Adventures in Cozumel: an Ironman, some drafting douche bags and a great freakin day.

We arrived one week before the race and were greeted by the managers of our villa, DJ and Donny.  From the start the mood was super relaxed and everything was in place for a great race and vacation.  Villa Miranda in Cozumel is a 4 bedroom house with a casita attached; plenty of room for all 10 of us, 5 bikes, tons of our race crap and still the place felt really open and spacious.  I could go on about our accommodations and the hosts forever, but this is a race report so I will gush about the vacation part in another post.

Arriving a week before the race gave us plenty of time to acclimatize and get in all of our pre-race workouts before the crowds arrived.  We were even given full access to Chakanaab Park, the swim area, for all of our practice swims.  I've been to Mexico many times now and always love the people here, but the locals truly went above and beyond especially during race week.  

The super salty taste took some time getting used to, but the crystal clear turquoise water full of tropical fish made up for it.  By the time race morning arrived I felt more than prepared for what was about to go down, dare I say that I even felt calm and confident.  As they herded over 2000 of us into the ocean I felt ready to giver.  This was gonna be a great freakin day!  As we walked the planks, literally, they shouted for everyone to hurry up and keep moving.  Our choices were either to jump 5 ft into the water or ease in off the dock walk and swim under the upper walkway where hundreds of others were treading water; claustrophobia ridden folks beware.  I made my way through the other swimmers under the docks and found a patch of fence to hold onto while the dolphins did more tricks and everyone else walked the planks toward their fate.  There is no room for politeness at this point as we all had to wait in the water for 10-15 min before the gun went off.  My little area of fence that I'd claimed quickly became crowded, not a big deal until several douche bags pushed and elbowed their way in, I held my ground and did some elbowing of my own.  The horn sounded and we were off.  I chose to swim about 20m off the direct buoy line figuring there would be less douche bags and less current.  The current thing seemed to pan out, but not so much on the douche bag front.  I was surrounded by dudes mostly and there was no room for sportsmanship or manners.  Punching, leg pulling, scratching, over-swimming, crisscrossing everywhere....blah, blah, didn't really matter, after a few under water WTF's from me I just did my thing and held my ground.  I pushed hard to the first buoy, eased off a bit to the next then worked hard on the long stretch that was supposedly with the current.  Swallowed a bunch of salt water whilst tangling with some of the douche bag dudes, sorry dudes, but never had to deal with any chicks, take that for what you want to, but figured it was simply an opportunity to load up on electrolytes.  Final few hundred meters was pretty crowded again, but fought for my space and swam close to the shore to avoid the current.  Hauled myself up the awkward step out of the water (quick note that one more step and some rails woulda helped, but whatever, we are all in the same boat) and started running towards transition, took a quick look at my watch and it was under 1:10, crikey, goal 1 met!  Of course by the time you run the 100-200 meters to the timing mat....anyway, my swim time was just over 1:10 officially and I will totally take that, almost 5 min better than IMC and sans wetsuit/speed suit/whatever the hell is on the up and up these days.  Note here that I freakin LOVE my Blue Seventy tri suit!!  

T1 was a bit slow, might have been the epic run to the far off land of the womens change tent or my dawdling when I got to my bike and then had to run in my bike shoes (quick note, usually I go with the shoes already on the bike, but even though there were plenty of mats in T1 there were also plenty of little rocks and sand everywhere).  5 some odd min later I was out on the bike and ready to....go sort of easy and let all the douche bags pass as I patiently held on for the 2nd and 3rd laps.  

I will keep my comments about the bike portion as brief and positive as possible.  Meh, f that, gotta say something!  There was a lot of blatant drafting. On more than one occasion I had to slow up and tell some dude behind me to get lost and stop drafting me.  I did not see very many officials and even less people than I would have expected in the penalty tents, but whatever, keep it positive right...this was an amazing course, so beautiful and the best crowd support I've ever seen.  The weather really isn't something to focus on or be concerned about as it is totally out of our control, so just be prepared mentally and physically to deal with whatever comes your way.  We lucked out this year in that the horrendous cross/head winds on the eastern side of the island were not that bad.  There was however a pretty decent headwind from the swim to the southern point of the island.  The heat cranked up as the bike went on and as it did the drafting douche bags dropped off and so did most peoples speed.  Not mine.  I planned for this.  My entire day was shaped around my plan for the run so when I saw the wind wasn't a huge factor, but that the heat was going to be a big issue I held off on the first lap and picked it up after each lap went by.  It took a lot of patience and a few mutterings of "f'n douche bag drafters", but by the half way point on the ride it was pretty obvious that people were dropping like flies.  At this rate the run was gonna be pretty ugly.  I was flying on the last lap, passing lots of people.  Originally I had hoped for a sub 6 hour bike, I knew I was capable, but I also wanted to execute my run perfectly so I opted for a conservative 6 hour bike.  Officially it was just over 6 hours, fine with me, cause here we go bitches, time to run!!

