This video is an attempt to show the ambience at the final hour of the Nice Ironman competition. A lame attempt i'll admit, but wth? If you're ever going to finish towards the end of an ironman, i suggest Nice as the place to do it. The applause and support and general ambience at the end is really remarkable. Dj's, pom-pom girls, people dancing, shouting, dance music blasting ... Some finishers just go on through, others raise their arms or just have a huge smile, one guy did some pushups while the dj counted for him, another did a cartwheel, some ran through with their little kids holding their hands. And this all 8 hours after the winners have finished.

When i went out my door to walk over to see the last hour or so of the Ironman, the first thing i saw was a guy across the street, pushing his triathlon bike, head hanging down to his chest, walking with a pronounced. Painful. Slow. Trudge. Medal around his neck. He'd done well. Hope he felt better the next day.

Then i got to the promenade and started seeing more of the people who'd finished: one guy asleep on the pavement with his wife by his side in all the raucous noise and confusion and crowds everywhere. Then the medical tent - massages, those heat blanket thingies, oxygen, people limping aorund, Oy!

Then every now and then you see a finisher with a medal around their neck who look fresh as a daisy, like they've just had a nice walk in the park.

Then finally you get to the finish line ... and that's the video. At the end there's a fireworks display (no one timed their finish to coincide with it this year) and then apparently a few hundred people stayed all night to party on the prom next to the beach until daybreak.

I could not do an ironman even if i wanted to, but i'll be there again next year to help welcome the last finishers in.