Ironman Cozumel Report... Got my Kona slot!

I signed up for this race 10 days before… this is not what I would recommend for an Ironman but I had been sick and could not do IMCA. I had always wanted to do this race but didn’t want to travel by myself and @fikse69 had to stay home for lots of things happening here. When I heard on the @waterfallracing podcast that @joymcadams was considering it, we started to plan. She found a hotel that was .5 miles from the finish so we booked it! Travel there was a bit of an adventure. There are no direct flights from Denver to Cozumel so I decided to fly into Cancun, take a car to Playa Del Carmen and take the ferry to Cozumel. It made for a long day but things went pretty smoothly. The ferry even had live music! I was very happy to see Joy once I finally arrived. We had food included with our hotel so went to the buffet. I was worried about what to eat as I often leave Mexico with GI issues and I definitely did not want to race with them! Joy instructed me to eat no raw veggies or fruit with a peel. Although it was hard for the veggie-loving-me, I did it and am happy to say I had no GI issues.

 This race has more logistics involved as there are two transitions and a different swim start. Taxis are very easy to get and can take you wherever you need to go. We dropped our run gear at T2 in the morning and dropped our bike gear at T1 later that day. It was hard to tell where we came out of the swim and no volunteers seemed to know so figured we’ll know when we get there. The bags were super crammed in so, knowing I’m a slower swimmer, I put my bike bag behind others so it wouldn’t fall down when they grabbed theirs.

 The pre-race events for this race are amazing! There is a fun underpants run and everyone is very chill. Best of all, we had a super fun group with Joy, Jodi, Chi and the amazing sherpa Cara! We ate, laughed and played in the water! I think this race was just meant to be with how it came together.

 Race day

 Woke up easily and the hotel had coffee ready for us. We caught a cab easily by walking out to the street. We went to T2, checked our bikes, put nutrition on the bikes and the used the nice bathrooms at the park a few times before getting on the shuttle… nice bathrooms are a perk to not be wasted!

 Shuttle did not take long. We dropped our morning clothes bag and actually felt a bit chilly. We headed to the swim corrals, based on our time. I got in the 1:10-1:20 with Jodi. This is faster than my usual time but we were hoping for a bit of current assist. The corrals were less congested than other races, which was nice, but there were also tons of men around us. It was so fun to have Jodi in the same swim corral as me!

 They started with It’s a Beautiful Day, which reminded me of the old Ironman days. We slowly approached the dock but could not see anything until we got close (one of the downsides of the seeded start). As we got to the dock I could see that they were sending people off in pairs. A few dove but most jumped off. I chose to jump off as I was afraid I would dive and my goggles would come off.

 The water was a nice temp and the start of the swim was pretty chill. The buoys didn’t go by as fast as they did in Maine (my only current assisted swim) but I just kept going. My watch alerts me every 10 minutes. When I got to 30 minutes, I looked ahead and there were more orange buoys going on and on. The buoys were not numbered as they are in North Ironmans so I really had no idea how far I had swam. Once I get past 40 minutes, I decided to check on my distance. My watch showed 42 minutes and 1404 yards! That is slow! I was starting to do math and at that pace I might not make the cutoff. What was odd was that I wasn’t getting passed by many people and I passed few others so it wasn’t me that was swimming slow. I then started to wonder if maybe my watch was not getting the distance correct. I realized that it’s rarely that far off so maybe we didn’t have a current and we were even against a current?

 I felt a little zap on my left arm. I had heard there are tiny jellyfish so that must have been it, but it didn’t really hurt and went away pretty quickly. At some point it seemed like the bottom was moving faster so maybe we finally caught a current? Eventually (about 1:10) I saw the huts, which meant the turn to the finish is approaching. Thank God! We had to turn to the left towards shore and actually swim back a bit. That was slow. I saw that my distance was in the high 3000s so we did speed up a bit at the end but man that was not the swim I expected. I was hoping for something like 1:00 to 1:15 like the times in past years but I ended at 1:22:50, which is a 4 second PR from Ironman Wisconsin. Later that evening I ran into someone that knew the tides and he said we were swimming against a current for the first half (and my friends that lapped their watches saw the paces were much slower in the first half).

 I ran off the dock and focused on getting my swim skin down. I was looking for showers to rinse off the salt (it was really salty which means more buoyancy which was amazing!) but there were no showers. I ran through thick mud to grab my gear bag. I skipped the changing tent and ran directly to my bike. FortunatelyFortunately, I had some water in my bag so I rinsed the salt off my face and arms plus the mud off my feet. I dried my feet for the long ride ahead. I was off on my bike in just under 9 minutes.

