Now that I’m on this platform, I figured I’d share a race recap from the IronMan World Championship in Nice on Sept. 14, which I qualified for earlier this summer at IM Lake Placid. WARNING: Super long post based on another one I already wrote during a 10-hour flight. -------------------------------------- I woke up the morning after IronMan Lake Placid in July feeling pretty good about things. I managed a sub-12-hours time on one of the most legendary courses there are, and that was despite steady rain on a bike that climbed over 7,000 feet followed by a battle with my gut on the run. I placed 42nd out of 195 – not the stuff of legends, but it was hard-earned and I was damned proud of it. And I was hungry. That’s what happens when you burn something like 11,000 calories in a day. I was sticking around an extra day to recover, so I headed over to the awards breakfast to take advantage of the all-you-can eat offerings. I stuffed myself full with a bowl of oatmeal, some blueberries, yogurt, a bagel, a banana, a muffin, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, another bagel, and an egg sandwich—all while giving my unsolicited insights and advice to a very friendly fellow athlete who later turned out to be previous year winner Trevor Foley—then waddled over to the seats near the awards podium. They started reading off all the slots for the women’s World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. It’s Kona, so they got snatched immediately. For the men, it was a Nice, France year, so that’s a different situation. The director preempted things by saying “If you want to go, you’ll probably get to go.” It's nothing against Nice, but it's not Kona with its legacy, so people don't want to go. I was soloing this race because my wife’s a teacher and the school year was just about to start, so I started feverishly texting her. ME: I think I have a legit shot at going to Worlds. HER: Is that the one in Hawaii? ME: No. This one’s in France. HER: I like France. ME: It’ll mean you have to take off several days from work to go.