Conquer Yourself

Debrief of the Full Ironman in Nice

I had a plan.

It was to swim in 1h14, to ride in 5h15, to run in 3h20 with 10 min total of transition. Just to mention the distances if you’re not familiar with long format triathlon. The Ironman is a 3.8km swim followed by a 180km ride and a 42km run… Nice is quite spectacular, not only thanks to its amazing scenery, but also because the ride offers 2500m of positive ascent, it’s a proper legs killer.

Exactly a year ago, I couldn’t swim nor run. By the way, looking at my recent performances both in Aix en Provence and Nice, it looks like I still can’t swim… But I am committed to fix this !

Anyway, after a year of consistent training, and a solid performance in Aix en Provence for the half Ironman just one month before (4h44 compared to 5h36 the year before), it was time to conquer the full distance in Nice. I had already finished one in Cervia, Italy, in September 2023 (10h33) with a pretty flat bike course…

Even though I hadn’t trained as much as I wanted (work, travel, you know…) between the half in Aix on the 19th of May and the full Ironman in Nice on the 16th of June, I was feeling great, I was ready to conquer and face the race full on ! I wanted to crack a sub 10h for this race. I had paid for this, I had trained for this !

But it didn’t go as expected.

I thought I could maintain a pace of 1:50 / 100m during the swim, but after just 600 meters, my pace reduced dramatically to reach 2:03 average… So slow… Right there I lost 8 minutes on the plan. Bummer. I had faced the same fate in Aix.

My current rank… 1200th out of 1887. Slow, so slow…

My heart rate was peaking at 160 while I was running towards the first transition zone to put my helmet on and my socks. I grabbed my bike and ran towards the start of the bike course. Left foot inside the shoe already clipped onto the bike and voilà, just like mounting a horse like a cowboy ! Aero mode, ready for battle… I was passing riders, one after the other, the first 10km felt like it was the day ! During the first climb of 9km, I kept my cool, stayed around 260-70 watts in order to preserve my legs but for some reason they were not responding so well and my heart rate remained too low. I just kept going… As we reached the second ascent, a climb of 18km to reach Col de l’Ecre, there I understood that something wasn’t right. I could barely reach 260 watts in the ascent and my heart wouldn’t go beyond 153bpm instead of 158 planned with at least 10 to 20 more watts. After this really painful ascent, I started to get dark thoughts like… What if I crash with my bike and break it, at least I will be done with that race, what if I just stop and lay on the grass to chill in silence while I have no phone with me, what if I just give up cause I can’t take it anymore. In the flat, I couldn’t barely reach 205/210 watts instead of 215/225 and there I remember what someone wrote to me the day before : “You keep moving when your legs tell you they can’t go any further” - It almost sounded like an order - It resonated during the whole ride, every time I was suffering. It felt heavy but I kept pushing, as much as I could, even though I was feeling so frustrated with the numbers displayed on my Garmin. And then I also remembered this scene from the second season of Tour de France on Netflix. “Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.” And I kept repeating that to myself… “Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever. Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever. Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.” Just two months before the race, I was sick, tired, there was traffic and yet I had managed to complete the bike course in 5h30. Yesterday, despite ideal conditions, I really painfully completed it in 5h30. I pushed hard on the descents to make up for the time lost in the other portions. That’s where I took back the precious minutes I had lost during the climbs.

I finished the bike in 97th overall position out of 1887. Not bad for a shitty day !

I took my shoes off during the last 500 meters, passed my right leg to the other side of the frame and jump on the road as I reached the end of the bike course, there I ran towards the second transition, scared of the marathon that was coming ahead.

As I sat to put my shoes on, my cap and my sunglasses, I really questioned myself… How badly am I going to fail today ? I am supposed to run in 4:45min per km to complete the marathon in 3h20. How can I really do that ?… During the first three kilometers, I really felt the pain as I started running, but I managed to keep my pace and enjoy the first 20km.

After that, my legs took control over my mind to keep pushing and during the last 10km, as I couldn’t feel my legs anymore and felt too weak, my mind took over to maintain the highest possible pace. It was really hard, but it also felt so good to hear people cheering us up as we were fighting against ourselves.

3km before the finish line, as I was struggling, Hugo who had invited me to participate in my first half ironman the year before, caught me in the run and said… “Come on, let’s do this together, we’re doing it, 10h20, it’s huge, come on !” He then pulled me alongside him towards the finish line.

I finished the run in 3h24, in 166th position overall. Almost on target…

Yesterday, I didn’t conquer the race as I wanted to, but I did battle against myself to keep pushing as much as I could, always, until I would cross that finish line. 137th out of 1887, 23rd out of 252 in my category (40-44).

Consistent discipline is the only way to progress
But resilience is the only way to conquer

Keep Pushing !