 The Bike 

When I got out to the highway, it was congested. The pro men started coming on the left so I knew I could not start passing until they were gone as I didn’t want to disrupt their race. After they passed, I started passing slower riders and then saw an official riding next to me. He was counting my pass. I made sure I made the pass swiftly and was actually happy they were enforcing drafting rules! I knew the first section going south would be fast but I was close to 22 mph. MY HR was in the 140s which is high for me but RPE felt in check and power was not overly high. My HR has been running a bit higher since I got sick so I was not worried. Once we got to the south side, it was windy! I was expecting cross winds but my avg mph was dropping so I knew it had to be headwinds. My new bike fit was really good and I was able to stay on top of my salt capsules while in the aero position (in the wind!). I doubled my sodium intake from the IMCA plan because it was hot and humid. I’m not a high sweater but I do have a high sodium content so once I start sweating, I need to replace more sodium. I was thirsty so drank more of my fuel than I typically do. I got water at every aid station as well. As I turned to go north back into town, I didn’t notice the wind as much. It didn’t feel like a tailwind but at least not a headwind. There were more people cheering as we got closer to town, which was amazing! I was told the roads would be rougher so I really stayed focused on watching the road. It was harder to see the surface in the shadows. There were a few turns and then I was all of a sudden riding past our hotel which meant starting the second loop. As I hit the first aid station (mostly manned by kids which was cute but they were not always prepared), I was handed a water bottle that the top was not on and it spilled so I had no water. In this heat, you do not want to miss an aid station but nothing I could do. The next aid station was also not ready but I couldn’t’ miss so I stopped until someone was able to hand me water. As I hit the south side of the island, I noticed the winds came up again. My avg pace after the first last 19.5 but I knew that I should not chase avg speed and pace myself since it’s a long day. I just tried to stay aero and appreciate the beautiful blue water and white sand. My back was starting to hurt, likely from riding into the headwind, so I stood up on the two (very small) hills. I had some BCQ (my natural pain killer that doesn’t have the negative side effects that ibuprofen does) but not enough. I took a half dose and decided to save the second half dose for the windy part of lap 3. I also took my first caffeine gummy before the windy section on hap 2 (75 mg). At some point I hit the screen on my Garmin computer (don’t love that option and need to lock the screen in furture races). My power was no longer displaying so I had to go by RPE and HR. My HR was now in the 120s consistently, which is pretty typical for me on the bike in an IM. I was so happy when we curved left and I was heading north. I was hoping to keep avg speed around 19. I knew the course was long and closer to 114 miles so breaking 6 hours was not likely. The most important thing is to not over bike and pay for it on the marathon. I noticed the outside of right foot was hurting in my shoe. That happened in Lake Placid but that was the only time I wore socks (why if I don’t train that way?) so I didn’t think this would happen without socks. Need to see fitter about a different pair. We came through town again and I saw Cara when I passed our hotel. Always uplifting to see a friend cheering! As we left town it occurred to me that I never saw a sign for where to go towards the finish (vs starting another lap). There were also no mile or km markers on the bike course so I was worried I would miss the finish. I asked a few as I passed and they didn’t understand me. Finally someone did and said they also had no clue! I worried about this for a while and then just decided I would look after hitting 112 miles and make sure I had another biker in front of me. I lost my last Clif Bloks leaving town and I knew I needed those to hit my nutrition target. I decided I would either grab a gel at an aid station or stop at special needs about mid way on the loop. I asked for a gel at the next aid station and the girl said yes. I stopped to get one but she thought I meant ice (it’s my job to know the words in their language so my fault!).  I took my second caffeine gummy before the windy section on the third lap. Eventually special needs came up at the end of the windy section. I stopped and grabbed the Clif Bloks. It took me a bit to open but started taking them in so I could get the amount I missed before the end of the bike. Thankfully the winds did not feel as bad on the third lap. As we hit the last section coming into town, I was getting ready to finish the bike. I was passing people but also knew I needed someone ahead of me to follow so I didn’t miss the finish. I saw Cara and she told me I was in 7th but it was tight. Thankfully someone directed us to the finish and I was off my bike! I did 113 miles in 6 hours 3, which I was happy with.

