Ironman Cozumel – Race Report, Commentary and Travelogue for Future EN Use
Short Report: Final result =11:48:51 and 6th M55-59 (5th by athlete tracker, corrected in final results)
Long Report: Ironman Cozumel is proof that there is no such thing as an easy Ironman even if the bike and run are flat. For 2012, there were about 2700 registered but only 1788 official finishers. WTC is not likely to ever reveal the exact split between DNS and DNF, but the majority of drop outs were probably of the DNF variety.
I traveled to Cozumel with my wife, daughter, and mother-in-law on Thanksgiving Day. We flew direct from Orlando to Cancun, then took a taxi to Playa Del Carmen, then the ferry to Cozumel and finally another taxi to our hotel. I had sent my bike ahead with TriBike Transport but there were a lot of European athletes on my flight who had their bikes with them. The only hitch on travel day was that it was very windy which made the ferry crossing extremely rough. My daughter and I were on the open top deck (at the front) getting a free roller coaster ride (and soaked) while my mother-in-law was down below nearly ready to puke. I was wondering if some of the bike cases were going to be launched overboard, but they all made it.
We stayed at the Cozumel Palace, an all-inclusive resort, which was directly across from the expo, and about 1 block south of T2 which was also the finish line. The swim and T1 were 5 miles to the south. This place was outstanding and I spent a lot of time with Carl Noftsger and former EN’r Shaughn Simmons who were also at this hotel with their entire family. After getting our room, I walked across the street (always an adventure in Cozumel) to check-in, browse the expo (small) then up to T2 to collect my bike from TBT. Thursday was my off-day for the week and I had checked off my entire day’s schedule well before dinner.
Swim practice at the venue was available Friday and Saturday morning. I went Friday and met up with Tim Cronk and Jim Cornell. I only swam 23 minutes easy and felt a slight current, but nothing notable. I was stung twice by the small jellyfish in the water, one sting being pretty sharp. Afterwards, Tim, Jim and I had a 4 keys discussion. Because my wife was there, Tim did not call my attention to a German woman who apparently stripped to nothing while putting on her swim suit. I can’t believe I missed that.
From left to right: Jim, Tim, and Paul.
About lunch, I went out for a 22 mile ride to loosen up my legs and check out the bike. Friday had a nice breeze but was overcast. This would have been a great day for the race, but it was not to be. Saturday I rode the bike 10 miles and ran an easy 2 miles. We had to turn in our bike, T1 and T2 bags according to a schedule based upon your race number. Race numbers for IMCOZ were assigned by the order in which folks registered for the race, not your age group. Age groups were marked by a letter, unless you paid 100 pesos or $10 for tri-tat numbers in which case you had your actual age on your calf. I had started my QT2 fueling plan on Friday and followed it as best I could. I had brought Fig Newtons with me but no apple sauce thinking we could get it at the local supermarket. However, Mexicans apparently do not eat apple sauce as adults, but my wife scored 6 jars of applesauce baby food. I was surprisingly calm Saturday and not feeling the usual day-before-dread. I went to sleep about 9:30pm and got up at 3am for my first fueling. I was only able to eat 3 small spoonfuls of that baby food … near made me wretch. I would cry like a baby too if I had to eat an entire jar of that crap let alone 6. Fortunately, I had brought my tried and true cream of wheat and that worked just fine.
Cozumel Palace was one of about 9 “host” hotels which meant there was free bus transportation for bike check-in on Saturday and to the race Sunday morning. The hotel had a buffet set up at 4am and had even delivered cookies with the M-dot logo on top to each athlete the day before. Did I mention that this hotel was outstanding? Where else can you earn SAUs at the same time you are racing an Ironman? Anyway, I drug the family outside at 5:15am and took a cab to the start rather than wait nervously for the bus to fill up. I got my bike set-up, waited for a john, and then joined the parade of nations around the square dock to get to the start. It was time to race.
Walking the plank to the start. Former ENr Shaughn Simmons directly behind me putting on his swim cap. Pro Race numbers available for a $10 donation to the Mexican Triathlon Federation.
Swim: Goal = 80 mins; actual = 1:27:14 I’ve been in physical therapy for my right shoulder for the past two months and set myself a very soft time goal of 80 mins. So when I came out at 87 mins my only thought was WTF! Cozumel is a no-wetsuit, in-water start, single loop swim. On race day, the water was fairly choppy and the current was moving. Instead of treading water for the start, I had to keep swimming at an easy pace to hold my position. Fortunately, I had a pretty clean start with minimal contact out to the first turn. Water visibility was spectacular and you could see everything even when it was 30 feet deep. There was even a scuba diver at each buoy. What I didn’t know was that the weakest swimmers were not even progressing to the first turn and they started pulling people out within 20 minutes of the start. On the long finishing stretch back into the current, more were pulled as they tired out in what seemed like swimming on a treadmill. And a bunch more didn’t make the cut-off. After the race, I was hearing numbers like 300 to 350 DNF in the swim portion alone. But 1941 people scored a swim time meaning that another 153 would DNF later in the day. Assuming 500 total DNF with 1788 finishers, the total DNF rate for this day would be 21.9% -- astoundingly high. Based on the SlowTwitch posts I read, the conditions added an average of 15 mins to most folk’s time. If true, then in reality I had a pretty good swim.
