my de jet lagging – I ran out of time on the run after almost falling asleep on the bike! Amazingly I completed the 2012 race in a personal record breaking 14h 6m. I had an accident in early 2013 which hurt my knee so I almost didn’t start as I hadn’t done much training. At the time there was no option to cancel and get money back so I started anyway to see what would happen. Not a lot really. I was declared out of time at the 118km checkpoint on the bike.
2014 went better with a proper finish in 15h 27m. Surgery on my neck kept me away in 2015 and 2016. I was back in 2017 when I had just turned 60. That was a mega year and included weeks of 4×4 rallying in Western Africa (Africa Eco Race and Carta Rallye), then racing on foot in the 250km Marathon des Sables – twice (in Morocco and Peru), the Great North Run half marathon in Newcastle, a Fell Race in the UK Lake District and the Nice-Cannes marathon. Amazingly with all this going on I didn’t train enough for the Ironman so ran out of time 31km into the run.
I signed up for 2018 but unfortunately had to cancel the week before when a random medical problem in my bottom (!!) meant I could not even sit on the bike. I was back again in 2019 and finished in 14h 11m. This was not actually as good as it sounds as we were in the middle of an official heat wave so this race was almost cancelled. Amazingly it went ahead (in 35C heat) but the distances were cut to 152km bike and 30km run.
The world then had a year off for Covid so my next one was in 2021. Unfortunately I had a massive surprise on the bike when my neck started having problems after 6 hours. I suspect two years with little outdoor cycling had upset my neck muscles. The bike took me an awful 8h 30m and unsurprisingly I ran out of time on the run.
In 2022 I decided to do the shorter (half distance) Ironman 70.3 races (Nice and Les Sables d’Olonne-Vendee) then somehow signed up for the full distance race again in 2023. In April of 2023 I did my 3rd 250km Marathon des Sables in Morocco which unfortunately left me with a leg problem so in the end no Ironman was possible. Luckily, in these enlightened times, it was possible to defer my entry to 2024. So here we are in 2024.
In summary I have tried this race 10 times. I have actually started 9 times. Once I started with no hope of finishing (2013 bad knee). Three times I have been surprised on course (2011 jetlag, 2017 lack of training, 2021 neck problems). And 5 times I have actually finished within the allowed time. I wonder what this year will bring.
- 1 – Did not start for medical reasons (2018)
- 1 – Out of time on the bike (2013)
- 3 – Out of time on the run (2011, 2017, 2021)
- 5 – Finished (2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2019)
The Build Up
You could say I have been building up for this race since my first in 2007. I think the joys of aging probably negate most of this. Except in my head which seems to operate on a different clock.
Anyhow I have tried to be quite serious this year as I really don’t want to fail. Since the start of the year I have done 16 hours of swimming, 85 hours of cycling and 36 hours of running. That equates to about 32km of water, 1,700km of bike and 360km of jogging. My longest single swim was 2.5km, longest bike was 6 hours with 2,500m of climbing and the longest run 26km. In general I have been trying to do at least 7 hours of sport per week. In the last few weeks this had ramped up to 15 hours once the long bike rides started.
As “warm-up” events I ran the Nice Half Marathon in April (in 2 hrs) and completed the Mallorca Ironman 70.3 five weeks ago in 8 hours.
Tapering Week
This final week before the race is called “Tapering Week”. Basically I pretty much do nothing except tinker on my computer. Well not really nothing. Penny and I swim about 2km every 2 days in the sea just to try keep my head in gear. The idea, of course, is to rest and recover from the ever increasing training load of the last few weeks. Hopefully by Sunday I will be full of beans and raring to go.
Wednesday
Finally the start of the diary. . . . . .
I know this is the last “normal” day before I reenter the world of Ironman. I went for a 1 hour swim in the sea this morning with Penny and amazingly it was actually sunny. Quite pleased with my 2km. I was hoping for more but there were some annoying waves and a small group of, I assume, triathletes also trawling the 750m long laps of the beach so an amount of time was spent trying to avoid them.
Trying not to think of all the ways Sunday can go wrong. I really don’t want to fail another one. Really only worried about the swim, my neck on the bike and running out of energy on the run. . . . .
Thursday
Raining at 6am this morning. Luckily wasn’t planning on swimming anyway. Seems that’s probably it for swimming till the big day. Tomorrow we have an appointment and if we swim on Saturday I’m not sure the wet suit will dry in time for Sunday’s race.
I spent most of the morning at the dentist on our big adventure to sort out my teeth time. He did promise he wouldn’t do anything that would affect Sunday.
After lunch we drove to Nice and registration. Nice was a mess. Tons of traffic and our favorite car park was full. Made it to the Ironman Expo. Even though they are running the full Ironman and the half Ironman 70.3 on the same day the expo seems to be smaller every year. Queuing for registration was a mess. They should go to Disney land and see how a proper queuing system is managed.
