My Journey to IM Cozumel

Wow. I have so many thoughts and feelings about yesterday. This may turn out to be random and long but there are things that I want to remember so I will put them here.

First of all, thank you, Lord for answering every single prayer about not only this event but the entire trip. I prayed continually for physical protection and strength and protection over all of my gear. There are always people on the course that have bike issues and I am so thankful to make it through without having to deal with that.

I will just start at the beginning. I arrived at the race site at 5:30, loaded my nutrition on my bike, checked the tires and then had nothing but time. I made some new friends at our hotel and they totally reinforce my opinion that triathletes are the most friendly people around; so we hung out together sharing each other’s excitement that the weather had turned nice just for us (Wednesday and Thursday were pretty bad).

Just before the pro swim start we made our way to the dock, watched the pros take off and proceeded to file into the beautiful water. They had us climb stairs into the water rather than jump off of the dock as we had during the practice swim. This made us swim under the dock to get out to the starting area. That was COOL! I kept going under water to take in the site of 1900 people treading water. There were quite a few under water photographers and some of us dove down to make sure they took our picture. They were also at each buoy taking shots as we swam by. I wonder if I will ever see those pictures?

We all kind of spread out and had about 5 minutes before our adventure started. My new friend, Louise, and I were talking and laughing and just before the horn blew we realized that we were at the front of the pack. A short panic, brief jokes about how we were about to get pounded and the next thing we knew we were off.

I guess you never really get used to an Ironman swim start. I got real aggressive and tried to hold my position. I was knocked around pretty bad but I did not get kicked in the head and I did not lose my goggles, so that was cool. I stayed in a pretty rough pack until the first turn. At the turn I found myself swimming directly into the buoy and there was a huge crowd trying to get around the right side of it as there was an official on a jet ski that would not let us go around the other side. At this point I tried to push into the group to get around it and got pushed way under and took in a good amount of water. I came up, tried to cough it up and get back into a groove. The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful. It was breath taking; sting rays and star fish were all over the place. I did not lift my head out of the water until I was coming into the finish. I stayed on feet the entire time and if someone faster came by then I would fall in behind them. It was so great.

I climbed onto the dock and saw the timing clock…59 minutes! No way! That is by far the fastest swim I have ever done and it did wonders for my attitude and got me even more pumped about my day.

I took time in T1 to put on sun screen, bike jersey, socks, shoes and helmet and took off on the bike.

Heading out of Chankanaab, we had a slight tail wind, but it was really pretty calm on that side of the island. I was cruising along at about 24 mph knowing that I had 20k before my first challenge. At 20k we rounded a corner and immediately were hit in the face by a brutal head wind. How can it be this windy over here when it is so calm on the other side? At the same time we came along side of the white sand beach and aqua waters of the Caribbean. That was inspiring. It was so different from the calm side. Huge waves crashing and spraying; it helped take your mind off of the fact that you were putting out 85%+ effort and going 17mph on a FLAT! This beautiful, terrible stretch lasted for about 12-13 miles at which point we turned left and headed back into town to do 2 more loops. Heading in I was able to pick the pace back up to 21-22mph without pushing too hard. When I made it back to the bike start I looked at my computer and saw that I had averaged 22 mph so far. I was very excited about that but I could not tell at the time how much effort that had taken.

Loop 2 started a little harder as the sun felt stronger and the wind had picked up some. When I reached the east side I found that this time I was only able to stay at about 15-16 mph instead of 17-18 like the first loop. Coming back into town was more difficult and I could only stay at 19-20, so my overall average dropped from 22 down to 19.5 during that second loop.

Starting loop 3 I prayed for physical strength, mental strength and inspiration to make it up the coast one more time. I found that even though my pace was still dropping, I did not feel overwhelmed or frustrated. I knew that I could do it and overall it was not too bad of a bike time or average for 112 miles. I made it back to the turn toward town and knew that all I had to do was finish those last 10 miles and I could move on the final leg of my race. Total bike time was 6:05, 18.4 mph average.
When I dismounted I nearly fell over. My legs were toast and I had no clue! I knew that I had biked hard but I really thought that I had it all under control. Oops.

I staggered into T2, sat down and rubbed my thighs to wake them up, changed shoes, peed, and hobbled out of the tent. It took a good mile or so before it felt like I had legs on my body. I got to aid station 1, got a drink and decided it was time to find a groove. I decided to try to only stop at every-other aid station as they were only 1k apart. This worked for the first 2 loops pretty well. I did not feel great, and I was not running at the pace that I was hoping for, but I was making steady forward progress.

At the start of loop 3 I was at that point where you are just tired and ready to finish and I thought, maybe I can just run this loop and get it over with. Haha. 8.7 miles never felt so long. I walked every aid station that last loop and made it in with a marathon time of 4:36.

Total race time 11:52. 6th in my age group. Very respectable. I cannot be disappointed with that. I can say that I trained to be able to run a faster marathon after biking at that pace, but that bike pace took a lot more effort than I was expecting.

