Cozumel prior to race day
The weather in Cozumel was absolutely what you would expect from an island in the Caribbean. It was warm, sunny, and WINDY! It took me about 15 minutes to get from the airport to the expo center where the packet pick up was going. We did not get our race numbers until we checked in, which was fine since they provided us with tri tats, if that is your thing. The athlete briefing was one of the more detailed briefs I had sat through, which was very informational with great information, and not boring by any means. The briefing was held in an auditorium at the Hotel Cozumel, walking distance from the expo center. Day one was pretty simple logistically, and I had zero issues flying in the last day of packet pick up and for athlete briefings. If I could do it again, I would have flied in a day earlier just to take some unnecessary stress off of me in the case my flight was delayed, or a number of other variables that would have prevented me from checking into the race.
Bike check in and the practice swim day went a little different. The practice swim was cancelled due to the high winds, which put out a small craft advisory, preventing the safety structure from being in place for the swim. The notifications for the swim being canceled were pushed out on the Ironman app as well as on the facebook page. The great thing about the swim being canceled was it allowed me more time to relax and eat a pancake breakfast overlooking the ocean with my family.
Bike check in was where the race really started to get in my head… I rode my bike from our air bnb to T1 located at Chankanaab about 8 miles away. I discovered my front stem was loose, causing the bike to shift at my handlebars and move forward and backwards. I pulled over and figured out it was probably user error, and I did not push the stem/fork (I am not the greatest with bike nomenclature) in all the way prior to tightening it down. I pulled out my Allen wrench and fixed it and had no additional issues with it. I showed up a couple of hours prior to when I was supposed to, based on my race number, but it was getting very hot outside and I was trying not to sweat and feel like I got a full workout in. They had no problem with me turning my bike in early, but they were very strict about me going back into the transition area once I had left. The language barrier got me more than this one time, as you will read about when I talk about my T1 race day experience. I tried to get back in the transition area the same way I left with in two minutes after leaving, and they would not let me. I went around to the front, where athletes were bringing in bikes, and I had to plead with them to let me back in to my bike, and I am not sure why they were so strict and upset that I wanted to go back in.
The bike bag was also dropped off inside of T1 by the water. The race crew gave us small plastic bands to attach our race bags to a metal rack. I personally liked this method better than the other method I experienced at IM Texas, where all the bags on the ground in numerical order and volunteers guide you to your bag. I love volunteers, we couldn’t race without them, but I prefer to be more self-sufficient and being able to see the numbers on the racks and ripe the bag off and go, was very simple in my opinion.
Pre Race Morning
Ironman Cozumel was not really what I expected….I don’t really know what I thought it was going to be like, but I was in a funk… I woke up at our air bnb at 0445, the same time I typically wake up every morning, and so my body was already adjusted. I ate a bagel and grabbed all of my gear I had pre-staged, and headed out the door. I had my sister drop me off so I did not have to rely on the free shuttle from the sponsored hotels, I clearly have control problems and don’t like to rely on a shuttle service I had a bad experience with the day prior, get me to T1 on race morning. I arrived at T1 and put my bike computer on my bike along with my bento box with my nutrition in it, as well as my two bottles of Gatorade Endurance. I did not use any special needs bags this race, but the special needs bags were drooped off prior to where the bikes were staged. The numbers were out of order so I heard a lot of people trying to figure out where there drop off areas were, which took just a little more time to find. I pumped my tires up to 100 PSI, made sure my gears were where I wanted them to start, and got in line for the free shuttle from T1, to the swim start. The shuttles did not leave until 0600 I believe, so it wasn’t that big of an advantage to get to T1 early. The athlete brief said the shuttles from the hotels to T1 and to the swim start were for both athletes and spectators, which was not the case. Spectators were able to get the free shuttle to T1, but then had to take taxis to the swim start, which was not cool for the families that were there.
The swim start was laid out with the porta johns first then a couple hundred feet past that was the actual start. The morning bag turn in was right before the porta johns, which I missed when I had first arrived. My family met me at the swim start around 0700 and was able to take my bike pump along with some other items I did not want to put in my morning clothes bag. The corals for the swimmers were very restrictive and prevented people from entering and exiting their coral from the side and was not very conducive for moving. It was literally a metal pin that herded us though to the ocean. I ended up climbing over the metal wall in order to get to where I wanted to be seeded, since I did not want to get squished in a cage for 20 minutes prior to the race.
