Ironman Nice 2008

Voilà

this is the story of my first Ironman and my 4th overall triathlon at that time

anyting is possible!

It is 4am when my alarm reminds me that today is race day. I wake up and go downstairs in the Hotel kitchen to try to eat somenting
After a tea, some ham sanwitches and a lot of honey and jam biscuits, I go back to the room and start preparing, at 5 I wake up Katja and we go togheter to the start. There is a full moon over the sea and while we walk in the street of Nice we see athlets coming from all directions all going towards the same place: the start of the 2008 Nice Ironman.
At 6 am the bike park closes and we all go to the beach preparing for the start, you can see the tension in the eyes of all the athlets. While going down the passerelle I look at the swim course: the see is flat the light is magic, there is a powerful energy all around, I feel the emotion coming up all over my body and it's a tremendous kick, i know I'm ready and I'm eager to start. There are 2300 athlets on the beach there are athlets on my left, athlets on my right and athlets behind me, in front of us the Ironman: 226 km of unknown territory.

SWIM 3.8km3-2-1 bum it's 6.30 we hit the water. The start untill the first 500mt is a total battle, there are bodies everywhere, you get hit, you hit people, there are legs, arms and feet everywhere, I see immediately that I'm faster than the group I'm swimming in and I cant pass anywere, it opens up a bit and I manage to find a way through. All these accelerations are very energy consuming and I know I have to find a more comfortable pace as the race is long. After the 1.5km turn things are getting better, I swim on the side (the good one) of the pack and I have a beautiful pace, I feel I glide on the water with a good speed and little effort. I check my cardio underwater, 85% of my max, excellent. Everytime we turn at a buoy it gets packed again but it is part of the game. After 2.4 km we get out of the water for a small run on the beach and we jump in the water again, I feel great I push some more. At the last buoy I swim close to a guy that has a perfect style it is so beautiful to see this kind of swim that I get additional steem for the final hundreds meters, I get out of the water in 58 minutes, there is a screeming crowd all over, I turn back and I see full of people still swimming their way to the beach. I learned later that i finished the swim in 170 position….

BIKE 180 km
I get fast to the transition area, take the swimsuit off, put the helmet and the glasses on, take the bike and get out of T1 in 4 minutes for the 180 bike leg. The bike course is fantastic, it is one loop in the mountains around nice passing through the most amazing little villages where there were a lot of people cheering and encouraging….. Back to the race: the first 20 km are flat and we all push on our pedals hard, I keep an eye on my cardio, I cant get up more than 85% if I want to finish and one eye on my speed, it feels good to bike I read 35km/h, 36km/h 38 km/h I know it will not last as the mountains are getting closer but i enjoy the moment. Unfortunatly I start feeling strange in my stomac I have cramps since I got on the bike, I know I have to drink and eat constatly but if liquids get in, solid food is not welcome in my stomac. I tell myself it is going to pass and concentrate on te race. Many people pass me on the bike, they are the fast bikers slow swimmers. I let them go sacrifying my ego but saving my race. Jalabert (former pro cyclist) passes me after 45 minutes in the bike leg, he is fast!! The road starts climbing, the organisation announced 1800mt of cumulated climb, they will be more than 2000 at the end which is a lot on an Ironman race. The toughest part is a 20km climb where we go up 900 mt all in once, I try to pace myself and turm my legs fast in order not to charge them too much with lactate. More than 1 hour later I reach the summit of the 'col de l'Ecre at 1150 mt, it was hard but up here it is so beautiful that you forget about everything, the lanscape changed completely, there is an amazing view on the sea and on all the small villages built on the Alpes maritimes rocks. We are at 1100 meters but the air is very warm I think about the marathon: it will be tough!. We dont go down yet as the bike course remains high in altitude with several flats, constant easy climbs and downhills. At km 100 the hardest part, 7 km climb towards the "côte de Saint Ponse" and the "col de Vence". This was hard!! My stomac is still cramping, I get paranoya about not eating enough but everytime I try to eat something solid it does not go down, I go up the "col" slowly knowing is one of the last difficulties of the bike leg. The heat is bad and I try to drink as much as I can. On the top of the "col" I get my motivation back only 65 km to go mostly down hill or flat. I eat an energy gel and I feel better. After a long flat we get into the 30 km down hill, it is pure pleasure, a true adrenalin rush, my speedometer gets crazy 50 km/h, 55 km/h 60 km/h it's a beautiful road, straights, large turns, narrow turns, small villages, sometimes you see the sea down there sometimes lots of rocks or trees, most of the time the eyes are fixed on the road as it goes down so fast.
We are at sea level again the last 20 km to Nice, flat course, we are a group of athlets going really fast back to transition area I know we all think about the marathon it is going to be hot! I still have my cramps and I dont know why my feet are boiling in my cycling shoes. It is 10 km to the end when I go behind another athlete to try to pass him I spend too much time behind him (1 min) without noticing that a refree was behind on a motorbike, I get a black card for drafting (which is not allowed on ironman) and I have to go 3 min to prison before the run. UNBELIEVEBLE this refree had no heart!!
Finally I get back on the promenade des anglais at the airport, 5km to go and the bike leg is over, I feel great apart the cramps in the stomac and the heat in my feet. I'm looking forward to run now as it is 5 days I did not run and I really missed it. At 1 km to T2 I see Katja on the left she wears a beautiful yellow dress (freshly bought in Nice, that apparently is a great city for shopping) she yells "vai fabriiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" I get an adrenaline shot and I push harder to the end of the bike, i was so happy to see her.

