8:35 a.m. (+1 hour, 25 minutes)

50 meters to go. I could hear the cheering crowds and the announcer every other second as I turned to breathe and my ear broke the surface of the water.

Getting lightheaded from hyperventilating…

8:36 a.m. (+1 hour, 26 minutes)

I grabbed the hand of a volunteer and I was pulled from the water. Between the light headedness of the hyperventilating and quickly going from horizontal to vertical.

My feet touched the ground and I ran up the carpet. I was 10 feet from the cameras…

(Smile for the photo!)

…and I pulled my goggles and swim cap off in one motion like Tom Cruise pulling off a mask in Mission Impossible. Once past the “photo op,” I followed the carpet into the transition area.

When I left this place 90 minutes earlier, the sun had just risen and the area was still illuminated under halogen flood lamps. Now the bright sunlight washed down over the city and the bike transition area looked like a completely different place to me. I went looking for my “bike” bag.

All the bags were hanging on a rack near the sea wall.

(Find your number)

One long row of identical blue bags.

742.

7-4-2…got it!

From there, I was in search of the changing tent…and I couldn’t locate it.

(Where was it?)

Don’t know…don’t care.

(You had to get dressed. What did you do?)

I found a spot near the fence where I changed.

(In front of everyone?)

When in Rome…

(…but you were in Nice)

Even better!

(You are not a topless sunbather; you are a triathlete!)

Wait…there are naked sunbathers?

(Focus, you need to change into bike gear)

8:38 a.m. (+1 hour, 28 minutes)

I dropped the bag and pulled out my bib shorts.

(Your what?)

Biking shorts are based on the European style of cycling. The shorts have their own suspenders built in and padding in the bottom.

Swim shorts off, bib shorts on in under 10 seconds.

(Did anyone notice?)

Don’t know, don’t care.

(Why not?)

Because everyone who came out of the water was focused on getting on their bikes and not staring at my behind for the nine seconds it was exposed in Nice.

Next it was race tzitzits on. I like the cotton tee-shirt style. Bike4Chai bike top was next. Race socks, helmet and sunglasses all came out of the bag and on my person in 120 seconds.

(That’s fast)

I’ve had 15 years of practice. Bike shoes on and I tossed the goggles, swim cap and swim trunks into the bag my bike gear came out of. I tossed the bag in the pile of blue bags and went looking for my bike. About half the bikes on my row were gone already.

(Better than being dead last)

I’ve been that.

(What’s it like?)

It makes it easy to find your bike. I wheeled my bike down the black “Ironman” carpet towards the end of the bike transition section.

(You didn’t jump right on your bike?)

That’s a “no-no.” Everyone had to walk their bike out of the transition to the start line to “mount” their bikes.

I walked my bike, at a brisk pace to the exit…but there was a bottleneck at the exit.

I wanted to yell, “Everyone move to one side!”

(So, why didn’t you?)

Because we all had the same goal.  Yelling at each other would not make things move faster. It might make it worse. We were only there for two, maybe three seconds, but once the bottleneck started to move, I saw it.

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].