We came away with an ID wrist band, a nice big rucksack and all the transition bags and stickers needed for the race. Didn’t buy anything in the official shop because the queues to pay were too big (and badly organised). Penny will go buy my souvenir tee shirt during the race on Sunday when it’s all quiet as she did in Mallorca.
Friday
Up at 6am, breakfast then worked on my new Iceland F-roads video till it was time to go to our appointment. Spent the afternoon organising some of my transition bags. Later on I went to my physio appointment for him to have a final crack at my annoying neck before Sunday. Afterwards it was a last minute trip to Decathlon to buy more energy gels. Earlier I had made a Fuel spread sheet and realised I was 8 gels short.
Fueling is a massive issue on the Ironman. Remember it starts with a 2 hour swim then immediately you are off for an 8 hour non stop bike ride before hitting the road for a 5 hour jog. It’s even worse than that as I have to finish breakfast 2 hours before the swim start to avoid being sea sick. That makes for a very challenging energy supply situation.
My plan is to eat 2 energy gels before the swim then 2 during the transition to the bike. On the bike course there are 8 aid stations so for me that’s about 1 per hour. So I start with a full 500ml of energy drink (water plus a magic powder) then refill this at each station. This means I need to carry 7 sachets of magic powder. Also at each station I want to eat 1 energy gel. That is quite easy because I can stop at the aid stations and organise. More complicated are the 1-per-hour energy bars I want to eat. These take a while to consume and I can only really eat them on the downhill sections when I am less breathless. Carrying all this can be a bit tight but luckily I can put things into a special numbered bag that I can pickup about half way into the route.
It’s not possible to eat solids on the run so I start with 2 energy gels then try eat at least two on each of the four 10km laps. That can be really difficult as by this time my stomach is generally not too happy. In the past I have done the entire run on water only as I couldn’t stomach anything.
Worked on our final timing schedule. My race starts at 7h30 so this means I have to finish breakfast before 5h30. So the plan is to be up at 4h30 eat breakfast and be on the road to Nice by 5h30. Should arrive about 6am which gives me 1 hour to find my bike, load the food and check tyre pressures before the bike park closes at 7am. This is actually much more civilised than previous years when the start was 6h30 so I was starting breakfast at 3h30. It does however mean that I could still be on track running at 23h30. Probably won’t need sun glasses for the run.
Eating breakfast at 4h30 means I need to be in bed by 20h30 to allow for 8 hours sleep. This means finishing dinner by 19h30 so in principle eating at 18h00.
Spent some time going through my Triathlon Check List spread sheet and collecting all the parts I need to pack into my Transition Bags. Socks, shoes, food, sunglasses, toilet roll – it’s all documented after years of doing this.
Saturday
Up at 5h30 and finished breakfast by 6h30. Spent more time working on my Icelandic F Roads video and adding the final touches to my transition bags. I wanted to go to the race briefing at 10h00 but with all the problems of traffic and parking in Nice it really was not practical. I have seen it loads of time and really all the items are in the Athletes Guide PDF.
Early lunch then more video work.
We pack the car about 3pm and head to Nice. The bike and transition bags have to be slotted onto their pre race area before 7pm tonight. We arrive at the Nice port around 3:30pm then take an hour to drive the 3km to the centre and the car park. Did I mention the traffic in Nice was really bad?
I hang up my bags and park my bike, after letting some air out of the tyres (as it is sitting in the hot sun), in the assigned slots then head back to the car and home. Early dinner and in bed by 8pm.
Sunday
As planned up at 4h30 and breakfast finished by 5. On the road at 5h30. This time no traffic, car all parked just after 6. The bike park is a hive of activity. There are 2,500 people doing the Ironman and a similar number doing the shorter Ironman 70.3. I say bye to Penny and head into the secure Athletes only area. No access to our bags but I do have to pump up the bike tyres then add the race food and drink.
It’s now almost 7am. I leave the bike park then locate Penny on the public side of the fence. We walk up to the swim start area together, apart from the big fence. It’s still 30 minutes to the start. At about 7h15 I put on my wet suit, Penny zips me up through the fence. A final kiss and off I go. First stop is the Street Wear bag drop off. This contains my shoes, fleecy jacket etc that I wore in the car.
Now I’m ready to race. I just have my wet suit, swim hat and goggles as I climb down the steps onto the beach to join the masses.
The start area is divided into expected swim times. These range from under 1 hour to over 1h45. I head to the latter. I’ve been quite happy with my swimming in the last few weeks and have calculated I could hopefully optimistically do a 1h35. I place my self at the back of the 1h40’s. The sea looks a bit wavy near the beach but hopefully it will be OK.
