Preparation
No injuries during the preparation of this triathlon. I no longer had a membership in the gym where I was previously training, so it was harder to do brick sessions during the week. As we had been to the island of Cozumel before we knew that it could be very humid and hot, so as part of the preparation, and to enjoy a little more of this beautiful island we made sure to arrive almost a week before race day and get some training sessions in.
Location
The Mexican island of Cozumel is a well known touristic location and is world famous for its snorkeling and scuba diving locations. The island is pretty flat, the major challenges during the race are the heat and humidity. Even just walking around for 15 minutes on the island makes you sweat and hunker for some shadow.
Image from Cozumel Water Sports web side.
Stay
We decided to pick one of the events host hotels, the Occidental Cozumel hotel. It is one of the hotels located the furthest away from the town where the package pickup is. As well the athlete briefings were in one of the host hotels, Hotel Cozumel & Resort, closer to the town center. But it was easy to get a taxi from the hotel to the town center so that turned out not to be a big issue. On Saturday there were buses to bring the athletes and their bikes from the hotel to T1 and back, so that was very convenient. On race day morning the hotel kitchen opened very early to provide the many athletes staying there with an Ironman 70.3 worthy breakfast, if I remember correct they opened the restaurant at 3.30 AM or 4.00 AM or so. From 5:00 AM onward there were buses to bring athletes and their company to the swim start.
Swim 0:34:35 AG-73/130
- Open water swim in the ocean, as the water is rather warm I doubt it will ever be wet suit legal. The swim leg is located at the Chankanaab Beach Adventure Park. The swim start is not from the beach but from a platform, surrounding the dolphin basin. The swim course was a big rectangle, swimming along the coast line, turning into the sea, then swimming along the coast line in the opposite direction and then turning and swimming in the direction of the beach. The water is very very clear, you can easily see all the way down to the sea floor, which in my opinion does help to keep a straight line. Only point to be careful is when jumping from the platform into the sea that your goggles stay in their place and when exiting the swim there are stairs leading back up to the platform, there it can be very crowdy and you might get knocked around.
- This was my first open water race, and directly in the open ocean so I was pretty stressed at the start. Where I train I only had access to a swimming pool, so I had never trained in open water. It did help however that we arrived a week earlier at the island, providing me with the opportunity to get some swims in and get a little used to swimming in the waves and feeling getting swept around by the current. Seeing those dolphins doing their tricks while waiting to jump into the water lowered the stress levels as well for me.
T1 0:04:15
Bike 2:46:18 AG-54/130
- The bike course is very flat, no hills worth mentioning whatsoever. The biggest opponents are the wind, heath and humidity. The course parallel to the Atlantic coast of the island can be very windy, but wind should in generally come from the side, so no real head wind there. During the athlete briefing it was mentioned that the part of the course where you cross the island would be with the wind, during the race however it felt like the opposite. Road conditions are very good and the entire course was traffic free.
- Starting on the bike I felt very good, legs felt very light and I started passing athletes one by one. I made the same mistake as during my first race however of starting to fast. When turning away from the coast to cross the island my legs were already starting to feel seriously tired and that was only after like 30 - 35 km or so. To me it felt like if we had head wind all the way crossing the island and people were starting to pass me, something that I am not used to on the bike leg. With still about 25 km to go I noticed that one of my handle bars was starting to feel a little loose, I tried to use it a little longer but it become really loose so I couldn't use it any longer. Luckily enough I have a road bike with handle bars clipped on them so I could still ride in a road bike position compared to using the bull horns if I had a full aero setup. The day before the race I had asked one of the organization technicians to place my handle bars a little wider, as during training I always started to feel pain in one shoulder after over 2 hours of training. To be able to do so he had to add spacers as the diameter of my base bar is smaller further from the center. So seems this new setup didn't held it together for the entire duration of the bike leg, so lesson learned: nothing new during race day!
T2 0:02:35
Run 2:35:45 AG-94/130
- The run course goes parallel to the coast and consists out of 2 loops, the course is flat, no hills worth mentioning. I was hoping for some fresh breeze from the sea but none of that, just burning sun and cruel humidity. As the run goes past the town (only town on the island) there are quite a few people on the side of the road cheering for the athletes.
- Coming out T2 I felt pretty good, no cramps directly while starting to run which was a pleasant surprise compared to my first race. Those cramps started to come up a few miles in though but not to a level where I had to stop and stretch to get rid of them, they basically faded away by themselves. It was hot though, not to say very very hot. I didn't knew the course so I had no idea where the U turn would be to indicate that we had completed the first half of the first lap. It seemed like to go on forever. Soon I started to stop at every aid station to put ice under my suit on my chest and on my back, I even put a bag full of ice in my neck for a couple of miles that I shared with some other athletes. Think I was able to run most of the course from aid station to aid station, although my speed was probably not much above walking speed. At every aid station I took a lot of time to get some shadow, ice and water/Gatorade. Compared to my first race I had put on pressure socks during T1 to avoid heavy legs during the run. Seems they worked well, I didn't had that same feeling at all, if it was the pressure socks or not, hard to tell but I will use them from now on.
Overall 6:03:28 AG-78/130
Some lessons learned
- Nothing new on race day!
- Made the same mistake again to start to fast on the bike, leaving me without legs at the end of the bike course and for the run.
- Pressure socks worked for me as my legs didn't feel like lead this time at the end of the race.
Result
- Swim 0:34:35 AG-73/130
- T1 0:04:15
- Bike 2:46:18 AG-54/130
- T2 0:02:35
- Run 2:35:45 AG-94/130
- Total 6:03:28 AG-78/130
Tags: HIM Cozumel race report, race report HIM Cozumel, 70.3 Cozumel race report, race report 70.3 Cozumel, Ironman 70.3 Cozumel race report, race report Ironman 70.3 Cozumel
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