There were two triathlons this weekend in Paris. Both around Eiffel tower and Champ de Mars. On saturday, shorter, sprint triathlon took place. On sunday, longer olympic distance triathlon. Though it wasn’t correctly olympic distance. Competitors started at the Iena bridge, where they jumped in not-so-clean Seine river. Where they swam down the stream 1700 metres. They started in three waves, with the best competitors in the first wave. This meant that for the spectators and visitors action is constant during the race.First transition was quite long, as the competitors had to run from Seine river, up the stairs, past the Eiffel tower towards Champ de Mars, where transition area was located. Fastest were able to do this in around 2 minutes and a half. It was followed by 40km bike ride, a large circle ride going to Boulogne forest and back. Draftin allowed. After that another lenghty transition. At the end another 8,6km running (though with all the transitions included, run total was closer to 10km).. Run was not so easy. Beside the Seine river (where I usually run, some uphil towards Trocadero, and then back to the Eiffel tower). The winner managed time of 1 hour 46 minutes and 27 seconds. Not bad at all. First among women was only 10 minutes slower. And the last competitor struggled to the end in just below 4 hours.

I didn’t take part, not enough of swimming this spring. Maybe next year. But it was a huge crowd, as more than 3200 competitos joined.
http://www.triathlondeparis.fr/index.php