Thursday, September 8 (60 hours to go)

We walked to Bozen, a kosher fish restaurant one mile from the beaches of Nice, France.

(Sushi?)

I’m happy to say yes.

(Your happiness is immaterial. Did they have a sushi boat?)

No, but I ordered foie gras sushi and…

(Wait.)

Yes?

(What is foie gras sushi?)

Duck liver pate wrapped in rice, with an onion jam dipping sauce.

(Sounds delicious.)

I didn’t want to come home.

(Ummm, weren’t you there for a specific reason?)

Yeah, but it escapes me for the moment.

(Tell me you ate more than one dish.)

I also had the ceviche, which was so fresh I thought they had just caught it one mile away.

(How different was fresh ceviche than what you usually have?)

The fish simply dissolved on my tongue.

(What did you do after lunch?)

First, we had to wake up the kids. They had fallen asleep because their bodies thought it was the middle of the night.

(Jet lag?)

Well, it wasn’t the ceviche.

After lunch it was time to…

(Check into your hotel?)

No, not yet.

(Check out the expo?)

Bingo. An Ironman Expo is two sections: A tent with Ironman brand merchandise and beyond the tent booths arranged in a horseshoe.

(What do these booths sell?)

Everything.

(Everything?)

Everything. Wetsuits, goggles, sneakers, helmets, bicycles.

(Wow, everything you need to do a triathlon.)

Like I said, everything. We walked into the expo and went shopping.

(Don’t you own enough stuff with the words “Ironman” on it?)

You would think that after 14 years and 11 Ironman triathlons … but, no. This was the Ironman World Championships. We bought T-shirts.

(Finisher jackets?)

Not yet.

(Why the heck not? Weren’t you worried that they would sell out?)

I was still worried about finishing the race.

(The 13-mile climb?)

Yup, but I wasn’t going to dwell on it. I was here, in Nice, France with my family and was going to enjoy the experience.

(Compartmentalize your anxiety?)

Exactly. When I vacation, there’s a checklist of activities and I was using those to keep my mind occupied.

(Don’t you ever just sit?)

You already asked me that question.

(I did?)

I think you are losing it.

(You do realize that you are talking to yourself?)

Anyway … after everyone got an “Ironman World Championship Nice” T-shirt it was time for the picture.

After I completed my first Ironman triathlon in 2010, I told my wife that I was never going to do that again. A year went by and I signed up for Ironman Arizona 2012. I completed that one with four minutes to spare and I told my wife I was never going to do that again. A month went by and I told Peter Shankman that I was signing up for Ironman Louisville. The night before that race I hand wrote a sign, “This is the third time in four years that I said I’m never doing another Ironman.”

Ten years later, no one believes me anymore.

(So, just how big is this sign?)

It’s a bedsheet.

(You make a new one every year?)

No, I buy a pillowcase from Target and cut that into 8×12 inch swaths. Then I safety-pin the new numbers over the old ones.

(Why did you take the picture inside the merch tent?

Have you ever tried to fold a blanket on a windy beach?

(Right. The beaches of Nice are pretty, but the glare and the wind…)

…and the sand make it tricky.

After we “dropped the kid’s college fund” on shopping, we returned to our hotel.

I had to write a grad paper and still didn’t have internet connectivity.

David Roher is a USAT certified triathlon and marathon coach. He is a multi-Ironman finisher and veteran special education teacher. He is on Instagram @David Roher140.6.

He can be reached at [email protected].