Fiona Ford at Ironman France

June 24, 2007. The morning of Ironman France. The months of training 20 hours per week, of counting down the days, of watching wattage, of counting calories and finally tapering had all led to this moment.

Over the preceding week, the atmosphere in Nice had gradually built to boiling point, matching my own excitement. However, I needed to relax and conserve energy, and to remain confident I had no need to do ‘one last session’. Not easy, but I managed, and as the sun rose I felt ready for a great race… 

The worst was waiting on the rocky beach for the inevitable start. The timing seemed pretty casual. But then all hell broke loose as hundreds of neoprened bodies hit the water. I found myself in a fair bit of trouble straight away, pinned underwater by a constant stream of bodies diving from the beach. The only solution was to push off the bottom with my feet, grab a panicky breath of air and get swimming – fast! It took until the far turn out at sea – nearly 1000m – before I could calm down and settle into a decent rhythm.

I exited the first swim lap in around 32 minutes and then, with a bit more space, tried to negative split and had a great second lap, coming out in an hour: right on target. As I ran up the ramp towards T1, a kindly British voice let me know that I was around 25 seconds behind the lead woman, which was a nice surprise.  

Three other women joined me in the female change area. I raced through transition and out onto the bike, where I really began to appreciate the benefits of being a Planet-X team member and riding a custom built machine (see bike spec for details).

However, joy nearly turned to despair when I narrowly avoided a collision a few metres ahead of me. Shortly after that, stomach cramps set in and worsened whenever I tried to take solids on board, which threw my nutrition plan into disarray. I stuck to fluids and the occasional gel, tried to ignore the desire to step off my bike and vomit, and clawed my way up the 21km climb, a section of road I’d actually enjoyed during training. 

Shortly after I reached the summit and crossed the timing mat after the last switchback turn, my fiancé Rob overtook me, shouted some words of encouragement, informed me my upset stomach probably resulted from swallowing too much salt water, and raced off down the descent, but now the weight advantage was definitely in his favour.

I drank flat coke at an aid station and began to feel better. The final part of the course, into Greolieres, I knew well from a training camp earlier in the year. And, as I’d been monitoring and controlling my power levels through the Ergo meter, still had enough in the tank to ride against the headwind back into Nice. 

I made the mistake of trying to do everything at once in T2 and faffed a little too much before staggering out onto the run course. I suddenly discovered how hot it was, after having been air-cooled on the bike. It took at least 10 minutes to understand I still had legs and I realised I was going to need everyone of those aid stations, thoughtfully placed at one-mile intervals. I’d done some calculations while on the bike and knew my calorie intake was way down on what it should have been at that stage.

Crossing the finish line

I ran the marathon as 24 one-mile reps motivating myself with a short reward break at the end of each. Finishing was simply unbelievable, especially when Andy from Planet-X confirmed I’d won the age-group and finished in the women’s top ten overall. Emotions began to take over and I had to summon all my inner energy reserves to walk to the post-finish tent. I had achieved something I hadn’t thought remotely possible a few months before. Despite the fatigue, and aches in body parts I didn’t know existed, I didn’t sleep a wink that night. 

Swim 1:00:09, Bike 5:58:58, Run 3:33:14 = Finish 10:32:21 (new age group course record)

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