Ironman Cozumel Race Report

This has been an excellent way to finish out a great season. Cozumel never disappoints and I will continue to come back. I say that now, now that it’s a few days after the race but a few hours after the Ironman, I was cursing the race. It is brutal out there. You may think you are going to do well on such a flat course but it is a whole other evil. It hurt in a whole different spectrum than any other race I’ve done. I don’t know how it happened, but I was able to get that 3rd podium spot on the day.

Our stay at the Fiesta Americana was top notch. They treat all of their clients with total respect and I kind of think that I may get a bit extra 🙂 Here’s a picture from their cabana style layouts outside the resort. Not much for a sandy beach on the island. But I’m not complaining. Sand tends to get everywhere when you are laying on it.

Zana and I splurged a bit on the frontier flight. We had so much room that it was almost too much ;). I considered laying down on the floor but I thought that would be weird and I just enjoyed the excess leg room.

Riding pre race is super easy on the island, especially where we stayed. Open roads, no traffic or traffic lights and beautiful scenery.

I had the chance to be part of the pro panel for the first time in my career! It was a great honor and I hope to do it again at future races. From left to right is Frederik Van Lierde, Corinne Abraham, Michi Weiss, and me.

I remembered to bring a First Endurance bottle because that is what the cool kids do at pro panels: rep their nutrition sponsor on the table.

President of the Mexican Triathlon Federation along with Cozumel tourism president, and two others. I forgot their titles

The Fiesta was set up with some Christmas decorations. Zana got to be “Zanta” for a hot second. Apparently rubber duckies are part of the Christmas theme down there?

Getting it all dialed in before the race. Arriving to a race 4 days before is super nice so that I can do all my bike stuff a few days before and not the day before the race. I had to pull my rear brake completely apart so it would spring open, not ideal but I was able to do it, and it didn’t cause any issues for the race. The white chain on my Blue Triad SL is Ceramic Speed’s UFO chain. It’s coated with a super fast wax.

Front flip!! I’m a professional diver in a second life… I excel in one and a half’s, twist dives, and can openers.

While handing in the bike on Saturday there was the ESPN crew asking interviews of all the pros so that they can (and this is what I’m assuming) use that footage in their race recap of the top 3. Hopefully my assumption is correct and I made the cut so that I will get some coverage when it airs.

Waiting to roll. Finally had a chance to swim in the new Viper X and I love it!

Zana hung out with me the entire morning! It was great and she kept me company and ran my special need bag errands.

Jarrod Shoemaker was stripping in front of everyone!! Guess they do things differently in the ITU world 😉 nah, he had a speedo on, but it looked pretty scandalous regardless. He suffered from flats on the bike and had a rough day. Bummer of a deal but I know that won’t discourage him.

Finally!! That seemed like it took forever.

I was happy to be in the podium pictures after the finish but I felt awful. I felt as if I was going to puke, and I was dizzy and “bonky”. It took a while to start feeling normal after this one.

Champagne celebration with the men and women’s podium. First time ever doing this as well! The champagne actually tasted pretty good too.

Z and I went scuba diving the next day. No better compression style recovery than swimming 75 feet beneath the surface of the water! We went to the wall and went down for a second tank to the reef. We saw massive Green Moray Eels, a nurse shark, lobsters, tiger fish, tuna, crabs, huge grouper, barracudas, and much much more but those were the ones that stuck out. The coral down there is amazingly beautiful filled with every color! Hanging out on the wall knowing that out in the abyss is nothing but 2000′ of dark dark ocean is quite an experience.

Hanging out on Pablo’s boat before our first dive.

I’m so lucky to have such a gorgeous wife!

The employees at the Fiesta Americana rock!! They delivered this platter of sweets, fruits and nuts to us the day after the race. There were three of them and all three wanted a pic with me. That feeling will never get old. I will forever be grateful for being in a position where people want pictures with me for my performances.

Another example of how the employees treated us with a first class experience.

They had the awards ceremony the day after the race and it was filled with a good meal and traditional dances from the locals. The award was huge! It literally weighted about 10 pounds, no joke. It was a solid plaster M-dot on a platform and looked really cool.

The night of the race, I couldn’t sleep. I was up about 8 times to go to the bathroom and I was up at 5am and couldn’t get back to sleep because I was extremely hungry. I looked in the pamphlet that the buffet opened at 6am so I rolled down there to get first in line. Apparently it didn’t open until 7 so I waited there for an hour drinking coffee. When it finally opened, I was first in line and got an amazingly warm meal along with some juego verde.