 I grabbed my bag and headed to the change tent as I wanted to sit down and make sure I did everything I needed to do before starting the marathon. My feet were sore from pouring water on myself (wet feet in shoes are not good and blisters usually follow) so I dried them off and applied some lube. I made sure my socks were situated, grabbed my changing belt, put on my shoes and I was off. To my surprise I saw Joy in there which made me so happy!

 The Run

I started to run and things felt okay! They never feel great after biking 112 miles and swimming but they were not as bad as they could be. There are tons of people cheering in town, which is amazing!! They had aid stations every kilometer which is also amazing and really helps on a hot day! They gave us little plastic pouches with water. I took two, placing one down my back. I struggled to open the second one with my teeth. It took a while but eventually I got it. I took my sodium and was on my way. Then the bag down my back was sliding all the way down. I had to stop, take off the top part of my kit and pull it out. My fist 2miles were slower because of all this… lessons learned already! I also needed a Maurten gel with caffeine. Because it’s 100 mg of caffeine, I take ½ at a time. That helped and I got little jolt. I kept struggling to get the waters open though and it slowed me down at every aid station! The paver roads in town are HARD so I was worried about my feet but once we got out of town, it was typical asphalt which felt better. There was music and crowd support everywhere so I just kept running to each aid station and made sure I stayed on top of hydration, sodium and nutrition. I had never done 3 lap run course but it does help break things down. I saw Cara again at the end of the first loop and she told me I was in 7th (again… I though I might be making some advancement?) but there were 7 Kona slots for my AG so I had to keep pushing! As I started the second lap, I was hurting more but all the crowds in town helped to push me along. I saw Joy again just before the lap 2 turn around (mile 13) which made me smile but I also knew she was hurting which mad me sad. I started to need to walk more often than each aid station but I tried to walk fast and cut it short. I know that things can change a lot in the second half of the marathon but if I can keep it at a 10:00-10:30 pace I should be good. I had an extra caffeine gummy (75 mg) so took that just after mile 13 and it helped! As I finished the second lap, I was able to watch the sun set over the water. It was a gorgeous orange ball! There was some shade even on the first lap, which felt so good so I knew it would feel better once the sun was down. I saw Cara again (she’s amazing!!!) at the start of the third lap and I was still in 7th. I was happy about that but also disappointed that I wasn’t getting any further up. I started Pepsi on 3rd lap an took a few ounces at every aid station. I didn’t love it but know the quick sugar (and small amount of caffeine) helps! My right hamstring felt tight and like it could cramp. I was doing okay on sodium so I was likely compensating a bit for a tear in my left hamstring. I started to walk to 1 cone and run to 3 cones. I was running closer to a 9-minute pace so even with the walks I was between 10 and 10:30s. And there was all the Ironman math in that third loop (worst case I do an 11 minute mile… if I have 5 miles left that is still almost an hour… how do I have another hour when I’ve already done 135 miles???) As I got to the halfway on the 3rd lap it was getting harder but I kept with my deal. I also try to walk FAST when I walk. Once I turned around I would sometimes run 2 cones instead of three but I was still passing people that were running continuously but a lot slower than me. For me the short walk breaks allow me to run faster. Once I got to town, it was 2 miles left. I still walked a bit but ran faster. I wanted to be able to run the finish chute. I zipped up my kit with a little less than a mile to go (it’s mandatory in this race that it’s zipped) and that made me much hotter! I stopped at the last aid station to put ice down my bra. Even though it was still a short bit I felt so hot but they didn’t have ice where I stopped. I finally saw the finish chute and Owner of a Lonely Heart by Yes was playing, which I love. I always want to remember the song that is playing when I finish but I’m often too out of it to remember so proud of that!).  It’s so cute that they have a table and let you grab your home country flag to run the chute with. That was fun but I really had no idea what to do with it! The chute was not overly long which was okay with me! I finished the run at 4:33 at 10:23 pace.

I didn’t realize but I had PR by 8 seconds, which I did at Ironman Madison in 2015 at age 48. I’ll take that at age 57!

 I ended at 7th in my AG. Although I would have loved a podium, the way this race happened (last minute replacement for IMCA), I’m really proud of what I did! I held onto that Kona slot and am headed to the IM World Championship!

 What made it special were the people I was with! It was fun before, after and during because of them!

 Did this race have some things that were different from your typical American IM race – yes! But I was knew that would happen and I was ready for an adventure!! I got just that and I loved it all! The days leading up to the race were so fun and I had way more excitement that I did nerves. Yes, I knew I was blessed to be able to race but I also really loved the whole vibe of this race! Would I recommend to you – 100% yes!!!