I let life get in the way a bit during Week 6. Then a lot in Week 7. Life got in the way during Week 8, but I made a point not to let it affect my training.
After the long Saturday ride and long Sunday run during Week 5, I started Week 6 off a bit sore. That week’s personal schedule required me to do a workout Monday (normally my day off), so I went to the pool. My pace is a lot better than it has been in years past. I did my first several hundred yards at about 1:45 per 100yd. That’s my goal race pace (for 2.4 miles though).
The renovated aquatic center is finally open! There’s not much difference in the pool, but the locker rooms are much improved (though I still can’t fit my shoes in the Lilliputian lockers!). I didn’t realize until today that the pool I have been using is nearly bathtub temperature. The aquatic center pool is a much better temperature. Only 2-3 more months until the full rec center opens!!
After a mid week lull (life got in the way), the weekend at the end of Week 6 was great. I joined 303 Triathlon for their group workout on Saturday, followed by the broadcast of the 2017 World Championships. The run went well; I hung with the second group. The lead group included two Kona qualifiers, so I don’t feel so bad.
Week 7 was pretty rough. I had a lot going on including getting things wrapped up around the house preparing for an inspection. I only managed one ride, one run, and three swims. I feel like I was able to maintain most of my fitness on the bike and run, and improve a bit in the water. This week was a good reminder of what it will take to keep up with training. Lesson learned.
After the lack of focus during Week 7, I wasn’t going to let that happen again. Week 8 was back to focus. Life got in the way, but I was able to see it coming and still hit all eleven of my workouts this week. My running seems to be steadily improving. I’ve knocked my comfortable 4+ mile pace down to the mid 8-minute range. A few months ago that pace was pretty close to a sprint for me. A low 9-minute mile pace (my race goal) feels fairly pedestrian most of the time now.
The training plan I’m using is set up for 28 weeks, but I had 32 weeks for my training. So I need to repeat a 4-week block at some point. That’s what I’ll be doing for the next four weeks. I’ll be doing a repeat of Weeks 5 to 8, but not missing workouts like last time!
This was the third week of the four week block, which means it’s the highest volume week of the first block. I did almost all of my bike rides this week at 110% of the target power, and they felt pretty comfortable. That means that I’m gaining fitness, but it also means that I need to do another FTP test to recalibrate. I’ll do that at the beginning of week 5; it will hurt.
My running went well this week. I was running about 10:00/mile at a low Zone 3 heart rate last week. This week it was 9:45. My long run this week was twice as far as last week, a few beats per minute lower HR, and 15 seconds per mile faster. I’ll take it.
Unfortunately I learned this week that the 2018 IM Boulder bike course is about 114 miles. In 2015 my computer logged 110. That’s an extra 15ish minutes I need to shave off somewhere!
The first bike workout of the week was my first interval workout with measured power. The goal was 8 x 20-second intervals at 200% of FTP. I was able to ride the intervals at almost 300% of FTP (almost 600 Watts), so I was happy with that! I rode this in the morning before work and I spent the next few hours really wanting to go work out again.
I ran a lap around the lake and it felt great. I run by heart rate, so I rarely look at my pace. Every mile my watch tells me how fast the last mile was and I was surprised at how fast my miles were given the heart rate I was holding. After the first run of the week, my Garmin-estimated VO2-max was the highest it’s ever been, matching my peak from around the time of Ironman Boulder 2015.
I started the last bike workout of the week at the planned intensity, but it felt like I was soft pedaling. So I bumped it up to 10% higher than the training plan indicates. It was still pretty comfortable. But since I had a brick run coming up, I decided not to push it any further. This was the same workout I did mid-last week. I did it at 8% higher average power at the same average heart rate. Decent improvement for about 10 days. Let’s hope it sticks!
I was able to do the brick run at 10 min/mi pace in a low Zone 3 heart rate on the hills of my neighborhood. About the same as my run around the lake earlier in the week, but this one was preceded by about an hour and a half on the bike.
I’m about 6% of the way done with my training and I’ve already improved my running and cycling a bit. I feel like I have a real shot at breaking 12 hours. I know I’ve got a really small sample size right now and there will be setbacks along the way, but things are going the right direction now, so I’ll take the tailwind.
Well, I signed up for Ironman Boulder 2018. Training started this week. I plan to update this site weekly to document my progress and add some public accountability to my training. It might be pretty dry.
The goal is to beat my friend Coop’s best Ironman time. Even though he was 25 and I’ll be 43! So 12:09:34 it is. I’m still developing intermediate goals to get me there. My two previous Ironman times are 16:05 (1:28/8:10/6:06) and 14:24 (1:33/7:16/5:11). So my biggest potential gains are on the bike. Reducing my bike time is the primary focus, but to cut 2+ hours off my best time, it’ll take gains in all disciplines (including transitions!) to get there.
I’m following the TrainerRoad full distance triathlon base plan right now (build and specialty phases to follow). It’s a lot of indoor trainer work, but I did a 2.5 hour session yesterday and it seems like I’ll be able to work with the long hours on the trainer.
After getting the bike, bags, and finisher swag, we made the 5 minute walk back to the hotel and I was asleep just after 1am. It was a pretty eventful 22 hours.