T1 – Goal =5 mins, actual = 5:15. I was pretty close to this guess and attribute the 15 seconds to spending too much time under a shower getting the salt off of me.
Bike Goal – 5:20 mins, actual = 5:31:14. This course is long! My Garmin doesn’t give decimals over 100 miles, but I turned over 113 miles about a ¼ mile before the finish and that was on par with what others had. So factor in an extra 5 minutes for this bike course if you plan to do it. Cozumel has a reputation for wind which is why disc wheels are not allowed. The wind is supposed to come from the NE on the desolate but beautiful east side of the island. Instead we were greeted with a direct head wind for 11 miles straight up the coast. It was brutal and got worse each lap. And without an easterly component, the due west transval section of the course had no tailwind. There was notable one-on-one drafting going on during this leg, but I did not see Florida like draft packs out there, but they must have been present because there were several injury crashes on that section caused by close proximity.
Now for my confession – I think I penalized myself about 2 minutes on the first loop. As I came up on an 8 guy mini-pack on the transval section, I started a slow pass out on the left side. I am sure I was passing each rider within the 20 second limit, but just as I reached the head of the line and took the lead, an “official” on a scooter came up beside me. However, there were lots of “officials” on the course and it was never clear to me who was a ref, who was doing traffic control, and who was just out there checking on logistics or playing tourist. It wasn’t like the U.S. where there is a driver and the ref is riding on the back. The guy holds up his cell phone while driving his scooter and it looks like he was filming my pass. Was I that damn good looking in my EN kit? And I think I heard him say my number as he comes along side. I ask him if I’m OK, and he says “OK”, but then just stopped in the road as I continued forward. I’m thinking what the hell was that all about? And then I’m saying to myself, that wasn’t a red or yellow card, but the back of his cell phone was dark orange, and the cell phone is square like a card. Maybe they could not afford a real penalty card and was using his cell phone as a substitute. Did I get penalized? I had no idea, but I didn’t want to race the whole day and find out I was DQ’d for not checking in, so I pulled into the next penalty tent and … no one speaks a lick of English. I show the guy my number and I’m asking if the “official” had phoned in a penalty. The guy had no clue what I was saying. But he writes down my number and I put a question mark on each side of it and sign my name and shrug my shoulders. Then he signals that I can leave. WTF?? I still have no idea what that was about. I think at my next IM, I’ll ask to see what a red or yellow card actually looks like so I’m not guessing with a language barrier.
T2 – Goal = 3 mins, actual 3:49. Wow, that was slow. I changed socks which probably was not necessary, and I had to run back in the changing tent when I realized the T2 bag pile was inside instead of just outside. Probably would have saved a minute if I hadn’t done that.
Run - Goal = 4:10 mins, actual = 4:41:19. I’m not sure what to make of this. I spent the entire year racing hot weather events to try and acclimate myself. I live in Tampa, FL and you would think that helps. But the fact is that I came into this race feeling undertrained for the run because I was unable to start doing long runs until mid-October when it finally cooled down enough in Florida. I believe my adaptability to heat is fading rapidly as I age. When I started the run it was about 80 degrees and sunny. I kept telling myself to go “stupid slow” but ran the first 4.3 miles @ 8:52 pace…stoooopid! I thought I was crawling to that point, but shortly after that, I could feel my heart rate starting to spike. It was over just like that, and I had to start walking and jogging due to the heat. I told my wife at the end of the first loop that it was probably going to be a very long day for me, but I started to feel better at half-way as the sun was getting low in the sky. The heat had done some damage, but I was able to jog comfortably aid station to aid station and didn’t really feel tired until 23 miles in. But the crowd support was awesome on the entire run course, especially as you came into town where it was like running through a human tunnel. So although I missed my overall goal by a good 50 minutes, I’m happy to finish my 5th ironman at yet another amazing venue.
Dinner with the Iron Frau the night after. It's never too early to start banking SAUs!
Going forward, I am giving up on trying solve the hot weather puzzle. Instead, I’m going to focus on races that have a reputation for typically cooler weather, and doing IMs earlier in the year so I don’t have to do long runs in the summer. Eventually, I’m going to move my out-season to the summer so I can put my heavy training in the Tampa “winter” when it is not so taxing on me. But if you are a good swimmer and heat is not an issue for you, I would highly recommend Ironman Cozumel. The people were just fabulous and it is well worth doing.
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Comments
Cabo, the Antipodes, South Africa, Brasil, Lanzarote ... the list is long, maybe I'll catch you art one of those someday. Dont give up on the "hot weather thing". The hardest part is accepting the slowdown needed on the run.
shoot me your email please.....noftsgers@msn.com
I am getting a lot of my stats from the Ironman Cozumel on facebook and Ironman Mexico on twitter-seems like they cont to change. Yesterday they said 80% finished the race but didn't break them down.
I really like this site:
http://www.runtri.com/2011/11/ironman-cozumel-2011-results-analysis.html
The results you see here are from 2011 and he talks about how hard the #'s were showing the race to be and that it is moving up as one of the more challenging IM's. I shot the author an email and the 2012 results should be out late next week. As you can see he breaks it down.
2X on All's comment that slowing down on the run is a must!
Nice work. Looking forward to your travels and improvement in the future.