The Swim
The swim started off of a dock that was REALLY moving based off of the chop. The winds were still pretty high and the waters were rough, so rough the professionals were not allowed to warm up as scheduled.
I was moving forward with the swimmers that predicted to swim 1 hour 20 minutes and remembered the group of ladies I was next to. I jumped off the dock feet first and here we finally go! The water temperature was 80.3 degrees and the current was moving the same direction we were swimming. At times I felt like I wasn’t moving anywhere but my swim time told a different story. The stories are true about the Cozumel swim! The waters were blue and the visibility was far! I rarely even had to sight because I could see hundreds of feet in front of me under water. I could either see the ropes holding the buoys in the water or I trusted the pack of swimmers I was following in front of me to lead the way. The swim was fast, but I was still able to enjoy it and observe some of the beautiful fish and coral as I swam. I exited the water surprisingly with the group of ladies I started with and ran into T1. My first mishap of the day…
T1
I saw my sister Samantha as I exited the water, and that was a great moral booster going into what I thought would be the toughest leg of the race, the 113-mile bike, and no that is not a typo! I don’t know where I would have been mentally during this race if my family were not there supporting me. I grabbed my bike bag from the transition area with no issues and ran forward. A volunteer directed me to go right when I saw others going left…I do not know why she did that, but I assumed she was directing me to other side of the transition tent due to the high levels of traffic. As I ran right, I had two choices, but really just one. I could have ran against a sea of runners exiting the transition tent, or said screw it and went straight to my bike in the transition there. I went straight to my bike, which at the time felt like a good idea. An English speaking volunteer was near my bike, doing what a great volunteer does, and calmly spoke with me asking about the swim, and asked how everything was going. He cracked a few jokes, then told me to leave my transition gear on the ground and he would take care of it, and he did. I would regret (somewhat) the decision to skip the transition tent later that evening when I saw and felt some of the worst sunburn I have ever experienced on my shoulders. I planned on getting sunscreen from the volunteers in the tent, and because of that, I did not put any in my bike bag. The great news is I PR’ed my T1 time, which was probably the highlight of my race…
The Bike
The bike course started out a little rough for me based on the aid stations, and my idiotic nutrition balancing act, that was minimally rehearsed. I had planned to mix Gatorlytes into all of my normal Gatorade formula, since they did not have Gatorade endurance at this race. I had practiced this prior to the race, but I was still not comfortable with what worked best. The first aid station was nearly a disaster when I almost crashed trying to pour the Gatorlytes into my aero bottle. I eventually got a good system down; I would drink the aero bottle and pour a packet of the Gatorlytes into the empty aero bottle, then use the extra Gatorade bottle I grabbed in transition to fill the aero bottle with the Gatorlytes already in it. That system seemed to work pretty well and didn’t slow me down too much.
Lap one was great physically and mentally once I felt comfortable with my nutrition mixing system. What I was never comfortable with was the bottles they handed us. The Gatorade bottles came with the caps still on them, and all the water bottles had the caps screwed on very tight and were difficult to open the water apparatus or unscrew the cap, so I could dump the water on me. The route was a three-lap course with different conditions on each section. Most of the route was not shaded, although you could get a little bit of shaded pockets at times. T1 going south-to-south east felt pretty normal. We had tall greenery on both sides of us, so it felt a bit secluding, and not a lot of wind if any. Once the course changed directions from going southeast to north…HERE WE GO!
It was absolutely beautiful to ride right next to crystal blue oceans, and at time I caught myself getting out of aero position to enjoy the view. The winds were 12 -15 MPH head winds, which was challenging, but nothing I didn’t except from reading past race reports. Up to this point, the spectators were minimal, but started to change as we turned west on the route. The route started to go through a more populated area with more spectators, but still not many. Psychological warfare kicked in for the third time today when we were unexpectedly signaled to slow down and shift left…an athlete was down. I do not know what happened, but he was by himself and had a pool of blood coming out of his head… I am pretty sure he was okay and in he lived, but mentally tough.