For some reason all of my post race margaritas kept breaking. Guess I’ll just have to go get another.
I couldn’t sleep past 6:30 for some reason, so I bookended race day with a couple of 5-hours of sleep nights. I got my massage at noon, and tried to go for a run in the afternoon, but my body wouldn’t have any of that. So a two mile walk it was. I was surprised to see how many athletes were already leaving by mid-day Monday. To each his own.
Town had pretty much returned to normal and most athletes had left by Tuesday. I was still feeling a bit fatigued, but not too bad. A couple more miles of walking, a bit of snorkeling, and things were starting to return to normal. We went diving Wednesday and I felt pretty much back to normal by Wednesday night. I can’t believe I recovered so quickly, but I think the diving helped.
We dove Thursday and Friday as well. The diving in Cozumel is top notch. Corals, sponges, lobsters the size of Wisconsin, barracuda, sharks, groupers the size of Wisconsin, more turtles than you can shake a stick at. That will be a separate post. By Saturday, we had our fill of diving and I was getting a bit sick. We were ready to head home to see our dogs and friends.
Thank you to my wonderful wife for putting up with the (little bit of) training, my single-mindedness before the race and 22 hours of chasing me around an island on race day.
It was a great race and a great trip! Who’s joining me for next year?
T2 was pretty uneventful. I ditched the shoes/helmet/sleeves/jersey, and put on my tri top, shoes, water/nutrition belt and hat. I decided to leave the sunglasses in the bag since the sun would be setting in a half hour. Another perk of being at the back of the pack!
Exiting T2 after about 6 minutes, I saw my wife on the right (I would later find out that the portapotties I didn’t see were on the left). A quick kiss and it was time to run a marathon. Another thing I was undertrained for. I have never run more than 13.1 miles in my life. While training this year, I only had one run over ten miles, and that was only 11 miles. But my goal was only to finish, and I had about 7 hours to do so. I could do a lot of walking and still make the cutoff. This thing might just be doable.
I started out on the run actually running. I knew there would be walking later, but for now I felt good. Having not done a single brick workout, this was a bit surprising. My natural all-day running pace right now is about 12 minutes a mile, so that’s where I started. I really run by heart rate and let the pace be whatever it is going to be. My HR was good, so I kept going. Having missed the honey buckets at T2, I was on the lookout for a place to drop a deuce.
There’s a line at the pair of johns at the first aid station. Grab some water, pour it into my bottle, and keep going. Repeat this for the next few aid stations. I didn’t even slow down at the aid stations. I was thoroughly amazed my legs could even take it! I hit the lap button on my watch at the first mile (I don’t usually use autolap during a race), and the watch says something like “multisport complete.” Wait! I’ve still got 25 miles to go. And I don’t want to stop to figure out my watch. Ok, just hit start and go with it. I won’t be able to see my total time, but I can do math in my head and I can still see the time of day, so I won’t miss the cutoff because my watch isn’t showing me what I want to see. Lemons in your pants dance.
Only 18 more miles…
I think it was mile 4 where I found an open bathroom, so I used it. I didn’t really have any GI distress; it’s just that I had been swim/bike/running for almost 11 hours at this point and it was time to go.
That bathroom stop was the only time I slowed down at all for the first 10 miles! I saw my wife around mile 8, and she ran down the sidewalk so I would keep moving. I felt good. She told me that a friend back home ran the numbers and I needed to run about 15:25 miles to beat the cutoff. I had been doing the math in my head as well and thought I was closer to 17 minute miles. A couple miles later I figured out that Coop probably calculated that number at T2. But I just ran a bunch of 12-minute miles, so my number was probably right.
The run is where MyAthleteLive broke down a bit. It wasn’t their fault; friends back home were still tracking me in real time. But I rented it so my wife would know where I was and wouldn’t have to watch every minute of the race or wonder if I was in front of her or behind her. Wifi was pretty hard to find downtown, so she switched over to 3G. We got a minimalist Mexican data plan for this very occasion. But the 3G must have been bogged down or non-existent. She wasn’t able to track me at all. Not MyAthlete’s fault, but if you’re using it for onsite live updating, you might want to consider data coverage. Luckily I had a few folks back in the states following along (Thank you Coop, Erica, Phil, Mo, Jon, and especially Owen!). So Coop was giving Barb updates via text message.
Just before mile 9 is where I ran to within 30 yards of the finish line, and had to turn around and run back out of town. I got to see Barb again in the middle of town, and shortly after that is when the run/walk portion of the marathon started. I put in a good effort for the first 10 miles, but I was starting to get a bit fatigued. I decided to pick out somebody ahead of me and run until I caught them and then walk for a bit. Rinse and repeat.
At mile ten, I hit lap on my watch, did some math, and figured I need to hit 17-minute miles to finish by midnight. Because of the wave start, I actually had until about 12:20 to finish, and finishing by midnight would put my time at 16:50, not 17:00. But because my only real metrics were time of day and lap average pace, it was easier to shoot for midnight. Knowing I needed to hit 17-minute miles, and not trusting my brain, I decided to shoot for 15-minute miles.
