IM Cozumel 2014 race report - lessons in triathlon - Swim

because when you DNF you really NEED to take some lessons away from the experience.  and my goals going into the thing were to see if my nutrition worked (oh mai gawds NO it did not) and see what my run was doing (jury still out on that account).  so, i suppose my goals were met.  but i wish i didn't need a DNF to get there.

i wanted to take a little bit of everyone with me this time, since only Jamie came in person, so i wore Sissy's bra, one of Chris's socks she left here and one of Michelle's and Dad's hat.  so you were all here even though you weren't.  :)  unfortunately once i started dressing the morning of the event i realized i'd never worn Sissy's bra swimming and suspected serious chafing as it is not a racerback, so i spur of the moment went with the trisuit for the swim.  which means in T1 not only did i get nekkid, i got TOTALLY nekkid and would have to wrestle Sissy's bra on over my wet flabby skin.  one of these days i'm going to plan a little better.

 i decided to drop the big bucks on the FMTRI numbers this year (might as well do EVERYTHING new) and managed to Fuck Them Up royally.  This is the GOOD calf.  the other one has a U (age group) AND a 3 and one shoulder only had 15 and the other 315.  I was a mess.  i've been doing solid foods during bike rides and figured that would be my nutrition for the bike too, so i loaded up my jersey with what i figured i would need for the entire 180 km...  cue music of doom...

i did end up eating all the Ritz and the cookie and maybe half of teh panditas.  oh, and i forgot until the 3rd lap of the bike that my electrolytes were going to be Nuun.  oops.  by then i thought i was Aquaman and didn't need water but that is a story for later.  i also decided to use a list to pack stuff this year and promptly realized when i got to Cozumel and remembered all the stuff i'd forgotten (and texted Jamie to bring) that maybe lists weren't the way to go.  2nd lesson.  So NEXT year I'm going to be So Well Prepared.  The 5th is the charm, right?


so, ONE good thing about staying in a hotel is that the taxis are SUPER easy to get and hey! the malecon was OPEN (normally we are driving ourselves and can never quite manage to get to the malecon AND hit one closed street after another trying to get to Chankanab) but, none of that stress this year, we just walked right down to the malecon and there was a LINE OF TAXIS (still hard for me to believe that after 3 years of getting to T1 stress in all previous years) WAITING FOR US!  I KNOWWW!!!  it was crazy making in the head. no police to try to "convince" to open the closed road, no traipsing all over town looking for an open road, Booyah!  we were zipping on our way.  jamie and i did our routine "kiss for eternity in the event the Kraken takes me in the swim" and off i headed in a bus to the swim start.  It SURE SEEMED like we  had a walk to rival the marathon from the bus drop to swim start.  but we need something new every year, right?  This year we got fancy dancy chanclas to wear and during this walk i figured out why (as i'd left them at the hotel).  D'oh.  luckily my feets are pretty tough from walking around here barefoot.  one of the perks of not owning shoes, i suppose.

i started WAAAAAAY in teh back of the womens.  i'm really not sure why.  i had expected, after 3 other IMs here, and in this age group, that i would be middle to back of the pack.  and my swim has become slower and slower.  but my drafting has been getting better.  so i jumped on a pair of feet that seemed to be swimming together - a lady in my AG and another lady and swam between them, at their hips.  the hip position is supposed to give the best draft so i figured between the two of them i'd be floating.  but honestly, i worked the swim this year.  i think this might be the first time I worked it.  there were times i thought the pace was too slow and i considered looking for new feet and other times i had to work to catch back up.

i have read race reports of people checking the watches for the time so i thought i'd get all fancy and try that but i couldn't really see it well enough and almost lost my feet.  so i sprinted back up and hung on.  waves were starting to catch us and as they swallowed us i would mentally yell at them to Back OFF.  MY feet!  i had a great time drafting.  at some point (i NEVER know where i am in the swim) my feet started to push the pace and it occurred to me that it was possible we were getting close to the end but since i never go to the before-race (mandatory :)) meetings i wasn't sure where we were in the swim and what the exit was like.  no problem as there was a mass of swimmers i just had to follow.  i was shocked to be directed to teh end - swim sure felt short, but i'm really used to going past the exit for a leg south and north again so i was really happy to just get out.  i figured i was WAY at the back of my AG and pack.  Turns out (after the event i found) I was 3rd in my AG (and especially since i'm the oldest in the AG i expected to be WAAAAAAYYYYY in the back of the pack).

jamie got a KILLER shot of me coming out of the water!  :)  Aunty Chris, please come next year!  :)  and again i came out of the water and passing Ruben Grande (local para athlete) on teh run to T1.    so it turns out after months of not posting i have diarrhea of the fingers so i'm breaking this one up.  only family is reading and i know mom likely will enjoy a longer report....