T2 was typical, I wanted to be sure I took the time to get everything I needed to get this run done properly.  My goal was not to walk and to possibly go sub 4, depending on the day.  The time goal wasn't nearly as important as simply executing the run plan and pushing through mentally.  At a certain point the Ironman becomes a totally mental battle, where you need to tell your brain to STFU and let your body do what you've been preparing it to do.  I have worked really hard on the mental training this year and I was stoked for this run!  Lap one was great, felt good, on the ball with nutrition, HR under control and pacing was going perfectly.  The crowd support was awesome, even got a tough bitch like me a little veklempt at times.  The locals might have figured we were all nuts, but that didn't stop them from coming out and cheering all day.  I think I read somewhere the average wage is something like $20 pesos per day; they truly don't have much, but not once did anyone appear unhappy.  The positivity and friendly atmosphere of Cozumel is something I will never forget and something that will certainly bring me back time and time again.  I saw Jeff, Chris and Alex as I was starting my second lap, great energy from them and from everyone right in town.  I then ran by Leigh, Leslie and Cynthia as they were cheering from a local bar...still laughing about the wanting, desperate look I gave them when I saw their table of beers lol.  It was great to have a multiple loop course because I got to see my pals and fellow PRMers Ann and Ken and all the Iamtriers I have come to know: Hassan, Ingrid, Tony and Almadelia.  There were plenty of other Iamtriers out there, but those were the specific people I saw on the run course.  By the end of the second lap I was safely out of the range of being lapped by Ann or Ken, lol, but I was about to hit a bit of a bad patch mentally.  This is what I had been preparing for all year.  Physically I felt good, but my brain was in negotiation for a walk break with my body.  I was not going to let that happen.  Jeff was darting in and out around me taking pics and telling me how proud he was and how crazy it was that I wasn't walking.  I was as polite as I could be and said, "love you, thanks, stay the fuck out of my way and stop asking me what pace I'm going cause it doesn't fucking matter!" lol.  He stayed off to the side and took pics like a good boy.  I'm pretty sure I told him to f off a few times especially when he yelled, "hey, that chick up there in blue is in your age group, you gotta pass her!". Least of my concerns, but thanks babe lol.  Now fuck off and let me run!  Somehow, my 6 min km's were kicking peoples asses!  Seriously, not a horn tooter, but this "slow" pace was all I needed to sustain to pass a lot of people.  When I saw Coach Callaghan he was adamant that I stick with what I was doing and most importantly that I DO NOT WALK!  He seemed pretty excited that I was doing what I was doing and frankly so was I hahaha.  My goal wasn't to pass, but simply not to walk, EVER, and to maintain a 6 min km or so.  I did this and in the process made up over 200 places overall and 10 places in my age group.  I never walked.  I never stopped.  Main goal of an entire year of training was met so nothing else mattered at that point.

Official time of 11:35:38.  1:10:25 swim.  6:04 bike.  4:12 run.  Great fucking day cause I executed perfectly and did it my way!!  Coach Callaghan seemed pretty happy, so did Jeff and everyone else, but really it was about how I felt and I was really happy with the whole day.  Could I have gone faster on the bike?  Sure, but at what price?  That was a risk I was not going to take that day because I was really here for one thing, to prove to myself that I have what it takes to run an IM marathon, not walk, not shuffle, but to run it.  DONE bitches! :)

What now....first, huge thank you to everyone who supported me from my hounds Jeff and Boston to all my family and friends.  Coach Callaghan never deviated from his belief in me and I couldn't have gotten here without his and the other PRMers help.  I know what I am capable of now and fully intend to pursue that.  This year I am going to take on the NY qualification challenge via a half marathon yet to be determined.  If the qualification falls short (sub 1:37 EEP!!) then at least I have an awesome run base to tackle some half ironman distances.  Vancouver Subaru is a strong possibility, as is a redemption at Lake Stevens.  I am the support crew for Jeff's second crack at IMC and am pretty excited about that.  If anyone is looking for a place to cheer in Penticton I will be at the run/bike crossover point with my hound and some vino, screaming at El Jeffe how much time he has left until my IM time dusts him muwahaha.