I had set my watch to show heart rate and lap average pace (and two other things) on my main screen. This is the first time I’ve used my watch this way (who says nothing new on race day?), but I’m very happy I did. Wanting to hit 15-minute miles, I ran a bit with 16 miles to go, then walked, then ran some more. After a half mile or so, my lap average pace was 14:30. So I ran and watched it head to 14:15. I walked; 14:30. Let’s see how long I can keep it at/below 14:30. I played that game for about five miles, hit lap, did some math and knew I just needed 18-minute miles to finish by midnight!
One more lap…
This is about where my nutrition/electrolyte replenishment broke down a bit and I started cramping a little. I had Endurolytes powder mixed in with my Perpetuem. But my desire to continue drinking Perpetuem had diminished an hour prior. Nutritionally I felt fine, but that came at a cost to my electrolytes. That’s why I really like to keep the two separate. Luckily I had a plan B. I had stashed a few Endurolytes Extreme in my pocket at T2. I popped one of these, and then another half an hour later. Cramping gone, lesson learned. Having a lightweight plan B may have saved my race.
I passed Barb a few more times. In all, I saw her TEN times during the race. This is a very spectator friendly course. And it really helped me throughout the day.
My pace was slowing a bit, but I still felt decent now after dispatching the cramping. I rounded the corner near the finish, heard “You. Are. An. Ironman!” and headed back out into the darkness for my final lap. My turn would come. Even though I’m only 30 yards away, there’s nine miles between me and that finish line.
I hit lap on the watch, did the math, and knew I only needed 19-minute miles to beat the clock. A few more miles and I repeated this. I had 6 miles to go, and I need to run 20-minute miles to get a 16:40. Ok, let’s shoot for 16:30 and not limp into the finish line. Barring absolute disaster I’m going to finish this thing! And I still feel decent.
I made it to the final turn at the far end of the course. I bid the volunteers there farewell for the final time and headed home. Another few hundred yards down the road and there was Team Z once again. At the farthest, darkest point on the run course at 10pm. Thanks Team Z!
Barb had left the course proper to see me at the finish, so I knew I wouldn’t see her on this leg of the run, but that was good. I had something to look forward to at the finish!
I kept the average lap pace around 15-minutes, so I knew I was putting a dent into my new 16:30 goal. But I stopped doing math. I knew I was going to finish! I was passing quite a few people in the last 4 miles, just like I did at the end of the bike. There weren’t many people doing any running any more. Not that I was either, but I ran a bit in those last 4 miles. I would pick out somebody ahead and run until I caught them. Then walk for a bit, rinse and repeat.
I made it back to Punta Langosta, which is right by the main pier and about a mile from the finish line. I was walking at this point, much to the chagrin of the 65-year old woman in flip-flops on the sidewalk next to me. She told me I needed to start running, and when I rebuffed, she started running in her flip-flops taunting me. I guess it was time to run. During a race of this length, you never know just where your motivation will come from. She ran with me for a bit, and when she returned to her normal life, I Forrest Gumped it. I just kept running straight toward the finish line. I passed a few people in the last quarter mile, and then looked for some clear space to make sure I would get a finisher pic all to myself. Another perk for us back of the packers!
Blowing kisses……with gusto!
I rounded the final corner, gave a few high fives to folks on the rail, revved up the crowd, and (inspired by a friend’s daughter) blew them kisses as I crossed the finish line. The clock read 16:39 and change, but that clock started when the pro men did. So I knew I was about 25 minutes below that.
“Bryan Scott. You. Are. An. Ironman!” What the hell did I just do?!
What the hell did I just do?
Barb was there right after the finish line, which was fantastic! I surprised the volunteers by taking off my own timing chip. I got my medal, finisher shirt, necklace and towel. I skipped the massage and food, and headed out to meet Barb. I grabbed my bike and bags (even more logistics after the race, of course). Then it was straight to the store to grab those items only sold to finishers! The racks were pretty cleaned out (the bad part of being in the back of the pack), but they had a jacket in my size in the back that is now mine.
FINISHER
My stretch goal was 6 hours for the run, and I finished in 6:06. My final time was 16:04:47. Obviously my math on the course was a few minutes off, but in the good direction. I felt pretty good during the entire race. I felt like my effort was well measured. But I feel like I could have cut a decent amount of time out, and with better (a.k.a. some) training, I could drop my time a lot. Plus, I move up an age group in a few days.
In the end, I returned that rental car with a little bit too much gas in the tank.
After getting out the water, it was a long run to the bike gear bags. It was about 200 yards, so I decided to have some fun encouraging the crowd (which was several people deep along the rail), stop to give my wife a kiss (or vice versa), and continue the trek to the changing tent. My bag was pretty easy to find among the relatively empty racks. That’s one of the advantages of being in the back of the pack. I grabbed my bag and headed into the changing tent.
Off with the swim jammers, on with the chamois cream, tri-shorts, bike jersey, calf sleeves, helmet. Nutrition and electrolytes into the pockets. Wait, I didn’t get the sunscreen slather I had heard about at other races. “Sunscreen please.” “Sunscreen por favor.” “Alto del sol, por favor.” Nothing. There were 38 people trying to give me Vaseline, but I couldn’t find sunscreen. Maybe it’s once I get out of the tent. Nope. Okay, back into the tent. After a few minutes, I finally found the one guy (!) with the one can of spray sunscreen! I found it hard to believe that sunscreen was so hard to find on an island in the tropics.
