Ironman Cozumel

Yeahhh!! I did it!! 11h01min46sec to cross the finish line here at Cozumel!!

List of goals:

Swim in the first pack:  (felt good, but bad positioning) 

Go all out on the bike (fearless):  (died on the last 14miles!) pretty happy with bike split though!
Marathon under 3h:  no
Finish in top 8: no
Finish sub 9h:  no
Have Fun:  oww yeahh!! (more than planned - 11h!)

Finish:  Yea!! I did it!! 

Except for the last 14 miles on the bike, I felt good on the whole course.

The swim had a huge current against us for the first 0.6 mile, and I was on the further possible point from the shore, I mean the worst spot someone could be! :( I managed to get some positions back after the first buoy, but I have lost the 1st pack, which was my goal...

I had a terrible start on the bike. I got scared starting 112 miles like that, my legs were in pain since the first effort!! Luckily my quads warmed up in time to ride with the group that just caught me on the second mile...
In a three lap circuit, we started passing many age-groupers, and with a big rhythm variation I was a couple times very close to the next athlete, so ended up getting a draft penalty...

(Two days before on the race start!!)

2 minutes at the tent and I came back flying on the course, I was angry and felt strong!! On the next 30 miles I thought I could catch those guys again... Then I broke!! I was crawling with my bike for the last 14 miles!! And thats when everything annoys you: my feet were hurting, the bike seat was uncomfortable, I was getting hungry, the wind was against me, the heat was coming up and even the legs were getting tired!! :)
Soon another group passed by me, but I couldn't push it anymore, I was looking forward to get my special needs bike bag and get some treats!! Weew, so glad I filled that bag!!

That happened before on training days and I was prepared to fight it! So after agonizing for those 14 miles, I couldn't wait to put my feet on the ground, I knew I would feel better on the run, and I was right! I got really easy at the beginning, first 5km was sub 21min, I was going to finish easily sub 9hours!!

But then my knee yelled louder...  I have been injured since a month ago. It messed up quite a bit my training schedule, but it was over control on last days and I thought it would be gone on the race day. No, still there! And I alternated run with walking until half marathon, on 13 miles to go I had to decide if I would quit or finish the whole thing walking, because hurting my knee was not on the plan...

(With coach Siri!)

I had time to finish that! I had 8 hours to walk a half marathon!
Would be worth just to finish it!??

Ironman is an Ironman!! So many people walk, cry, craw and do whatever they can to make those 140.6 miles!! I had to complete that journey!! Plus quitting on the first Ironman would not be a good karma...

I thought for a while: When I was on the army, I did a 32k march, carrying 20kg of equipment, with no food, stopping every 3 hours just for a 15min nap, and cheering for the soldier in front of me doesn't fall, otherwise I would have to carry his equipment if not him till the end!
Yeahhh this walk was becoming really easy! Water, coke and gatorade at will, with music every 2 miles, people cheering me up everywhere, and the only thing I had to carry was as much chocolate bars I could hold in my hands!! :)

With no doubts I finished the mission!!
That was super cool!! When I crossed the line was already dark, and the finish line had so many lights that seemed I was entering in another dimension... "You are an Ironman" I heard from the speakers!! hahaha

It was great! Very happy with my performance until the sore knee...
Not satisfied... Im looking forward to the next one!!

Updating 172.7 miles!!

As I am used to do in triathlon, here goes 3 (race reports) at once!!

Sep 30th, LA Herbalife Triathlon: Feeling practically at home, I raced the traditional olympic distance race. Starting from Venice beach and racing up to downtown! I had a good swim but getting out of the water I got two big waves on my back, I couldn't ride them, so I just took a big breath and let them "pull" me (kinda submerse ride, ok I almost drowned!! haha). On the bike and run I went as fast as I could, it was really hurting! I finished in 13th place with 1h56min02sec.

Oct 14th, The Magic Mountain Man: The toughest 70.3 triathlon in the US, the bike course has 6.800 feet gain on elevation over 56miles! While competing I thought something was wrong as my watch was marking 1h30min into the race and my bike computer showed me at only mile 10 on the bike!! :-O The course was great and besides the toughness, powered by strong winds, I really had fun racing at Castaic Lake! I was the first one to cross the finish line at 5h11min31sec!! So couldn't be better!! :-)

Oct 28th, Austin 70.3: This was my last and best 70.3 of this season!! So its fair to spend a few more lines describing the affair!

Everything was going great even before getting the flight from LAX, where Jennifer Tetrick and I were with 2 bikes packed in one box trying to save a hundred bucks but instead we saved 200 hundred!!
On the trip I was telling Jen that we should try to watch the bats. I've been to Austin several times, but never had the chance to watch them! There are thousands of bats under a bridge, and every day when the sun goes down they leave in a huge pack flying away from under the bridge!!

Out of the airport we went freezing to the hotel, dropped everything there and went to Jack and Adams bike shop to get some warm racing gear (gloves and toe covers were the urgent items!). As the sun was setting down we decided to jog 20 minutes at the Town Lake, which is a couple yards from the bike shop, and guess what!? Passing under a bridge we could hear a bunch of high pitched noises, and when I saw all those people on the other side, I got it immediately! "Stop!" I said, "lets watch the bats!" And 1 or 2 minutes later there was a huge cloud of bats flying out from under the bridge!! Darn cool!!

On Saturday was the race briefing, we also went for a short ride on the course and a some swim strokes at Barton Springs, definitively my favorite swim pool!!

"PENDING LARRY QUOTE"

The race...

My swim was astonishing!! I started with a good rhythm and suddenly I was leading with two other guys. It felt easy to hold that pace. So I thought "Something is not right, Andy Potts is here, so there is no way the swim could feel that easy!" I looked forward 3 or 4 times trying to find someone ahead of us, but that was it, no other competitor on the sight. Awesome!! I left the water in 3rd position and ready to smash the pedals!!

I felt great on the bike, but had a big negative point: lack of confidence... I was going all out, but when others passed me I did not try to ride on their pace while maintaining legal distance. Finally, I rode near two athletes who caught me on mile 15.
On the run, it took a while for me to warm up. I got some quad cramps but could manage after the first 4 miles. I finished strong and happy in 6th place at 4h03min47sec.

Curiously Jennifer and I had raced the Long Horn 70.3 three years before!! I stole the idea from her's race report at Jennifer's blog to compare the times on both editions and I was surprised, only two seconds faster!! While in 2009 my t2 was longer due to a draft penalty, this year I spent more time at t1 as I wore a jacket and gloves!!

2009 - 15th place

00:23:23  t1-1'56"

02:21:51  t2-2'48"

01:13:51

tot- 04:03:49

2012 - 6th place

00:23:10  t1-2'08"

02:20:20  t2-1'20"

01:16:49

tot- 04:03:47