Where to start?
Well, I am very happy! Not satisfied but happy to finally found back into the race and finished.
The race itself wasn’t with a good omen, the two planed official swim trainings have been canceled and it wasn’t sure if the swim would happen on Sunday or if there would be a plan B. It was all a bit chaotic or maybe say better Mexican style? 🙂
Well, I tried to take it easy. I knew before I got there that The trip to Cozumel was kind of an adventure. It’s my third IM for 2013 and just my second year I do triathlon. Although I was really busy after Hawaii, worked a lot and trained a lot but missed the time to relax, I felt good. Last training session went well and I also felt very good at the last sessions before the race. The climate did not seem to effect me a lot. So, I was very optimistic.
The race:
For the swim the pro women were supposed to start 3 min after the men. So we lined up at the beach. But when the gun came for the men we also started sprinting out, I was kind of surprised, maybe everyone leis was as well, but was happy to have catches some fast feed and was able to hang on. Then we were stopped at the supposed to be starting line and had to wait for the women start. This time it did not work out very well for me, I lost the fast feet too early and then had to swim the 3.1 k all for myself.
Passing T1 was very good. At 11k I saw the first pro and not much later I passed her on the bike. The first two laps on the bike were a bit lonely, just passed a few people. The course itself wasn’t really difficult because it is flat like a pancake but the wind made it really challenging on race day. We had a strong head wind which got even stronger into the race. I felt bad going into the 3rd lap because I was throwing up. I missed getting water bottles on the first two laps, when the volunteers were not giving them out yet ( for what ever…). Not so much later some pros, who I have passed before came by, now passing me. I tried holding onto them. Little later a big group of about 80-100 people came passing us. This was really ridiculous, two race official have been with this group but did not say anything. I just did not want to hang on or stay in this group, it was too risky, so I took my heart and pushed hard to go to the front and then even further to get away from the group.
The run started as I had planed, controlled and not to fast. But soon after I started feeling diszzinez, I was loosing my mind. Some times I started to force the pace but did slow down soon after. I used a lot of ice to cool my body but then I had to slow down and I had to walk. In total I might have swipped more than 1 liter while I was walking before I was able to pick up the run again. While I was walking some girls passed me, after starting my run on 5th place I finished 12th.
Going to Cozumel was an adventure and I won’t miss it, I learned a lot from this race, I think more than in the IM I did before. I did not know how much energy was left in my tank and I don’t know for sure what the reason was that made me walk. But I am so happy to fight me back into the race and to finish.
Now it’s time to relax and enjoy the cookies 🙂