One quick lesson from this is that I should have known how to say critical words in Spanish. It would have made things go quicker. I knew I was good on water, please, thank you, ice, Pepsi. “Stop of the sun” got the point across, but knowing the proper translation would have been much quicker.
Only 100 yards left until I’m finally allowed to get on this machine.
After finding sunscreen and adding water to my Perpetuem powder, I grabbed my bike (also easy to find). It’s about another 200 yards from the tent to the mount line if you have a good bike rack position like I did. Add another 100 yards if you register late in the summer. I stopped to say goodbye to my wife and headed onto the bike course. All told, I was in T1 for over 14 minutes! The sunscreen fiasco didn’t help, and the quarter mile on foot took 3-4 minutes, but that still seems like a really long time. Something to work on for next time.
Not having had anything to eat or drink for two hours, it was time to get on my nutrition and hydration schedule. Luckily the first 12 miles of the bike is downwind (though it’s a bit hard to feel), so I was able to get the heart rate in line and focus on eating and drinking. Then I hear a high pitch whistle behind me. Thirty seconds later and there it is again, but much closer this time. What the… Wow! A freight train just blew past me. I was five miles into my bike leg and the top three male pros just flew by me on their second lap of the bike course. I was doing 20mph, and they passed me like I was standing still. They were probably doing 30mph if not more. About ten minutes later another eight pros passed me at about the same rate of speed. These guys were flying. The group of eight was certainly short of the 10 meters drafting zone for the pros, but it’s not like they were sitting on each other’s wheels. In fact during the whole bike leg, I only saw about four people blatantly sitting on wheels, and never saw any large groups. That was very welcome given that drafting has been a huge problem on this course in the past.
While the freight train of pro men was a nice (but short) distraction, I was having hydration issues. I use a Torpedo between the arms bottle and drop in a couple of Fizz and add a bottle of water from the aid stations. I dropped off my bike on Saturday around noon with the bottle empty, then added Fizz and water before starting the swim. Fizz makes the water a little bubbly, but I was getting a lot of air with my water. I really didn’t know what was going on. I thought maybe the straw had curved back up and I was taking in air once the water got too low in the bottle. I was baffled. I decided to try to pull the straw out a bit to see if this was the case and I got a nice glimpse of the second curveball of the day. Right where the straw touches the bottle were about a hundred tiny holes and a melted mess of a straw. My best guess is that the hard plastic bottle heated up in the sun on Saturday and melted the soft flexible straw!
I’ve always been told that things will go wrong during a race of this length. It’s not a matter of “if,” but of “when.” Well, my “when” was “now.” But life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it. It was time to figure out a solution. I couldn’t go another 8 hours struggling to get proper hydration and taking in a bunch of air. Ok. There’s an aid station in a few miles and they have mechanical support and minor medical support. They’ll have tape of some kind, surely.
Not so much. I stopped and asked for medical and mechanical. The aid station volunteers looked at me like I was crazy. After trying to translate my issues via pantomime, they knew I was looking for tape. After a few minutes, it became clear there was no tape to be had. Ok, pantomime scissors. Not gonna happen. Unless I could solve my problem with water or Gatorade, I wasn’t going to get any help here. So I pulled my straw completely out of my bottle, gnawed the end of it off, and shoved the stub of a straw back into the bottle. The straw was much shorter than it used to be, but it worked. And maybe I would be more aero now with a shorter straw.
I wasn’t very happy with this setback, but I had a long day ahead of me so I had to let it go. It was pretty much fixed and I was about to head into the wind for the first time. Self-pity wasn’t going to keep the pedals turning. As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, put them in your pants and do the lemons in your pants dance (Aaron King, 2001).
Going upwind on the first lap.
As it turned out, going upwind for the first time wasn’t bad at all. I knew what to expect from my Friday course preview, and the wind was actually lighter than Friday. There were plenty of people around, so I always felt like everybody was dealing with the same conditions. At my pace it was still about an hour of upwind drudgery though. The bigger factors were the false flats and the complete lack of spectators. There’s no way to draw energy from the spectators if there aren’t any spectators!
Except for Team Z, that is. They had a group cheering about 5 miles into the bike course, another group just after Punta Sur, and most importantly, the group at Mezcalito’s at the end of the upwind section. After quite literally not seeing a single person cheering for almost an hour, the energy that Team Z supporters added was fantastic. They are a group out of the DC area whose supporters cheered for everybody on the course as if they were on their team. And they intentionally went to the most remote locations to make the biggest difference. It really helped. The guy wearing only a sombrero and a speedo was a nice touch. It was good to laugh a bit every few hours on the bike.
Rounding the corner at Mezcalito’s, the wind became kind of a cross-tail wind. But the trees kept it pretty mellow. When I did the course preview, I felt like Superman after rounding that corner. My speedometer went from 12mph to 18mph at the same heart rate. So I rolled with it and went a bit faster as my heart rate crept up. I knew I couldn’t do that on race day, so I was glad I got that out of my system on Friday. What’s that? A freight train going pretty fast but not too fast?