The course kept going west and started to get into the main part of the city. Spectators were out everywhere cheering us on. I was sticking to my heart rate plan and felt great!
Lap 2…so far I am 0 for 2 with the bike during an Ironman. I was on the windward side of the island, my favorite side, when I started to feel like my cleat was coming loose, so I started to look down and fiddle with my foot, but I did not see anything concerning, but it still didn’t feel right. I had shifted to my small gear because of the high winds, and once I attempted to put my bike back on the big gear…it didn’t move. I messed with the shifters trying to adjust what I could, and then told myself I could stay in the little gear and still be okay on my last lap. I thought it was the front derailleur that was the issue but oh was I wrong!
Minutes later, I was still on the windward side and it happened…my crank, with my peddle came off of my bike. I could continue to peddle and keep some momentum with my right foot only while my left leg dangled helplessly. I pulled over to asses the situation, and I had no clue what I was doing since I lack much bike mechanical knowledge, but I knew I needed an Allen wrench, so I immediately started to yell for one. With in less than 30 seconds, athlete number 1674, a guy named Ashton, pulls over and quickly hands me his Allen wrench! Talk about sportsmanship! I took his wrench set and started to attempt to see what I could do. I didn’t think I was going to be able to fix it, until I adjusted a little here and a little there and bingo, the crank was back on, and thanks to Ashton, it was back on opposite of the other crank. While I was loosing my shit trying to brainstorm how the hell to fix this, Ashton did what he knew he had to do, and just started chatting with me, and making small talk. This dude Ashton is the MAN, and I was able to finish the race because of his kindness and selflessness!
I was back in the fight! I finished up lap two and was refocused and determined to build. Mile 80 was when I was supposed to assess whether to increase my heart rate to the top end of zone 1 or bump it down to the low end, depending on how I felt. I felt absolutely great, I truly did, so I increased to 128 BPM and started to pass people, so I thought I was doing good, but the race results said different, and I was non the wiser at the time. My only issue on lap three was I started to feel my right hamstring and my right hip getting a little tight. I expected this to happen on the run, due to a potential injury a month prior at Ironman 70.3 Tempe, but I did not expect it to start bothering me on the bike. Never the less, the pain and discomfort was minimal, so I made zero adjustments and I felt like I finished the bike strong!
I took in Gatorade with Gatorlytes at every aid station and tried to drink the two bottles of Gatorade prior to the next aid station and did a pretty good job with this. I started to take in Gu gels with caffeine around mile 80. I ended up peeing on my bike three times, once around mile 24, once around mile 60, than once around mile 100.
Bike nutrition
There were 5 total aid stations on the course, so 15 opportunities to fill up on fluids. I roughly consumed 25 bottle of fluid on the bike. Two bottles of Gatorade Endurance I made and brought with me, 20 bottles of regular Gatorade formula with a Gatorlyte packet mixed into it, and three regular bottles of Gatorade. I consumed four Gu gels with caffeine starting around mile 60 or so.
T2
I dismounted my bike, turned my bike computer off, passed my bike off, grabbed my run bag, and went into the transition tent. Psychological warfare hit me again, I don’t know what the hell was going on with me on race day, but I was letting things get in my head, I felt mentally weak, and I was. The atmosphere in the tent gave off a vibe of death and defeat. I had a guy sitting next to me butt naked and slouched over in his chair, and another guy across from me, leisurely eating a sandwich. I thought I was hallucinating with what I was witnessing. I dumped my run bag out and started to execute what I had visualized in my race plan.
I left the tent in record time and PR’ed my T2. The second I left the tent, I started to second guess my decision to not put the Vaseline I had in my run bag on under my arms where I chaff at times. It turns out I never needed it, but I was still thinking about it at least for a few miles. I also left 4 four gu gels with caffeine in my bento box on my bike, I wanted to bring with me. My bib was attached to my bib strap with buttons, and once I started the run, I noticed it was hanging on by only one button, and this would have me completely focused on the stupid bib the entire run. Although mentally demoralizing, T2 was also a PR for time, probably because I wanted to get out of the tent of death and this time, I did not forget to have a volunteer lather me with sunscreen, but it was to late.
The Run
My focus and my confidence were shot starting the run.
