Newsletter ep. 103: Nice is nice

We’re all about Nice and the 70.3 World Champs this week. Kelly gives a preview and recaps the big races this past weekend.

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I am writing this to you from Nice, France right now—home of the 2019 70.3 World Championships (in case you somehow missed the memo). And because things are a bit hectic and international, this week’s newsletter is going to be short. But I have just one question first:

Where the hell do all the good swimmers in Paris swim??

We spent three days in Paris before taking the train to the southern coast and it appears to be universally accepted that lap swimming in Paris is a fantastically crowded social experience not designed in any way to accomplish real swim workouts. What I can’t figure out, though, is where the good swimmers are. They have to exist; it’s a city of 2+ million. Someone clue me in please.

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Are you excited yet?

You should be. I know everyone’s always all about the Kona, but the Nice race is going to be one of the best races of the year.

I rode the course today and, holy shit, guys, it is insane. The descent is pretty nuts and I have to hope/assume it’ll be closed to cars or people are going to die. But the climb is crazy too. For reference, I rode almost all of the main climb pretty hard all out and it took around 39 minutes. Lucy Charles has the QOM in just over 30. That’s nuts.

For Triathlete Magazine, I previewed the pro race. Read the whole thing (including my predictions) and tell me if I’m wrong.

In the women’s race: It’s Daniela v. Lucy v. Holly. Plus some other people too. In the men’s race: Eight of the top ten from last year are back, plus three more Kona world champs and the ITU Grand Final Champ. That’s nuts too.

I’ll be social media-ing the pro press conference, some coverage, and course stuff for Triathlete (and maybe some for myself too), so follow along.

One thing I keep thinking about though, which Sara and I have discussed before is this: The 70.3 World Champs have become a destination race. That was a conscious choice on Ironman’s part. Not to hate on Vegas and Clearwater, Florida, but Ironman made a choice to make more exciting interesting championship worthy courses since then, to promote and market the race more, and to turn it into AN EVENT. It’s worked. If you really decide to do something and you make all the small choices to make that happen, it can work. Think about that.

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• • There were a lot of big races this past weekend, but the most important is this: The ITU Grand Finale. Katie Zaferes won her first world championship series title and I love everything about her post on the other two girls on the podium with her. Kristian Blummenfelt won the Grand Finale race (and will be competing in Nice this weekend), but Vincent Luis won his first series title. And most importantly, Javi claimed his 11th (!!) ITU series podium (and will also be competing in Nice). That’s a fucking lot. (Instagram/Triathlete)

• • UTMB—the Kona of trail running—was also this weekend and if I had coordinated more I would have gone to Chamonix first to watch. A lot of stuff happened, sure, but the big question: Is Courtney Dauwalter one of the greatest trail runner ever? She’s one of very few to win UTMB and Western States. So. Watch her interview. (SCMP/iRunFar)

• • Also. Trail running needs to pay its goddamn stars. It has an amateurism problem. (Outside)

• • A race maybe less of you paid attention to, but the mountain bike world championships were also this weekend. The Wall Street Journal did a whole piece about much-beloved defending champ Kate Courtney (who ended up 5th). Sometimes you crash; sometimes you have mechanicals; sometimes you fight as hard as you can anyway. (Wall Street Journal/Instagram)

• • She also wrote her own piece about what it’s like training and riding in the rainbow stripes all year. (CyclingTips)

• • So many people—and by people we mean women—have qualified for the U.S. Marathon Olympic Trials that the organizers had to change the course. (Runner’s World)

• • Look, I know most doping positives are legit positives, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: We have a contamination problem and it’s creating a trust problem. The most recent Jamaican case seems particularly nuts—and, yes, I 100% do not fully trust much of the Jamaican team, but still. Read the details. She took cold meds and checked to make sure they weren’t banned first and it still turned out they were contaminated. That’s not good. (The Gleaner)

• • Here’s what ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ got wrong. (Runner’s World)

• • To film the character (ie. Brittany) running during the actual New York Marathon, the movie had to get special permission. (It was the first movie to do so.) And that came with all kinds of crazy rules and restrictions. (New York Times)

• • Will Peloton last? I’m saying no, but they’re filing for an IPO, so. (New York Times/Bloomberg)

• • Are wellness brands trying to convince men their testosterone is low. Yes. (New York Times)

• • I legitimately thought this was totally insane at first and didn’t click on it, but this woman thinks plants can hear and talk and she has some research to prove it. (The New York Times)

  • And just for fun: this photo essay of thru-hikers on the PCT. (Outside)

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Comments & thoughts

– Sara thinks you can change the weather with your mind. We will discuss on the podcast this week.

– Susan said the term we should have used in last week’s podcast, “The Rolling Prostitute,” was sex worker. Accurate, true. It’s also a reference to a joke from ten years ago when the term “sex worker” wasn’t widely used. Do we have an obligation to fix our memories and our past?

– Is the best way to respect your competition to compete against them as hard as you can? Agree or disagree.

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‘If We Were Riding’ is a weekly triathlon-ish newsletter written by Kelly O’Mara and produced by Live Feisty Media. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every Wednesday morning. You can also read past issues. This episode is from Sept. 4, 2019.