The Occasional Ensemblee Series: No shame about Ray

Our fine friend, Raymond Lampard, got his Ironman on last weekend. For those under the illusion that 'Ironman' is simply a moniker given to some multi-displinary event of arbitrary distance, know this: the Ironman consists of a 2.4-mile swim (about 3.8K), a 112-mile bike ride (179.2K) and a 26.2-mile run (42K or a marathon). Rayzo completed the sucker in Nice, France on the weekend. Gidiup, great man! Here's a considerably complete report from a man of few words:

Le Ironman is over!

1400 athletes ventured into the French Riviera at 6.30am for the start of Ironman France 2007.

I had a reasonably good swim, a 1400 person start going around one buoy, a few kicks to the head, goggles ripped off, all makes for a good day. Unfortunately a somewhat long transition and long run follwed to actually start the bike leg. The transition was over 250m long and my
bike was at the end!

Onto the bike and the field started to spread out. After the first 20km the climbing starts, 11% followed by a 7-8% climb, various switchbacks for the next 20km. Then you start decending and start the major climb of the day. Just over 20km up to 1400m, a long arduous process with no rest. That climb alone took 1.5 hours. Don't know why but my back was causing some grief, could have been the extra tyre and weight I was carrying in my back pocket.

The next section was up/down and played with my head a little. You had two more mountain passes, one at 900m and the next at 1000m. After seeing a few guys come off, you had to really concentrate.

The best part of the ride was passing through a quaint little village with the road wide enough for one car. Rammed earth buildings on both sides. AMAZING. Only lasted 2 mins but it got me through the rest of the day. The other thing was seeing 4 french girls, potential ooh la
las cheering on the cyclists in their French summer attire. You could class that as a distraction.

The last 50km was dangerous. Swithbacks are common in France and given you have to descend from 1000m quite dangerous. Two major incidents. Got hit by another cyclist as he cut across my line and the second hit a pothole wich temporarily lost control.

Scared the crap out of me!

My back became progressively worse especially when I came to the last 20km which was flat.

So, onto the run and legs weren't going anywhere. Hamstrings were tightened from lower back. Lost it a little bit for the next 10km and realised the back was the main cause for frustration. On the 3rd lap had a nurofen and that numbed the pain. In the end did a slow marathon time but at one stage was gonna do a plus 5 hour marathon.

So the last 5.5km back into the finish were tough and long. Knowing I was 30mins away from another Ironman was the thing that kept us going. 2km from home and a few tears remembering the people who have helped me on the journey.

Ironman is a surreal experience. Afterwards you are left questioning why you push your body to those endless limits, the answer: because you can.

So now it's onto the rest of my holiday—2 more weeks in Europe to find a suitable ooh la la, followed by a week in Cambodia and Malaysia. My sister joins me in a couple of days time.

Looking at heading to the Bordeaux region for some wine tasting. This region is known for their great red wines.

Ray