Something felt off, but I didn’t know what…my race plan on the run was a little vague and I do much better with more structure, so I felt like I was running without a plan. The plan I did have was lap one, conservative pace I could maintain, lap two solid pace I could maintain, lap three continue to maintain until mile 20, then it was supposed to let loose and finish strong. I held a 9:15 pace on lap one, and I truly felt like I could have maintained that pace the entire marathon, especially since this was slower that my last ironman run pace and I felt like I was better conditioned for this race.
I started to feel like death by the end of lap one and my pace dropped to 9:30 then……lap three was disastrous. It was hot outside and I did not feel well nutrient wise. Lap two was pure grit to get through. I was bloated, swollen, and nauseous. I felt like I lowered my body temperature well with the ice and water at each aid station, but I still felt like my homeostasis was way off. I grabbed water and splashed it on my face, and took ice at every aid station I went threw. The ice ended up in my hat or in my suit. I would put some around my abdomen and shoved some in my groin around my femoral arteries. There was also a sponge cart on the backend of the loop with ice-cold sponges, so I grabbed two of them and threw them in shoulder straps next to my neck, attempting to cool my arteries.
I took in Gatorade at almost every aid station and started to take in Pepsi probably around mile 10 or so for a caffeine boost. I prefer Redbull, but all they had was Pepsi, and I felt like the caffeine would help me snap out of whatever I was in. I started to go mentally internal on lap 2 and started to get tunnel vision and no joke hallucinate, and this was a first for me. I felt like the fluids were hurting me more than helping so I stopped taking in fluids towards the end of lap 2. I felt better once I stopped taking in fluids, but I was also getting slower. I also had Base salts on me that I would take in every 30 minutes or so with some Gatorade. This race was a complete embarrassment for me when I admit I have a degree in exercise physiology…
I became ravenous around mile 16 so I ate half of some nutritious bar at two different aid stations and took in half of a banana.
I have never walked on a flat race before today… I walked for a good half mile at the turn around on lap three. I was in pain! My insides felt horrible like I did something critically wrong with my nutrition. My right hamstring and hip were killing me once I started and got worse as the run continued. I knew it was going to be a fight when I felt them tighten up on the bike, so I at least fought this mental game off.
The run has always been my favorite, but not today…not today…
I was so disappointed with myself while I was running, and was in a pretty poor mood when I felt like I was coherent and not hallucinating. It got dark and that got to me as well since my last ironman finish was in the daytime. I was honestly completely out of it until I saw the red carpet, and my mood immediately changed and I smiled for the first time on the entire run course as the words came out, “Adam Sanchez, you are an Ironman!”
Post Race
I beat myself pretty bad over my performance and still haven’t fully figured out what happened but I’ll end this chapter on a good note!
This was the toughest race I have ever participated in and I know I pushed myself to the limit, which is why I do this. I want to see how hard I can push my body until it fails and I feel like I got that experience on this race! I had a great experience with Cozumel, and great experience working through some high stress problems on the course. I had a phenomenal post race massage, and met up with my family!
The race was not over for me yet, as I had some unfinished business to attend to. I had asked my sister to follow bib number 1674, ASHTON! I waited behind the finish line until he crossed just to say thank you one more time! I am not a hugger by any means, but I walked up to him and told him congratulations and how thankful I was for him, and gave him a YUGE bro hug and let him go on his way.
The day was done, I was disappointed in my performance, but I will only use this as fuel to get better and re-evaluate my performance goals for the next race. I have a taste of failure in my mouth and will train harder than I have ever trained before for the next race. Ironman Texas, which I am calling Ironman REDEMPTION!
30 days after IM Cozumel
It has been one month since IM Cozumel and I am still feeling the aftermath both good and bad. I can still see the tan lines from my race numbers everyday, as reminds me of my accomplishments and failures.
I was so mad at myself for how I performed, that I barely wanted to acknowledge that I even did an ironman... That has since past, and after much reflection, I am more proud of myself for my performance at IM Cozumel than any other performance of my life. One reason I do this is to see what I am capable of. I want to see how hard I can push myself until my body literally starts to fail. I accomplished exactly that at IM Cozumel and have gained valuable experience, I will carry with me for the rest of my life!