I flew down Wed before the race, travel was strangely exhausting, I slept 13-14 hours, but getting up early did readjust the sleep schedule to getting up early and going to sleep early. Had headaches a lot the first few days and used a lot of ibuprofen. But after a few days I felt "acclimated", although the test loop of the bike course felt very very hot.
The scouting report on cozumel: the swim is fast due to intelligent use of the longshore current. It's a single loop course, which is unusual in IM swims, which are usually multiloop. It is not wetsuit legal. The bike is a triple loop of the island. The winds on the eastern side of the island (ocean facing) are a steady trade wind with gusts, so no disc wheels. It is very flat otherwise, but very sun-exposed. The run is a triple out and back through the downtown and hotel row of Cozumel. Also pretty flat. If there was sun, then any shade wouldn't appear until 4pm or so. They provide rest stops every kilometer rather than mile, so they clearly anticipate a brutally hot run. I expected a sun-exposed day of brutal heat, but hoped I could do a fairly good average speed on the flat course, and a decent run, to go with a fast swim in the current-optimized swim course.
Race day went off without a hitch. The cabbie tried to rip off us with a $36 fare. Man, always prenegotiate fares... anyway, pumped up the tires in the bike, remarked our numbers, attempted to get some sunscreen on pre-swim, got the new Torque suit on. The swim start is off of a water/dolphin park that involves jumping about 8 feet into the crystal crystal clear water. Found a spot about 50m off the buoy line (the outgoing leg from the dock to the first turn buoy is into the current, which is weaker closer to shore, so we opted to start halfway between the buoy line and shore). The swim crowd kept inching forward, there really weren't enough kayaks enforcing the start line. I'd guess almost 25m of inching forward, and I think they started us a couple minutes early because of it. The swim start was the least physical I've ever experienced. very clean swim to the first buoy, which was not difficult at all despite the supposed current.
The official race swim cap they give is usually pretty tight. This one wasn't, I really should have worn two race caps. The official one was coming off, and I didn't cut the long locks, so if the cap comes off, in addition to slowing me down, the hair goes in front of your eyes and you can't see squat. So I had to stop to readjust the goggles and try to get the cap on. The longshore current main length was going well, aside from two more cap stops, until the pack I was in targetting the wrong end buoy, and I had to swim an extra 150m to get to the right one. I think some intermediate buoys got blown out, since the every-200m-buoy convention disappeared somewhere in there. Whatever, make the turn for the last stretch into the dock, and the cap came off for good, so I did some pretty inefficient swimming going into the current to the finishing dock.
Stubbed my toe getting out of the water pretty hard, was bleeding. Swim time was slower than expected (the current should have given me a 55-ish swim, I did 1:01 with all the problems). Putzed the first transition a bit, and my bike rack position was probably the longest distance from the changing tents. They didn't have sunscreen appliers in T1. Unbelievable. That's why I packed my own. Actually, got lucky jogging to my bike, someone had dropped a travel size sunscreen and I picked it up and applied sunscreen as I headed to my bike.
Lots of hammerheads to start the bike. Sun was peeking up and temps already climbing. There was a vague amount of headwind as we started the first circuit of the island towards the southward tip. I was holding back, but should have held back even more. When we hit the south end and started going north we hit the crosswind. HUGE crosswind. On the crosswind section I seemed much faster and passed several people that had hammered past me out of T1. I think it was the H3 wheel design which does much better than any spoked wheel in large wind yaw angles, and this was a constant 20-25mph probably, so that was a 40-60 degree yaw. I could actually sit up from the aerobars since the wind was so pronounced from the side, and it didn't seem to slow me down. Still, I was pushing mid 160s in the HR through here. Probably going too hard, it kinda seemed like a climb in that big of a constant crosswind.
After the first half of the first loop, we turn down a road with a slight uphill but turns the crosswind into a big tailwind. But the wind taketh, and never giveth back. Didn't see a huge speed gain out of that. Made my way through the only turns through town. Man, triathletes don't know how to do basic apex turning and turn speed conservation at all. Crowd support in town was great. Lots of cheering. Cozumel people seemed genuinely excited and impressed about hosting the race. Not just in the sense of "ingratiation, now sell them a sombrero".
As I started the second loop and headed toward the south island point again, the headwind had picked up a bit. And then it came. A huge huge peloton pack of riders, and they swept me up. I figured I'd just deal with it for the three or four miles until the huge crosswinds, and that would break it up. I hit the crosswind section and the peloton faded away as me and a female pro headed off from the drafters. Again, kind of like a long easy climb, did 160 HR through this section. At the end of the second crosswind leg, I hit the bike special needs, slammed some red bull, chocolate milk, and some hardboiled egg whites. Restarted, and entered the downwind part.
