---

Event	Triathlon de Montpellier
Distance	Sprint Triathlon
Date	24 April 2011
Location	Port Marianne, River Lez, Montpellier
Condition	Sunny & warm
Kit Highlights	Trek TT bike, 2XU trisuit
Entry fees

Swim	Bike	Run
700m	20km	5km

Goal	Result
Finish	Finished
Don’t embarrass myself	Forgot my chip. So, debatable.
Beat Jean-Mathias	He finished 5th overall. I finished 104th.

Finish Time	Age Group	Gender	Overall
1:19:06	12th/21	92nd/136	104th/173

---

Context matters here. This wasn’t a targeted A-race with a twelve-week build and a colour-coded training plan. This was a road trip. My future wife, me, a car, and — because of course — a TT bike wedged in the boot. Calais to Montpellier to Grenoble to Tours. Standard holiday itinerary.

We were staying at my grandmother’s place in Montpellier. She didn’t come to watch. I’m still not entirely sure why, but I’m choosing not to read too much into it.

The race was in Port Marianne, an open water swim in the River Lez. This was only my second triathlon, and my first in open water. Which I mention now, mostly because it becomes relevant in the swim section.

I was racing against Jean-Mathias. We’ve been friends since university. He’s always been the endurance guy — football, running, all of it. I was more of a volleyball and tennis person. He’d moved into triathlon, I’d moved into triathlon, and we’d agreed — loosely, over no particular medium — that this would settle something. What exactly neither of us had clearly defined. Bragging rights, mostly.

Well, we arrived the night before the race. And I registered on the day. Very relaxed atmosphere. ‘Tranquil’, as they love saying in the South.

---

Mass start. River Lez. Sunny spring morning in the south of France.

I had done one triathlon before this. That one was in a pool. This one was not. There is quite a large difference between a pool and a river full of people all trying to occupy the same square metre of water at the same time. I navigated it. I came out the other side. That counts as a success in my book.

What I did not do was check that my timing chip was on my ankle.

I realised somewhere around transition. By that point, I had a choice: panic or deal with it. I went to find an official. I told them the bib number of the athlete who had finished just ahead of me in transition, and the one just behind. They noted it down. I have no idea whether this is a recognised procedure or whether they just humoured me. Either way, I have a finish time, so something worked.

I had the TT bike. I have always been the most comfortable on a bike — I grew up on one, even with asthma, which made it more complicated than it should have been as a kid. So this was meant to be my leg.

I rode. It was sunny. Montpellier in spring is the right place to be on a bike. I don’t have much more to report on the bike, which is either a sign that it went well or that I was too focused on not falling over to make lasting memories. Probably both.

The run happened. I completed it. My wife-to-be was out there somewhere with a camera. I kept moving. At some point, I crossed the finish line.

Sub-32 for the run in only my second triathlon. I’ll take it, even if at the time it felt like I was shuffling through cement.

Jean-Mathias finished 5th overall. 1:00:46. Nineteen minutes ahead of me.

104th out of 173. Which, in a field where most people clearly knew what they were doing, and where I had arrived having forgotten a basic piece of equipment, is not the worst outcome I can imagine.

---

Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run	Finish
13:39		33:28		31:59	1:19:06

---

• Put the chip on. Before the race.
• Open water is nothing like a pool. There are people everywhere, and none of them is swimming in a straight line.
• A TT bike in the boot of a car on a road trip is a commitment. It works, but it is a commitment.
• Jean-Mathias is faster than me. For now.

---

Organisation	7/10
Course	6/10
Atmosphere / Crowd	5/10
Post-Race Experience	/10
Value for Money	/10
Overall	6/10

---

Second triathlon done. First in open water. One forgotten chip, one friend who thoroughly outran, outswam, and outbiked me, and one finish line crossed under a Montpellier sun with my future wife watching from the side of the road.

There will be another race. There has to be. I can’t leave it at this.

Got questions or a forgotten chip story of your own? Drop a comment below or find me on Instagram @oli_le_triathlete.

---