Shortly after rounding the corner, the pro women began to lap me. I wonder how fast they’re going? Let’s find out. I was going 18mph when a few of them went past. I stayed well behind them, but matched their speed at 23mph. They’re not going that much faster than me. Oh wait, that’s almost 30% faster than me! After watching my heart rate leave the sustainable zone, I backed off and settled in.
After a few miles I was heading back into town. The energy was crazy! The people of Cozumel really turn out for this race. “Si se puede” can be heard all throughout town. Great energy! And there goes the heart rate again. The energy was so fantastic it was hard not to get a little caught up in the excitement. The roll through town was great. A few lefts and rights and I was at T2. Nobody is getting off their bike, so at least I didn’t get double lapped!
I start heading out of town down the main drag, knowing that I’ll see my wife in a few miles. There was an aid station right in front on Hotel Cozumel. Unfortunately that meant we could hear them setting up the aid station late into the night Saturday night, but it also meant that my wife could watch the race from our balcony! When she knew I was going to be coming by, she would cross the street and see me right before the aid station.
How did she know when I would be arriving, you ask? Well, I decided to get a MyAthleteLive tracker. Ironman has some tracking, but that’s based on timing mats that are few and far between. MyAthleteLive uses GPS and cellular data to transmit real-time position! It’s a great technology and a great company. I rented one pretty late and they don’t ship to Mexico, so I had to figure out how to get it to me and if I could return it about a week late because we were diving after the Ironman. I got very quick, actual human being support and they were very amenable to the peculiarities of my travel. It’s a bit pricey internationally, but they have great customer service.
Using their mobile app, my wife was able to see when I got to town, and had an estimate of when I would get to the hotel. So I stopped to say hi, dropped off a pair of empty Ironman Cozumel water bottles (yes, they give out real cycling water bottles on the course), and headed on down the road. After a few miles, lap 1 was complete.
But first I had to negotiate just a bit of traffic furniture. There was a row of reflectors across the right half of the road spaced at about 2 inches apart. I didn’t really want to slip off the side of one or get a pinch flat, so I swerved left. I probably put a good scare into one of the pros that was just about to pass me. I apologize, #60.
Almost done with Lap 1!
Ok, lap 1 complete! A few more miles of downwind, then rounding the corner for the stretch to Mezcalito’s. There was an aid station around mile 52, so I emptied out my bottle cages and grabbed some more water. There’s no need to look down to do this; just grab a bottle and toss it to the side. Except when you accidentally grab your nutrition bottle and toss it without thinking! Well, that was stupid! Lemons in your pants dance, lemons in your pants dance. Ok, I’ve got another 5 hours of Perpetuem in my special needs bag, just 4 (upwind!) miles ahead. No problem.
Except the special needs bag is at 61 miles. That’s 9 (upwind!) miles from here! It’s going to be 45 minutes without nutrition. Well, I was pretty hungry by the time I hit the special needs bag. I had a couple of gels with me that I should have eaten during my 45-minute fast. But I restocked my nutrition, put on my arm coolers (I really should have done this earlier since I’ve been carrying them for 61 miles anyway), topped off the chamois cream, and got on my way. The wind on the second lap was a bit worse than on the first lap, but still manageable. And there were still a lot of racers on the course.
Team Z was fantastic at the turn west once again, and it was back into town. This time there were a lot of people getting off their bikes and starting on the run. The volunteers were even trying to flag me into the T2 chute. Oh was that tempting, but alas I had another lap to go. The bike course got a lot emptier after passing T2. Except for the guy that had been sucking on my wheel on and off for about 20 miles. I needed to get rid of him for my own psychological benefit, so I took a bit longer of a break to stop and say hi to Barb. I handed off another two empty bottles and continued on with lap 3.
Almost done with Lap 2.
Though the course was a lot emptier, I could always see someone within a few hundred yards ahead of me. Now that it was only slow people out on the course, I was actually passing a lot of people. I was the fastest of the slow people! I think I passed about 50 people on that last lap and only got passed once. Small victories!
I think most people still on the bike were starting to fatigue, but I was going slowly strategically. I had carefully measured my effort all day, so I was feeling pretty good. I didn’t want the rental car to run out of gas and be stuck on the side of the road. The wind on the third lap was noticeably stronger than the first two laps. It still wasn’t horrible, but it took a little more effort to keep on keeping on.
With about 10 miles to go I got passed by a pair of riders that I had passed earlier. They were moving pretty quickly. I decided to let the horses run and see if I could keep up. I could and my heart rate was only a few bpm above my target, so I kept going. It felt pretty good to finally ride with some pace. After a few miles the guy passed me again and mentioned that we were up against the bike cutoff. But the bike cutoff is at ten and a half hours, not ten hours! Now I know why they were riding so fast.
We were about to get off our bikes, but not before a local gentleman walked out in front of the other rider and nearly took him out. Luckily that didn’t happen and we rolled into T2. My stretch goal for the bike was 8 hours, and I came into T2 at 8:10. I’ll take it. I had a minor mechanical stop and had to stop 6 times to use el bano (#1) due to my attention to hydration.
