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Race report - Ironman Cozumel
First Ironman Race in Mexico, ever. And a good one in many ways: location, organization, spectators and my own personal race.There were definitely a couple funny things in Mexico – e.g. speed bumps on the road were smoothened out by putting more concrete down the day prior to the race; people got timeslots for the transition setup, which nobody really seemed to care about; the swim course got changed in our favor, so we had to swim less against, and more with the current. But now to my race...When we arrived at the transition area on race morning it was pitch black. The couple floodlights they had were in the pro-area (lucky me ;-)!), but for Jason and Nathalie it was hard to know for sure if they taped the gel onto their own bike or onto the neighbor’s J! But, it got light, and it was a beautiful calm morning. The Ocean was basically flat, not the kind of whirlpool we experienced during our practice swim two days prior. (The official practice swim was actually cancelled, but as late risers we missed that announcement and thought we better try this out, so we are prepared in case race day is gonna turn out that rough).
There were about 50 pros on the start, and I had three goals for the swim:
1] Get some feet (who wants to swim on your own for an hour in the big blue)
2] Don’t get the feet of #49, haha…
3] Swim “pretty”…as apparently I am actually swimming faster, when I am trying to look like a swimmer and not like I am wrestling with the water.
So, the gun went off, and everybody went out fast. I got behind somebody, hoping his feet would be a good pair to follow…they were for about 400m, then the guy, was getting too fast for me. Luckily, I saw another girl swimming a bit to the side, merging in, so there we go…feet swap. And, yes, this worked. (Whenever it felt like I would be losing her, too, I used my imaginative mind to picture a shark around somewhere, and then I asked myself if I REALLY want to give up these feet and swim on my own or not – very effective technique to give you that extra little kick ;-)). However, after another 300m or so, I was confident that I can stick with her, and so I did. I followed her the whole way, while couldn’t help but noticing the amazing visibility, even saw a stingray floating on the ground. We made it back to the dock, and once out of the water, I passed my swimming companion on the run to the change tent, grabbed my stuff and kept on running to my beautiful Storck. On this little 500m run I got a first impression on how enthused the crowd is. It was so much fun, and I hope I was smiling at my friend Teresa, who was right at my bike cheering me on.
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Race report - Longhorn 70.3 Texas
The last two weeks leading up to this race had been really, really busy with moving out of the house, buying a new place, getting some hours in at work, applying for a new job, and of course with training. I made sure that I didn’t skip any of the latter, even when it meant a couple short nights. But on Sunday at the Longhorn, 70.3 Austin all the work paid off. I placed 8th in the women’s field.
After two days of acclimatizing to the “heat” (ok, no Texan would consider this weather warm right now, but any Edmontonian will J), spending some time with Mike and Steph (my great homestay) and their triathlon friends, taking a look at the course (during which I fell asleep in the car…oops) and getting everything ready, it was time to race. Race morning was a beautiful, calm morning, with a bit of overcast (meaning it wouldn’t be that hot – am I ever lucky with the weather ;-)!). Mike, who was also racing, drove me out there at 5am, so I had plenty of time to set everything up. With ten minutes to my wave start at 7.30 am, it was still pitch dark, and I started to wonder how anybody will be able to see the buoys. Literally five minutes later the sun rose up, just in time for us to find our way in the swim.
The swim start was fast as usual, but not very aggressive. There was enough space for everybody. My goal was to go out as hard as I can to get onto some feet and not swim all by myself, again. It kind of worked for the first 200m, then the guy I was trying to hang onto was getting too fast for me. I re-oriented myself and started to swim next to another female athlete. All I can say is that it seemed to me like two “troubled” swimmers found each other….I kept bumping into her, or she into me, who knows. So, I went behind her, thinking that maybe drafting in her feet would be easier (easier to do, and easier feeling-wise). Didn’t work out that well. She was swimming off the course, so here I go again…taking my own line. The whole way back we swam quasi parallel to each other, me along the buoys and her a bit (10-15m) out to the side. However, I could still see a bunch of arms swinging out of the water not too far ahead of me, so I knew it is not as bad as in Coeur d’Alene, where I saw nobody anymore. Overall, I guess my swim was as good as it is these days. So, after fighting with some green in the last 50min, I exited the water, got stripped from my wetsuit, shoved all my swim stuff into my bag (everybody had to), ran to the mounting line, and hopped onto my bike, happily passing one girl right there already.
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