Then came the peloton again about halfway through the second downwind. Got passed by three waves of substantive packs. As downtown approached, I surged past the packs so I could do some fun fast turns through town again. But I knew it was only a matter of time once the headwind south leg started again. About a third of the way to the south point, the biggest pack yet came through. When the final crosswind section hit, I tried to go off the front with two female elites again, but after about two miles one said with a crooked smile "here they come". The peloton was very long through here and was very effectively preventing the crosswind from breaking up the pack. Pretty dangerous tight road through here. I tried several break attempts from the pack but it was to no avail. Finally, on the last downwind leg, which is four lanes wide, some race official mopeds started breaking up the peloton with drafting penalties.
Although I burned a lot of energy trying to defy the pack several times, fact is I got a substantial amount of aid with this huge peloton. I wonder if every flat windy ironman with 2300 bikes on the course simultaneously results in this. I think the only thing that could stop this scale of drafting on a superflat windy day would be wave starts at the swim. Even if I finished off the day with a Kona-worthy position, I wouldn't have taken it, but I have no doubts there may be some kona ticket grabbers that cruised the course in that peloton using much less energy.
I was feeling pretty nuked heading into T2. Probably should have stayed in the trisuit, but did a full change into a running shirt and shorts. Run started out a bit hot, but ok. Then then "scattered showers" started, and became "frequent downpours". There was rivers of water streaming off of the roads in downtown, and a huge pond that we had to slosh through for 50m on each of the three legs. It was at least overcast and cooler, and I seemed to have a decent stride through 13 miles, but started to fade badly after that. I was walking until one of the guys I did the charity run with Thursday who was in a Mexican wrestler mask (on Thursday). recognized me and got me at least jogging again, which was good since the stubbed toe was much more painful walking. He got me through the last 1 1/3 loops of the run, at which point I waited for one of the Minnesota peeps and ran in with him. Stayed around and cheered on people with the finisher medal on, which is a lot of fun since people get more motivated and high five a lot more. And the people still starting their third loop get a bit more zing in their step. I cheered on for about another hour until my Mexican savior finished his last lap (he was on one while I was on lap two when he swept me up). Mostro!
On the limp-ride back to the hotel on our bikes, there was a one-legged competitor who I had passed on the bike, and she was doing her last loop of the run in her hand-cycle. So I rode next to her yapping away for about six miles. She talked about how she was feeling really bad on the third loop (one legged peddling a bike through 25mph sidewinds...wow), until a guy she had seen on and off talked with her and she got a new burst of energy, kinda like what happened with Mostro the Masked Mexican and me. A little bit of social interaction can go a long long way, just like group runs and the like. Must be the pack mentality.
Anyway, did a 1:01 swim, 5:20-ish bike (probably got 5-10 minutes of peloton aid though), and a 4:40-ish run. Walked in an 11:20-ish. Might have been able to go sub-11 if I had left my Masked Mexican inspirer after he recharged me, but screw that. Race was no longer about any goal times at that point. Nice thing about ironmans is that finishing is its own reward in its own right. No matter how fast you want to go, or going to hawaii, even if that falls off the menu, there's finishing, and helping other people finish. Only other event like that is probably ultramarathons.
Got pretty chafed by the running shorts. The running shirt works really really well (although I think I lost it and my running flats, which were goners anyway after the running slogfest and were old anyway - but no blisters from wet socks and shoes for 26 miles of running, something was working right). Several portapotties were out of toilet paper, especially when I was riding with the handicapped athlete. That happened in France too. Always bag some babywipes in the special needs and T2 bags and bring them along. Should have pre-bitten a hole for salt pills in the salt pill baggie for the bike. My right toenail is a goner after the stubbing and wear and tear. Oranges didn't do much for me in the low energy points this time, but bananas seemed to work a bit.
The Hotel I'm staying at, which is "Hotel B" has really good food. Only other good food I've eaten besides here is at Paprika's, which was on the main road probably a mile or two south of the ferry port. In general the cabbies seem to recommend what they are paid to recommend, not what is actually any good. Scooters were a lot of fun to jet around the island, although if I didn't have a race, a bike would be fine between our hotel and downtown. But if you want to go to the far side of the island (which is where the long unending beaches are, and the wind), you'll probably need motor vehicles. After all, the bike loop we did was 40 miles around. The water was very buoyant. Almost felt like a wetsuit. What makes the water this clear?
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