Just as I dismount my bike and hand it to a volunteer, I hear “You. Are. An. Ironman!” Those beasts that can finish these things in under ten hours are done. And I still have to run a marathon!
Barb and I caught the free transportation to T1, and I dropped off my special needs bags and topped off my tires. One thing to keep in mind is that this is a very long day for spectators too. With the hyperfocus that comes with all of the logistics of this race it’s sometimes easy to forget that. Many thanks to my wife for cheering me on for what would be a very long day that started before 4 in the morning.
After taking care of everything at T1, it was time to say goodbye to my wife and catch the bus to the swim start two and a half miles up the road. Unfortunately we had to drop off our morning clothes bag at T1, so it was a very spandexy bus ride. While waiting in line for the bus, a wise Minnesotan near me was chatting with another first time Ironman racer. He gave an analogy that I would keep in my mind for the duration of the race. This race is like when you get a rental car and prepay for gas. You’ve only got so much gas to burn, and you want to end up with an empty tank. If you leave gas in the tank, then that little bit was wasted. But if you run out of gas before you’re done with the car, you’ll find yourself on the side of the road. It was a good reminder that this was going to be a very long day and burning up too much gas too early would come back to haunt me.
After the short bus ride to the start, it was time for the obligatory pit stop. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a race where there were enough portapotties at the start, and this race was no exception. At least waiting in line gave me something to do other than mull over every detail of the day in my head. Perhaps it was a good thing that I had to wait in line. I was still in line when the pro men started, and I made it to the start about the time the pro women headed off. I was in the 4th or 5th wave of age-groupers, so I still had some time. Because of the logistics of this swim start, it was a wave start. So at least I didn’t have to deal with 2300 people starting all at once. But there were about 400 people in my age group, so it was still a big wave.
After watching a few waves go, it was my turn. I positioned myself near the back of my wave as we were waiting on the ramp. Once it was our turn to get in and swim a hundred yards to the start line, we started filing into the water. The ramp to get into the water only allowed about three or four people at a time to get into the water. With such a large wave, it took us forever to get in. I was one of the last ones off the ramp, and I had barely hit the water when the start horn blared. At least I didn’t have to tread water waiting for the start, but now I had an extra hundred yards to swim while the clock was running! No more time for thinking about the race, I was actually, finally, really doing this!
Things weren’t too chaotic since the crowd was pretty thin at the back of my AG. I bounced back and forth between a couple sets of feet and felt okay. Being an adult onset swimmer, my technique isn’t perfect. I tend to take in just a little bit of water when I breathe. That’s not a big deal in fresh water, but it can add up to issues in salt water. I tried to focus on my breathing, but I kept trying to find good feet to follow. Knowing that this was a long day, and that swimming was the only time I could draft, it seemed like the right thing to do. In retrospect, I put too much emphasis on drafting and not enough on my own technique.
After reading race reports from previous years, it seemed pretty clear that the stronger currents are generally farther from shore. Since we were swimming down current, I decided to swim as far from shore as was allowed. The buoys were coming a bit slower than I thought they would be, so I decided to look at my watch, which I have never done during the swimming portion of a race. What I saw absolutely floored me. It said I had done 0.6 miles in 35 minutes! That pace puts me right at the cutoff time! I didn’t come to Mexico to DNF on the swim. I had two choices: start swimming harder or start swimming smarter. I knew swimming harder would get me in under the cutoff time, but would have serious consequences for the remaining 90% of the race.
It was time to swim smarter. I would focus on technique and follow feet if they were really convenient. About this time I puked a little bit in my mouth from all of the salt water I was taking in. This was a real palate cleanser, and I didn’t have problems with the salt water for the rest of the swim. Maybe things would turn around after all. While I was focusing on technique, I decided to really enjoy the beautiful scenery below me. Granted it wasn’t as nice as the diving I would do later in the week, but it sure beats a reservoir with, maybe, three feet of visibility. The visibility here was about a hundred feet, so it was easy to see the bottom and I could usually sight below the water and find the next buoy line by the time I was halfway to the next buoy. That is except when athlete wristbands were floating by blocking my vision!
While enjoying the scenery, I noticed something interesting. The sea fans below me were all being bent toward the start line by the current! Clearly I was swimming up current. Remembering back to the race reports saying that the current was strongest farthest from shore, I decided to head toward shore. Once I got there, I was still swimming up current, but it was definitely less current. Another few hundred meters and I noticed the sea fans were now pointed toward the swim finish! I was able to overcome the first curveball of the day. This day just might be salvageable.
About halfway through I did get stung on my foot by a no-see-um. It felt like a little pin prick. It’s certainly nothing to be worried about, but something to be aware of. I think I got stung a few more times, but after the first one, I barely noticed anything. I kept focus on technique and watching for switching currents. The currents never really switched and it was pretty smooth swimming into the swim exit. The actual exit is a bit difficult after you’ve been swimming for a while. The bottom step on the ladder is only a few inches below the water. I had practiced the exit the day before so I was fine. I grabbed the middle railing, hoisted my arse up onto the bottom step (backwards), butt-hopped onto the second step (backwards), and got my feet under me. I turned around and started the long trek toward T1.
