duathlon de narbonne plage: race report

Actually the title to this post was going to be triathlon de narbonne plage, but more of that later.

Earlier on in the year I planned my races and I decided to go down south to Narbonne instead of heading up to Niederbronn. Both were half ironman distances, but other than just for racing, my main purpose was to use the race as an opportunity to practice my open water wetsuit swim and T1 transition, as I have not swam in open water for almost a year.

huge banner announcing the race

What a mistake then, on hindsight, on choosing Narbonne.

Arrived at Marjorie's house at Ventenac Minervois on a cloudy Friday evening. I found Marjorie through hospitalityclub.org and although her house was about 15km away from the beach (where the triathlon was going to take place), I was glad that she was willing to host me. She would end up chauffeuring me to and from the beach at least another 4 times the next few days.

Marjorie is English but she (and two of her four children) have settled down in France. In fact, Ventenac Minervois (and the surrounding villages for the matter) felt more like English hamlets rather than French villages, given the high ratio of foreigner to French (1:1). I happily watched the BBC, ate crumpets and drank tea during my stay there. =P Marjorie is incredibly well travelled, and was amazingly hospitable and open. For the three days I was at her place, she looked to my every need, and was always ready to share with me her travel knowledge and life experiences.

What a kind old dear, but I digress.

The weather turned bad on Saturday. By the time we reached Narbonne in the afternoon to collect my race pack, it was positively pouring. Those who know me will know that I absolutely detest wet and cold (who likes them anyway?); I can race Ironmans without problems, but I hate to race even a sprint triathlon in the rain! But I decided that I did not travel so far just to DNS. After some shopping for dinner in town, we headed down to the beach anyway because the weather had cleared somewhat, and I wanted to check out the race site.

they gave out wine in the race pack!

majorie and me

Race day morning. Usual bundle of nerves during the drive down. Got worse when it started to drizzle a bit and my balls literally shrunk when we got to the beach: the winds were so strong and so cold! For obvious reasons then, the swim portion was cancelled (drats!) and the triathlon became a duathlon - 15km run, 90km bike, and another 10km run. I didn't really relish the idea of so much lower body exertion, but hey, at least that sounded better than sacrificing myself to the crashing waves.

my spot (luckily I brought along my cycling jersey!)

transition

Race start was still postponed by half an hour but eventually we got off to a cold mass run start. The gun went off and everybody sprinted off as though they were running 400m sprints. Madness. I decided to start conservatively because it was impossible to warm up before due to the crazy cold and yep, I was right: 15mins into the run, I started to get pins and needles which meant that blood was finally circulating in my limbs! So anyway I finished the first run in 1hr10mins.

On to the bike, 90km made up of 3 loops of 30km - 10km ascend, 10km descend and 10km flat. By now the rain was really coming down and visibility was pretty bad. And did I mention about the wind? My spokes were literally singing in the rain as the winds and my rotating spokes combined to produce some sublime harmonics. The crosswinds too made it difficult for me to stay in aero without feeling that the bike would fly off under me, so most of the time I stayed in the drops looking like a novice rider on a TT bike. Nevertheless, I managed to complete the first loop surprisingly within an hour and I was looking to finish in 3 hours.

The P2C was an amazing ride and at times I felt as though I was just slicing through the wind. Most of the other time though, I felt as though I was riding with a parachute attached to my back (not the bike's fault, but my own incompetence!). The second loop was completed exactly in an hour, and I came in with Laurent Jalabert. But while he headed off to transition, I made a u-turn and headed off for my final loop. Feeling absolutely wet and miserable and with super aching thighs (no doubt product of the 15km run before), I was unable to push as much as the previous 2 loops and I had to resort to spinning the entire way back.

climbing on the bike

Final ride time was 3hr11mins. Damn. No time to feel sorry for myself as I picked up my Pearl Izumis for the final 10km run. Surprisingly no cramps, so it was a pretty uneventful run and I cruised home for a 5hr29min finish.

finish!

Final thoughts? Could have done better definitely; I raced a little on the safe side but still I gave it a good shot. Still kicking myself for not racing Challenge France instead! For those who want to have a look at how bad were the race day conditions, you can watch the official video here, or a Spanish tri club's version on Youtube here.

postnote: The organisers called me just now to inform me that I was third place for my age group! Whoopie! First podium finish in France. Amazing stuff. Unfortunately there was not much of a post-race presentation because of the rain which caused almost everybody to leave as soon as they completed. Not sure yet if there'll be a prize or something, I hope that its good ol' cash but I think that they will most likely be mailing me a medal or something like that. =)