RUN a marathon (42km195mt)
I get in the transition area fast, it took me 5h55min for the 180 km a bit more than 30km/h average speed, I'm very happy! I get off the bike and test my legs they are doing fine but not my left feet that has a blister under. My neck, shoulders and lower back are doing great, I'm so eager to start the run that I forget my polar on the bike so I have to run back and take it. They put your bike in ther racks according to your time of arrival I'm in rack 10 out of 45 racks although many people passed me I'm still in a good 456th position….
I go to prison for 3 minutes and finally I get my run bag. I put on my running shoes, a cap and off we go for a marathon. The marathon course is a 4 loops run back and forward from the plage du centenaire to the airport on the promenade des anglais. It is 13h30 there is no shade and no wind and 35°… not exactly like good old Belgium. I run well, pacing myself at 5'30 per kilometer I feel great with all the people cheering I look at my polar: 85% perfect!! If I keep this pace I run the marathon in less than 4h, unfortunately this is not going to happen!! I pass by Katja she is few meters after the first aid station on the right I'm so happy to see her, she encourages me very much, I can feel she is very happy too, full of positive energy, she really wants me to finish, she tells me I look great (she does not tell me I'm a handsome healthy thriathlete though, but maybe it was to long to say….) she also tells me to eat and drink a lot. I pass her and head towards the airport for the first loop. I come back and finish the first loop (10.5 km in less than 1 hour), my stomac is still cramping and the blister under the left foot is hurting, I start to get worried about my nutrition and I force myself to eat bananas, tuc biscuits (finally some salty things) and energy gels. I drink a lot of water, coke and energy drink really teasting bad when warm…. 1h 30 in the marathon and the heat is unbearable we get sponges with water at every aid station (6 on the 10.5 km loop) they keep you fresh few minutes than is over. I did not have a time in mind for my marathon but I would have liked to run it in max 4h, it is hard to accept it is not going to be the case but phisically it was impossible to go faster. It felt like I was using most of the energy to keep my body temperature acceptable, my foot was hurting and my stomac cramping, I was hot and feeling tired, I could see people at he beach playing in the water or sipping fresh teasty drinks, I tried to accelerate anyway to keep the bad feelings away but my head start feeling strange and sometimes my heart missed a beat. Several people were collapsing on the run course and the medics just took them put them in an ambulance and took them away from the race, I did not want this to happen! I could deal with physical pain but if I fainted or my heart started doing crazy things this would have meant DNF (did not finish) and I came this far, all these days and hours of training in all weather conditions, in all situation in the most amzing places or in a garage biking on a hometrainer. I thought at all the sacrifices, all the time I did not spend with my family or socialising or going out and just eat something fat and get drunk, I though at all of you and at this project we are in together to send Ethiopian girls to school and may change their future, I could not DNF, I wanted to finish so much.
I'm only the end of the second lap, the half marathon! it is stupid because I feel good with my muscels and my breathing, I'm at my aerobic threshold but I cant go faster….. I get to katja again she is there smiling in her yellow dress, she is full of energy and she runs with me few meters I tell her how I feel, she boosts me with her energy and encouragement she tells me she wants me to finish no matter what time.
Once the decision taken not to worry about the time the run gets better, I walk through the aid station so that I have all the time to eat and drink and I run in between the aid stations, i break the distance in pieces and not think at the 20km to come but at the next 1.7km till next aid station.
The heat is crazy and more and more people breakdown, they just stop running and get in the shade or just sit on the side expressionless, or put the head on a light post and throw up, other just collapse on the road or you see they zig zag walk. I think how luky I'm to be still well on my feet.
I start the last lap and pass close to katja, she tells me "see you at the finish line" I "enjoy" this last lap, I run better but still walk the aid station and a little after as well, at he turning point at the airport I manage to do pipi and suddenly the cramps disappear (it was probably my kidneys for the wole race….) my feet is still hurting and it is mega hot but you know what? I did 221 km I now can do the last 5!!
I think at the sentence I've heard once watching an Ironman video "you can quit and they wont care but you will always know" I think how the sentence "anything is possible" is so true! you just need to want something so much and do everything you can to leave your dream and never give up! The ironman is such a trip inside yourself that you came out of it as a different person. It is about sport, a very beautiful sport and it is also about life, it is about realising how luky you are to be able to do something so amazing and also manage to help others while doing it. Life can be so beautiful sometimes and give you incredible emotions you thought you would not be able to feel again.
I read 40 km written in big carachters on the road, I'm almost there I take all the energy left and accelerate there are many people encouraging close to the finish line, I can see it now, I can hear the speaker and the loud music, I leave the run course to go towards the finish, there is blue carpet on the road and screeming people all over, I see Katja, she screems something at me I cross the line my arms up in the air and the biggest smile on my face: I've been swimming, biking and running for 11h 36 minutes, I raced the IRONMAN, I lived a dream.
Fabrizio