Just got done with my longest swim ever; by far!
A quick glance at my watch showed 1:27! I haven’t looked into my data in depth, but it took 35 minutes for the first quarter of the swim, and 52 minutes for the last three quarters of the swim. I think it’s safe to say that the current played a huge role in that. My stretch goal for the swim and transitions combined was 2:00, so I was a bit ahead of that pace. Maybe today is my day.
Oh, where to start? As I was preparing for Ironman Cozumel, I sought out any and all race reports I could find. Motivational race reports, information on logistics, anything I could find. There are plenty of race reports from front and middle of the pack folks, but it was sometimes hard to find info from people like me in the back of the pack.
So this is my attempt to fill that void. Since I’m an engineer, this will probably be wordy and analytical. Hopefully there will be a motivational moment or two. Here goes…
First, let’s just say I was a bit undertrained going into this, my first Ironman race. I quit a job, started a new job, finished remodeling a house, sold a house, and bought a house in the course of about 6 weeks during the core of the summer training season. So there wasn’t a lot of training going on. I bailed on my 70.3 in mid-summer and went in pretty cold to my 70.3 at the beginning of September. So I really only had about 3 months of decent training, with the last month of that spent training indoors. But I’m stubborn and the entry fee and plane tickets were already purchased, so there was no turning back. And because my friend Coop has completed a few Ironman races and was paying close attention, failing to finish was simply not an option.
The mandatory picture with the course map.
Barb and I flew into Cozumel on Thursday (Thanksgiving) and things started to get real. We followed the masses through customs and immigration and out to the curb to get ground transportation to the hotel. At the curb they asked for our tickets and I felt a bit like I was riding a zeppelin with Indiana Jones as I heard the driver say “no tickets.” (Hint – take a right after customs to get tickets) We made it to the hotel, hit the expo, packet pickup, and got some Ironman merch. Things went pretty smoothly as far as not standing in line. The only times all week that I spent more than 2-3 minutes in any line were to buy merch (about an hour), and to lighten the load before the start of the race (15 minutes).
The problem was that 3 of the things listed in the athlete guide that we “must” get at packet pickup weren’t in the packets: sandals, athlete wristbands, and timing chips. I was told to come back after 4:00 to get the chip and wristband, and nobody had a clue what I was talking about when I mentioned sandals. Luckily the line to get Ironman branded gear took forever and the timing chips and “wristbands” arrived while I was waiting. Even though the wristbands were our way to get into transition and get our gear back, they were handing them out to anybody that wanted one and without regard to race number. Some athletes’ support crew got them. They weren’t running a very tight ship. Oh, the wristbands were the kind you would get to prove you’re 21 at a bar. You know, the kind designed to stay on for an hour or two, not all week. More on that later.
After picking up my CO2 cartridges, it was back to Hotel Cozumel & Resort to assemble the bike. A quick side note on hotels and transportation in Cozumel: We stayed at one of the host hotels, so we got free bike mechanical support and some free transportation. I would definitely recommend doing this. I didn’t use the bike help other than to “pump up my tires and oil my chain (it’s all about performance).” But the occasional free transportation was handy. We were also walking distance to the finish line, T2, and the grocery store and tourist district.
And if you are considering getting a car, don’t. We never waited more than 2 minutes for a taxi. They are quite literally everywhere. It was $10-12 each way from the finish line area to Chankanaab. Split it with another athlete and it’s really cheap. With the free rides, I think I took a taxi 5 times: to/from swim practice, to/from Chankanaab on a day off, and to the airport.
I got up early Friday morning to make it out to the swim practice. Since I’ve never done more than 1.2 miles and I’ve only done an ocean swim once in my life, I figured I should check out the swim course. Standing at the front of the hotel looking for other athletes to share a taxi with, I asked a gentleman from Kona if he was heading to the swim practice. He said it was cancelled, which was news to me. When I asked how he knew that, he said it was on the Facebook page. Apparently Facebook is the sole means of communication used by Ironman Cozumel. Period. So it was back up to the room to “like” Ironman Cozumel on Facebook and see what else I have missed. This was harder than I thought, as there are about 30 such pages and none seemed to be right. Tip: I found a link hiding at the bottom of the Ironman Cozumel web page, which was the only way I could find the right page along with the only link to the athlete guide. Well, actually my wife found it. I’m an engineer. I expect things to be in the same place they are for every other race. I found it strange that I hadn’t received an email with the athlete guide prior to the race, and that a guide wasn’t posted under the “Athlete” section of the web page. Now I/you know where to find it!
