Why this race? Why another Ironman?
First off, I want to explain why I decided to do this race. For those of you who don’t know yet, I did my first Ironman in Montréal in 2005 during my very first season. I finished, but it was a very lucky ending. I was not properly prepared for such a race, with my longest run of 18km before attempting 42.2km… after a 180 km bike! So I felt I had to earn this achievement by preparing decently for it, and there was the attraction of doing an official race of the Ironman or M.dot circuit . There is also the possibility that by doing an official race, I could qualify for the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.
In 2007, I did my first “official” Ironman 70.3 in Cancún. I really enjoyed the event, for many reasons: the great trip I had getting there; driving from Puebla to Cancún, the beautiful weather of the Mexican Riviera, the well organized race and nicer race gear were definitely part of the good experience. Did I also mentioned I met someone very special at that race?
So about a year after Cancún, when the new Ironman Cozumel was announced. I was really tempted to register, so I forwarded the announcement to my Montréal triathlon team: Les Antilopes. I had many reasons to register: I wanted to go back to México, after living there for a semester during college, I wanted to complete an “official” M.dot race (and earn my IM status and right to wear the associated gear), and I wanted to have the good experience of participating in a well organized race (not to bash Montréal’s Esprit, triathlon, but it was cold and miserable, almost no crowd at the end, ugly finisher gear, etc.). So when some Antilopes decided to register, that was the last push I needed to say, “Me too, I'm in”!
Preparation
Since running was my weakest event, I decided to do an early season half marathon at the end of March in Raleigh to kick off my season, and loose my late fall and holiday weight (I started 2009 at over 205lbs!). After an acceptable 1h39, I focused more on the bike for half ironman Florida in May, which was also an excuse to visit Jennifer and go to Orlando for the first time.
The summer was occupied by travel, moving, relocating, and as a consequence I was not very intense on working out. I picked it up once installed in Ottawa, with 70.3 Muskoka in September. After a relatively deceiving 5h24, (I had finished Cancún 70.3 in 5h00) I realized this was a very different course, and that I had no reference as the conditions were just so different from one race to another. Next, I decided to do the Army Run half marathon just a week after Muskoka, to check up on my running capabilities. Result : personal best in 1h32! This gave me motivation to prepare for the next step: Niagara Falls Marathon at the end of October. This would be the last step/milestone to complete my preparation for Cozumel.
Niagara Falls marathon went well, and even though I was not supposed to push too much 5 weeks before an Ironman, I still pushed it a little at the end to complete the run with almost even splits of 1h41/1h42. I was now confident that I could complete IM Cozumel without any problems as I had now addressed the lack of running experience I had in 2005.
With all my running focus came a down side: with a full time job, a new position in a new city, a new lifestyle, German class at night twice a week, something had to suffer: BIKING! The last time I had biked 180km was in April with Jennifer in South Carolina! As the fall arrived very early in Ottawa, I bought a trainer for my personal peace of mind, but to be honest, I almost didn’t use it! I still never managed to stay on this thing for more than an hour!
As for the swim preparation, there wasn’t much swim prep needed. I was a bad swimmer in college, which makes me a good swimmer in triathlon world, so maintaining a decent swimming shape was achieved by swimming once or twice a week.
So slightly one year after registering, I found myself on my way back to mi México querido only 18 months after leaving it in 2008.
I was ready to run. I was not prepared enough for the bike, but I was ready to do my best with what my legs would have to give, and I was also ready to swim/snorkel in the beautiful crystal clear waters of the Caribbean.
The Race
I decided to fly to Cozumel on the Friday before the race. I wanted to enjoy a vacation after the race, rather than spend the typical ‘week before’ preparing. I arrived on the afternoon of the 27th, which was also the last time window to do athlete registration. As usual, I was last minute. I did my registration before checking in at the hotel at the Cozumel Convention Center, after a long exhausting day of travel. The alarm had gone off at 4am, and it was past 6pm when I finally checked in! To add to my long day, they actually made a mistake and made me change rooms about 30 minutes after settling in. The sunny side of this : they upgraded me to a nicer room, which had room service and free wireless internet included!
When I finally went to bed, I slept like a rock for 9 hours straight before waking up, and deciding to stay in bed for one more hour.
I was feeling much better than the night before, so now my actual preparation for the race could begin. I got the gear and special foods bags together; went for a quick bike spin, jog, and swim before I went to transition with other Antilopes to do the bike check-in. At this point, there was not much more to do but eat well and go to bed early, and hope to get some sleep!
Race Day:
I woke up at 4:30 am after a pretty bad night of sleep, as expected. I ate at the special breakfast buffet setup for the athletes and by 5:15 am, I was on the shuttle to transition, and although there was not much more to prepare on race morning. I barely made it to the swim start to see the Pros start at 6:45. I found a bunch of Antilopes and familiar faces on my way to the in-water start, and I had time to find myself a nice spot in the water to start the swim.