The swim course is shaped like a V with the start at the bottom. The two lines of V are each 950m long. The 70.3 racers had already started and were working their way along the right hand line, turning and heading back to the beach to complete 1.9km. We would be heading first to the top of the left hand line, then back almost to the beach (1.9km) then back out to the top of the right hand line and back to the beach (3.8km).
The gun went and our race started. The 2,500 strong queue started moving into the water. About 15 minutes later it was my turn to enter the water. I clicked my Garmin watch Start and made my way carefully over all the rocks to enter the water.
The first 100m were horrible. It was cold, bouncy and my breathing was much too fast. Eventually I got it under control and was able to start front crawl proper. There were a few people around me but the water seemed to be very choppy. For some reason I had a really hard time getting my swim into a rhythm. The waves didn’t help as much of the time when I looked up to sight the marker buoys all I saw was the next wave in front. Eventually I made it to the first turn at 950m. My watched showed I had been going for 25 minutes. This was about what I expected. I plodded on.
Due to the way the waves were coming in the return length was even less fun. It seemed I was forever being swamped when I breathed. I had been going for 1 hour when I made the turn for the next leg. Five weeks earlier at the Mallorca Ironman 70.3 I had done this distance in 53 minutes. The previous week, in training, I had done it in 47 minutes. This was not going well.
At the end of the right hand line of the V I made the final turn (2.9km). I was 1h30 into my swim . Still not wildly concerned as I thought I would complete in just under 2 hours, the cut off time was 2h15. Definitely not very happy and fed up with the taste of sea water. Only 950m to go.
Well that was a battle. The final 950m took me a staggering 38 minutes. I was now starting to feel ill with the sea water taste and swimming in the constantly choppy water was getting me down. The end was in sight.
Made landfall in a very depressing 2h 8m which I really was not expecting today. Jogged to my bike transition bag. Off comes the wet suit, on goes the sun screen, socks, gloves, hat, number belt then its two quick energy gels and a drink. The 2,500 place bike park is 99% empty so its really easy to find my bike. Grab it then jog the 500m out of the park to the mount line. Jump on and away we go. Phew made it to the bike. A minute later I see Penny and wave for a photo. Hope I look happier than my stomach feels.
By the time I reached the airport (5km) I had a new problem – my neck. In training I was doing over 3 hours before my neck hurt today it was hurting straight away. I guess 2 hours of swimming can do that.
Despite these problems I was really happy to be zooming along on the bike. I know this route really well so I was fully prepared for all the steep hills I was about to encounter. First came the three short 14% sections between St Laurent du Var and St Jeannet – no problem. Then it was fueling stop before Vence and the long glorious downhill after Tourettes sur Loup. All good. Stomach was feeling better, my neck was under control and the eating was on schedule.
Next is the long up hill drag from just before Pont du Loup up to the Col d’Ecre. No particular difficulty just a long hill. I refueled at the service point just before Gourdon and set off without a care in the world.
Two minutes later it was all over. It seems there was a time-of-day cut off 53km into the bike at Gourdon. Due to my slow swim etc, I had just missed it by a couple of minutes. So that was the end of my day.
Two racers were already there with space blankets waiting for an ambulance. After a few minutes more arrived to join my small group of out-of-timers. We all stepped into a very nice luxury coach and our bikes were loaded into a special van. The coach took us back to Nice while the bike van continued its tour of the 180km circuit looking for more out-of-timers.
Luckily I had my phone with me so was able to communicate with Penny and let her know what was going on. We also had Apple Airtags tracking devices on both me and the bike so she already knew I had stopped for some reason.
Once back in Nice I found Penny then went into the finishing area for some food and a couple of free ice creams. We wandered away from the race course and found a small cafe for a coffee. It was now about 14h30. Seems we had to wait for the bike course to fully close at 7pm before I could access my transition bags. There was a similar delay for the bike as its airtag showed the van was still out on the course. Amazingly we had time for an early Fish and Chips dinner while we waited.
During coffee Penny told me the story of buying the Official Tee Shirt. It seems the shop only had Small sizes left. She asked the assistant and was told that was it – they only had Small shirts. Except for the display one on the manikin which was a medium. Quickly Penny bought it just as another person began asking where the medium shirts were. Phew that was close.
Considering I was expecting to still be running at midnight it was quite a surprise to find myself sitting in our lounge with a beer watching the 9pm kick off of the first England football match in the Euros. Funny old day.
And now
Fascinating thing sport: you never know what is going to happen. I’m not too upset, as I have finished the Ironman Nice 5 times successfully in the past, but it is very annoying to have put all that time and effort in for no medal.
I have a couple of marathons planned for the rest of the year but no swimming or biking. So far I have signed up for one Ironman 70.3 race (half distance) next year. I figured there is no point in trying another full one without a massive improvement in my swimming. Must try hold that thought. . . . . .