With the swim cancelled (just like almost every year before), it was off to preview the bike course. I decided to do the full loop (~39 miles) to see what the other side of the island had in store for me. To be honest, this was about my third longest training ride. Not exactly a perfect taper, but I did it at a really low heart rate so I felt it was okay. I also wanted to see which cassette I would use on race day. Coming from Colorado I don’t have a good concept of what gears are even needed for flat roads (for me, compact up front and 11-23 in the back). The loop started out downwind. It was a bit hard to tell, but the fact that I was doing 20 mph while soft pedaling was a pretty good indication that I had a bit of help. After rounding the corner at Punta Sur, the wind started to make itself known. Granted it wasn’t bad wind (especially compared to some of the wind we have to deal with in Colorado), just moderate and constant. There is no hiding on this side of the island. No trees, no buildings, nothing. It’s just you and the wind. And on this day, I only saw one other rider on this side of the island; so it was truly just me and the wind. But the wind was exactly as I had read in every other race report. What I didn’t expect were the false flats. The loop around the island really isn’t flat. There are plenty of very slight inclines and declines. It was a bit disheartening to watch the speedometer drop to 12mph on the upwind inclines. Once or twice on these I thought I would use another gear if I had it. But I decided 12mph was slow enough, and I would just put on my big kid pants if I ran out of gears. At least I knew what to expect on race day.
The mandatory athlete meeting was later Friday afternoon. Most of it was just reading the athlete guide to us, but there was some additional information and it was presented very well. Since it was just across the pool from my hotel room, it was well worth my time. I stopped by the massage place right next to the meeting room and scheduled a massage for Monday. I thought I might need it.
Lots and lots of gear.
I laid out all of my gear for each bag on Friday night. I’m sure I overpacked, but since this was my first race that didn’t have a single transition area, I figure that wasn’t the worst thing. Note that when you’re packing your special needs bags, you will not get anything back that you put in there. I only put nutrition and some chamois cream in my bike special needs bag. I put nutrition, body glide, and a dry pair of socks in my run special needs bag just in case we had to deal with rain. I had originally planned to put a dry pair of shoes in my run special needs bag, but I kind of wanted to keep them.
I got up early on Saturday, checked the Facebook page, and then headed to the lobby to catch a taxi to the swim practice. There was another athlete there, so it was only 6 bucks to get to the swim venue. We all got in the water near the swim exit, swam up current (the opposite direction of what we would swim on race day), then headed back down current like we would during the race. Just about every race report I read mentioned little stinging no-see-ums in the water. I didn’t get any of that this day.
I was curious how the current would affect my speed, so I timed a couple hundred meters going up current, then a couple hundred meters going down current. Normally I swim about 2:00/100yds in the pool, and my watch was showing about 2:30/100yds up current and 1:40/100yds down current. This meant that if things went well, I should swim about a 1:10 swim split on race day! Pretty decent for an adult onset swimmer at the back of the pack. I quite literally couldn’t swim to save my life two years ago. Thanks Theresa, Crystal, Chad and mostly Brad!
By the time I got out of the water, my wristband was gone. It came off in the ocean along with the wristbands of half the other swimmers. It was basically Ironman sponsored littering.
A very small fraction of the roughly $20M worth of bikes at T1.
I split a taxi back to the hotel, got in a quick run, and dropped off the bike and bike bag at T1 (free bus ride) and the run bag at T2. It was a bit of a hassle having to go two different places for these two bags, and more of a hassle to have to do it the day before the race. I know this has to be done, but being my first Ironman, it added to the hassle. I didn’t have to wait in line to check in my bike, because athletes had certain time slots based on bib numbers. That worked out well. I finally got my sandals when dropping off the bike, but I’m still not sure how they had run out of human-sized sandals by bib number 656, when there were about 1700 people still behind me.
My little slice of the bike racks.
Figuring out how to do my nutrition for this race was a bit of a challenge because we had to drop off bags the day before. I have used Hammer Perpetuem and Endurolytes Fizz for a long time. They sit well with my stomach, and I did a 206 mile, 13-hour bike race using them a few years ago and didn’t have any problems. The problem is that Perpetuem spoils after 4-5 hours in the heat. Some people recommend preparing things the night before and throwing them in the freezer. While I could get to my bike bag on Sunday morning, my run bag was off limits – and my hotel room didn’t have a freezer. I usually use Perpetuem as a paste and put it in a 4oz bottle. I mix it with minimal water in a plastic bag and squeeze it into the bottle. Since I couldn’t premix it, I decided to put 5-hours worth of powder in a 24oz bottle in my bike bag and in my bike special needs bag. I would add water to this when I got on the course. I put 3-hours worth of powder in my run bag and my run special needs bag that I’d add to a 10oz bottle on my run belt. For the bike I would add Fizz and water I got on course into my between the arms bottle. On the run I added Endurolytes powder to the Perpetuem mix, since it would be hard to add fizz to my 10oz bottles, and I was likely to just drink the course water straight from the cup (yes, they used cups this year and not the bags they have used in the past).
With all of the logistics taken care of, I headed off to bed at 8:30pm. The alarm was set for 3:45 to catch the athlete breakfast at 4:00 (another perk of staying at a host hotel). I spent about two hours in and out of consciousness, so I really got to sleep at 10:30.
I woke up in the morning to light peeking through the curtains of the hotel room window! Since I should have already been to T1 and on a bus to the start by daylight, this was a bit alarming! It turns out there was just a bright light outside, but my 3:15am brain couldn’t process that until I was wide awake after a grand total of less than 5 hours of sleep. That’s not how I wanted to start this very long day.
