Bear's Blog
Iron Man Challenge
July 1, 2011
Done……….what a relief. I completed the Nice Ironman in 12 hours 34 minutes. Dad has kindly put a couple of photos together (see attachment). A prize goes to the person who can spot me swimming!
We were staying with the Wallace’s who live in St Raphael, 50 mins from Nice who were legendary.
Sunday 26th June 4.00am – Alarm, food and drink.
SWIM
6.15am – Start of the swim – Over 2,500 people lined the beach to swim the 3.8km. The professionals were in the middle and I was to the side dreading it. With about 2 mins to go before the start I was tapped on the shoulder by a Frenchman, ‘English?’, I looked at him with a bemused look, he then turned me around and did my wetsuit zip up at the back! That would not have been a good start swimming with the back open.
The swim was a nightmare, everyman for themselves. Everyone searching for that open water to find their rhythm. This took about 20 minutes but still there were so many people around me. At each buoy again the water would become congested with people as we went around them.
My swim took 1 hour 17 minutes, a lot better than I was expecting and then I took 11 minutes to change and get onto the bike!
BIKE
It was a seriously hot day, 32+ degrees getting up to 36 degrees in places where we biked such as Gourdon. I was slow on the bike, I knew that I had to pace myself and so I was overtaken by every man woman and their dog! I caught people once I found my comfort zone and especially in the hills. Nice is renowned for having a hilly bike stage and one climb went on for 20km, it was quite incredible but also stunning. What was more incredible was seeing one man with just one leg peddling his way up to 1,130m (3,707ft).
I finished the bike in a leisurely time of 6 hours 59mins and the transition from bike to me starting the marathon was 9mins.
RUN
4 laps of just over 10km along the sea front. This was ok, my legs felt good and so I took it at a steady pace making sure I stopped at each drinking station that was located every 1.8km.
I finished the marathon in 3 hours 57 mins.
I ran through the tunnel of support to finish in 12 hours 34 minutes. I felt ok as I kept hydrated throughout. Actually one of the hardest parts of the day was looking for my bike as I couldn’t remember where the lady told me it was after finishing the bike!
Firstly I would like to say thank you to the support that came with me. Dad was just incredible and was so supportive buying all my kit, driving me around getting me last minute things that I might need during the day. I couldn’t have done it without him. Also Tom Wallace and his family who put us up, they were so helpful and calming. Tom has done the event before and knew exactly what I should be doing etc, a true legend. Also to Angus and his merry men for providing the amusement. The merry men were really helpful the night before having had 10 pints before supper!
Lastly I would like to thank you all for all the donations. You have all helped raise a staggering amount and for such a worthy cause. This money raised will go directly to the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre on the Fulham Road, London to help fund their on-going research into breast cancer.
I cannot tell you how touched I am by everyone’s generosity and kindness in raising this money. It gave me a huge boost leading up to France as well as attempting the Ironman itself. Thank you so much.
If you have any questions because I may not have explained myself clearly then please do email me.
I am so looking forward to a weekend off training……………….it has been a while!
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