Sitting around last night talking to other athletes, we all agreed that it was much more difficult than we thought it would be. When you hear that a course is totally flat you think “how hard can it be?” Wind is a crazy thing. It is so mental. I did not stop pedaling my bike for 6 straight hours. If you stopped pedaling then you immediately slowed down by 5 mph (or came to a stop if you were on the east side of the island!) Overall I would say that I am extremely happy with my performance.

That is about it as far as the race report goes. Here are my random thoughts…

I learned that I cannot push that hard on the bike and run very well after.

I learned that maybe a hilly course is not such a bad idea; at least there will be some down hills!

I was reminded that 140.6 miles is a stinkin’ long way to go.

I learned that I can push myself pretty hard and even though it hurts like hell, it feels pretty good.

I learned that I can take a gel! Yes, I took gel for the first time on the marathon. I decided that I would just use what they had on the course rather than carry my own stuff and it was gel or a power bar and I just could not choke the bar down, so I had no choice but to go with the gel. I have tried them before in training and they have always come back up, but this time I was able to take in 5 of them!

I wish I knew how many times I said “agua, por favor” in that 12 hour period.

Mexicans are extremely devoted to each other. They love to cheer on their Mexican athletes by yelling “viva Mexico!” and even though they were not cheering for me, I felt as though they were and it gave me a little push.

Along the entire bike and run course all of the Mexican spectators chanted “vaminos! si se puede!” (not sure if I spelled that correctly). Basically saying “come on! you can do it!” By the time we made it to the run we were saying it to each other anytime we saw an athlete we knew.

I only peed one time all day long. Not good. And I drank A LOT!

When I took off my shoes after the race, the bottom of my feet looked like they belonged in a morgue.

There was no transport back to your hotel after the race and most of the taxis were small cars, so Pete rode my bike back for me.

I went to the med tent to get some fluids via IV and no one spoke English. I showed them what I wanted, some guy stuck me 6 times and managed to miss my GIANT vein, so I told him to quit, and I let Pete give me one back at the hotel. That made me feel so much better. I highly recommend an IV after IM. We smuggled one into Mexico in my bike box

According to preliminary results, almost 30% of the athletes who started the race were not able to finish. That makes me feel better about my run time.

Ironman Mexico is NOT Ironman North America. Very different. Not nearly as organized or professional.

I hope they do not ever announce that the swim was measured short, because I will forever love the fact that I have a sub hour ironman swim.

Our finisher shirts are really great and we also got a cool jacket. Our medals are huge and weigh a ton!

I was 6th out of 62 in my age group. 43rd out of 421 females. 319th out of 1928 total athletes.

Soren and Reese surprised me as I was coming down the finish chute; I heard a familiar voice say “mom!”; I looked over and Soren was holding my left hand with Reese coming up on my right. We were able to cross together for a great picture. Another difference between IM Mexico and IM North America!

I must not be very sweet. Mosquitoes were out in full force on the run, but they did not bother me at all. Many of the athletes were in agony because they were being eaten up by them, but if they sprayed bug spray then they felt like their skin was on fire. The next morning many of them looked like they had chicken pox.

I rode most of loop 2 with my foot out of my bike shoe because of a foot cramp before I realized that I just had my shoe too tight

This morning I went for one more swim in the ocean before we had to leave and as soon as I got in the water I realized that I had rub spots ALL OVER my body! I did not feel them during the race but the salt water made each of them scream at me. Crazy.

Those are all of the random things I can recall as I sit here needing to finish some work and go to bed. Tomorrow I will get all of the great race pictures from Pops and post them along with my training totals, so check back!

I AM SO PUMPED!! Just got back from bike and bag check in. Oh my gosh. The race mood is so AWESOME. The weather is absolutely gorgeous. Everyone is positive and and there is so much energy. I was pleasantly surprised by the organization and security at check in; it was well run.

The nutrition/hydration nazi (coach Pete) has been on me like a leach all day making sure I am doing everything I am supposed to do today :) He loves me. After the swim this morning I got a stern coach lecture about siting. Apparently I was not swimming straight enough for him; at least he cares, right?! I mean, really, where would I be without him.

While I am thanking people, I need to thank Pops for the great pictures. Lugging that camera around is not easy and he has sacrificed his beach time all for my benefit.
Grandma Charlotte has been on kid duty almost 24/7 since we got here on Monday. She says she loves it, and I sure hope so, because it is a great, great blessing to Pete and I. It has made for a very relaxing stay for me.

Nana got here Thursday and has taken over kid duty, too, as always. You guys are irreplaceable. I could never thank you enough.

So back to race thoughts...

I feel strong, rested and confident. I feel like tomorrow is going to be so much fun. I feel blessed beyond measure to have been given the opportunity and ability to do this. I feel humbly grateful for the support I have from family and friends. I feel very loved. My excitement is overwhelming!

Pictures from the swim practice this morning: