It all started with genuinely good intentions.
Sudeep and David were invited to attend a common friend’s wedding over the last weekend. That was the day before the Paris Triathlon, a race both had registered for, months in advance, and were very excited about. Of course, however, an inevitable dilemma kept hoovering over their heads as they contemplated the weekend with a sporty conviction.
They left Friday with the all the gear in the car including both bikes,a stroller and baby gear, heading 250km out of Paris to the frontier of Burgundy and Champagne. No need to underline that the wedding would be fuelled with quality bubbles and grape juice.
They arrived late Friday On Saturday, Sudeep and Dave went for a nice 2 hour bike ride in order to make sure everything was in order and ready for Sunday. The weeding was at 4pm in the beautiful if rather small town of Gommeville. Gommeville is home to 150 souls and the 2 Canadian friends getting married there were quite an event for the place. The mayor, who has been in office uninterruptedly since 1971 (and was elected following a bet with his friends) was thrilled to have 2 young Expatries tying the knot in his little village.
The wonderful ceremony was followed by a few glasses of champagne ‘dans les vignes ». It is then that we realized, it would be very, very difficult to stick to our commitment for the Sunday race.
Even if everyone thought from the get go that this was an insane plan, by the time it was 21h00, it became pretty clear to Sudeep and David that :
Paris was no longer an option.
They however decided it would be an opportunity to innaugurate the first ever Gommeville Intertnaitonal Triathlon. Everything was in place. A village on the seine, fantastic country side for both the bike ride and run.
Swimming in the seine was forbidden, but, with the official mayor<s approval, they were granted unique permission to swim in Gommeville to begin the race near the town hall.
So on Sunday, they both completed a sprint-ish triathlon of 300m swim, mostly upstream with a slow floating decent to reach T1. Then a T1 of almost 10 minutes including a croissant bite, to go straight into a 15km bike leg, half of which uphill and finally, a 2.5 km flat run.
Friends at the wedding were incredibly supportive and upon return to the home and official finish line Sudeep and David both earned their finisher’s medals!