I started strong on the swim, focusing on good technique. I found a strong kicker that ended up being my ride for the first stretch against the current up to the turn around. I took it a little bit easier along the long stretch with the current, and I was surprised to turn again at only 35min into the swim. I was also surprised to be able to read my watch while swimming, but the water is that clear! It was a really really nice swim. The last straight of the swim was not that straight for me, as the sun was blinding us. I had a hard time figuring out where to go, but once on track, I realized I was probably going to do a sub-1 hour swim. Swim time: 56min11sec! Thank you current!! However, let’s be realistic, this would have been maybe 10 minutes slower without that current!
I’m running out of the water and I’m feeling great. Shower for 5sec, grab my bike gear bag, no stop in the changing tent, put on my helmet while running to my bike, finish putting on gear, hop on my bike and was out of transition before the clock showed 1 hour! Did I mentioned sunscreen? -No. I didn't apply sunscreen between the swim and the bike! Whoops.
The bike started with a strong tail wind, which helped me go really fast without pushing it. I also saw Tom, an Antilope friend, who hopped on the bike at the same time as I did, and who gave me company for most of the race. As expected, the wind changed as we approached the “Punta Sur” of the island, slowing down the pace, and making me gradually pick up the intensity. As I made the turn to the far side of the island, the hard stretch of the bike started… for the first time. It was about 20km of riding directly along the deserted coast, with strong and consistent cross winds that felt like a head wind. The turn to come back towards town was very welcoming, but the thought of having to do that stretch two more times was not so nice. By the second loop, I wanted to be off my bike. I felt tired, exhausted, and I was already hurting pretty much everywhere. The lack of bike training was obviously catching up to me, and reminding me that you can’t just hop on a bike, do 180km, and seriously hope that it’s going to feel like a walk in the park. It’s going to hurt... seriously!
I ate a couple of power bars when I started to feel hungry, and I kept eating to make sure I was fueled up for the upcoming marathon. I kept my average over 30km/h, but missed biking faster than the Montréal 2005 Ironman by 9 minutes. I was happy with the 5h53 bike although I was hoping to go faster than my 5h44 from my first Ironman.
I slowed down at the end of the bike and made sure I stretched as much as I could in the last kilometers in preparation to start the run strong. In T2 I took time to put on socks and calf sleeves, while also making sure to apply the sunscreen I managed to forget during T1.
I started out running strong. Actually, with the crowd and the great feeling of being off the bike, I was running way to fast! I looked at my pace once the biggest part of the crowd was past, and I realized I should go slower than 4min/km! I paced myself to something more conservative around 5:30 per km, but I got tired quickly and slowed down to over 6min/km by the time I got to the turn-around point at 7km. I finished the first loop in pain, and I noticed I was having a hard time staying below 6min/km pace. I completed the first loop within 1h20min, which was a good pace to do a 4 hours marathon, but I couldn’t keep it up in the second and third loop. I walked at some fuel stations, as it was really hard to keep on pumping over 140-150 bpm. Although it was tough, I kept on running, not allowing myself to walk more than a couple minutes. I was expecting to get my heart rate easily around 150-160, as I usually average a half marathon at close to 170 bpm, but that was not happening. I knew at that point that I would not do under 11 hours as initially planned, and that I would not be able to run my marathon in less than 4 hours. I was so confident I would be able to do so, but I underestimated how much the bike would take out of me. I wanted to take it easy, but I kept on pushing as hard as I could for two reasons: First, I knew that Jennifer was monitoring me, and I knew that she wouldn’t give up that easily, so thinking about her made me want to do the best I could, just as I know she would do. I also had to beat a good friends IM time that he had done in Montréal in 2007 of 11h26, which would not happen if I started slacking off on the run. So I kept on running, with some short walks, and finally opened up the machine for the last 7km back towards the finish. I did go a little faster; it was very hard and very painful, but I had to give it all I had left. I also ran into my friend Tom right at the turn around, and I was sure he would chase after me, so in the spirit of healthy competition, I wanted to try to keep a few steps ahead of him!
I averaged a good speed in the last stretch, and did a crescendo in intensity up until the end, keeping just enough to sprint across the finish, running at about 22km/h (under 3min/km) and passing 2 people in the last 100m straight towards the finish line.
It was finally done, 11 hours and 14 minutes later! My whole body was hurting so much and pushing so hard I didn’t even hear the famous “You are an Ironman”. I picked put my finisher medal and t-shirt, and after eating a bite, received a massage at the massage tent before laying down on the grass. I laid on the grass for a while! I finally found the motivation to make my way slowly back to my hotel in a taxi, after picking up all my gear bags and bike. I wanted to get back to my room and get on Skype to share my finisher moment with Jennifer, who had followed me all day on athlete tracker.
Overall, I’m very happy with my result. I finished well in my age group (12th), and it was a very nice experience to be back in México racing again in the Caribbean. Although I was confident that I could complete the race, I had forgotten after 4 years, how hard it actually is to do such a race. I think this will motivate me to train harder for next year, as I’m registered for IM Arizona on November 21st 2010. This time, I will be joined by Jennifer, who finally decided to make the step into full distance, so this will make training more fun as we’ll be preparing for the same goal race.
