IRONMAN COZUMEL 2021

The last time I was here was in 2020 - reminiscing about my adventure in IRONMAN Cozumel 2019. I have several unfinished blogs written about that race that I may publish later in December. But, first, I want to write about this year’s race.

One of the things that I love most about this space is looking back on my adventures and remembering the little moments and lessons learned. I wish I had kept a better journal of all the summer training days. Again, I might reminisce about a few of those hot, windy days later this month.

But, first, a little about IRONMAN MEXICO 2021. I like to write about the set-up of the race because I know that many people read this race report to prep for their own trip. This is the second time I’ve raced in Cozumel so some of my review reflects a little compare and contrast.

First, I cannot say enough about booking this trip with Ken Glah’s Endurance Sports Travel. His team makes the event special and easy for the athletes and spectators. He met us at the airport with a big hug and a shuttle to our hotel. He took time to ride with me and another athlete on Wednesday after my bike was prepped. He planned daily trips into town, swim and bike sessions and helped all athletes with the point-to-point-to-point logistics. And on race day, he took care of athletes and spectators. I can’t wait to book with him for my trip to Kona. I HIGHLY recommend traveling with him.

We arrived in COZUMEL very early. American Airlines switched our flights twice and extended our trip on both ends. Of course, in the end, we could hardly complain because…..Mexico. Ace and I landed on Monday evening in a thunderstorm that was a harbinger of things to come. We stayed at Secrets Aura about 20 minutes south of downtown. It’s an all-inclusive for adults and included everything we needed for race week. The adjoining Sun Sabor was a family friendly hotel and was the meet-up spot for EST (and the Towne family once they arrived on Friday).

Flying in early gave us a chance to relax those first few days before the rest of our crew arrived. We set up our home in the villas at Aura, went for a swim in the roped-off area at the resort, I put my bike together on Tuesday and went for a ride with Ken on Wednesday. I was also able to get my pre-event Covid test at the hotel. A negative result was required within 72 hours of packet pick-up. I did my streak mile each day, too. The first mile the night we arrived was on a treadmill in the gym. The other miles were on the multi-use road outside of the resort gate.

Jen arrived on Thursday and Ace and I met her downtown at the Convention Center for packet pick-up. This was the most stressful part of the entire trip. I was trying to find gluten-free bread (never did), coordinating with Jen’s flight and her Disney-like wait through customs and attempting not miss the last shuttle to the hotel. Plus, I almost got arrested for shoplifting (not really, but caught with a bag in one of the grocery stores). Oh…and it was raining off and on.

Here are some tips on getting set up in Cozumel:

• Fly into Cozumel if you can get a flight. The first year we flew into Cancun. Even though Ken’s team was in charge, it was hectic getting out of that airport, we took a shuttle (45-minutes) with a few other athletes to Playa del Carmen, boarded our luggage (and bike) on a bike taxi, walked through a ferry plaza/mall, boarded a ferry for a 30-minute trip to Cozumel, got in another shuttle and then headed to the hotel.

• Bike bags are the last to come out onto the luggage carousel. By that time, the line to the customs bag scan is (a) full of regular tourists (not athletes) and (b) makes no sense. It is as long as a line in Disney without the organization.

• Bring a raincoat. It is the rainy season.

RACE WEEK - RACE PREP

I love prepping for race week. I really do. The lists! The packing! The piles of gear everywhere. The bags in bags inside of bags. Okay, it CAN be stressful, but it can also be fun. I have found a few ways to treasure the week before. Here are a few things I look forward to:

PRE-RACE SOCIAL

Local athletes doing the same race gather for a social a week or so before the big day. It’s a way to encourage first-timers, find out insider tips from athletes who’ve raced in the past and finalize where we’re staying, eating, training, etc. while we’re at the race venue. This year was a chilled out dinner at a local Thai spot with Holly, Michael and Susan who are also doing Chatty, plus: Erin, Jen, Sami, Charlie, Angela, Andre and James. It was just what we needed after a week dealing with the aftermath of the storm. It was just what I needed to get excited about racing - which has been lost in the surge of clean-up.

Here’s our crazy crowd a few years ago celebrating Kona pre-race for Sami!

PICK THE PEZ

For every IronDistance race, I pick a Pez to travel with me on the bike. The first year, it was a classic Wonder Woman. Last year in Santa Rosa, it was the new Wonder Woman. R2D2 was with me in Florida. I have a big collection and I’m always looking for new versions.  For Chatty I chose……the Black Power Ranger.

Quick-witted and clever, Zack relies on a combination of skill,  strength, and agility to win his battles. The original Black Ranger is  an energetic, charismatic, and fun-loving young man. He enjoys athletics  (such as basketball, American football, and scuba diving), dancing  (especially to a fresh beat bumping out of his friend's boombox)……… Zack is extremely confident and positive. 

You’ve heard of spirit animals? Well, Zack is my spirit ranger.  He even matches my race kit and Lucinda. And I’ve already been seeing it everywhere. And, as everything, it has multiple meanings. It has been a reminder that IRONMAN is not black and white. It is not this or that. Nothing is set in stone. It is constantly changing and there are often many right answers - or no right answers! In a brand who’s motto is ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE, it’s also true that ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. And already has! Have I mentioned that the swim was canceled before we even got here?

So Zack is my spirit ranger. He will remind me to use my combo of strength, agility, confidence - and maybe a little dancing - to fight the battles of this race. Let’s see what we can do in the face of 142.6 miles.

MOTIVATION MATERIAL

I can find motivation anywhere: from everyday training, a funny quote, chalk drawings, a Scripture verse or even a birthday card. At my first few pre-race socials, I received dozens of well-wishes - cards and photos and CD full of songs - and a giant box containing  140 index cards -  reasons to tri (thanks, Sunshine). It is now stuffed with inspiration that I’ve collected throughout the years that make me feel strong and fast and “ironie”. If I’m driving to a race, I’ll take it with me.

I usually take one book with me as inspiration. For this race, I’m taking Deena Kastor’s memoir LET YOUR MIND RUN for its little nuggets of wisdom from the Olympic marathoner.

I read this book earlier this year and it really made a difference. Kastor used not just one, but a multitude of mental skills to improve her run and her life. She used her love of nature, the discipline of optimism and even visualization to garner more confidence, resilience and longevity.

“My competitive days had a short window, but I could push my mind and strengthen my positivity for a lifetime. How optimistic could I become? How much richer could I build my life? What joy and potential lay ahead. Pursuing positivity felt infinite, limitless.”

RACE WEEK - CHATTY 2018

I can’t believe it’s here! It’s already race week. I leave in only a few days and I am excited and nervous and ready as I’ll ever be.

It’s been a crazy season. I haven’t written much about it, but it’s been wild. I’ve gotten injured (hamstring), I had a hard spill on the bike, I had a big race A-HA in August, a big race meltdown in September and we had a major hurricane disrupt life and training. It makes me feel unprepared in many ways, but maybe I’m even more prepared than I know. I can use my experiences as an excuse or I can use it as fuel.

Here’s what I do know, I am looking forward to a new race experience. Chatty is new to me and I know from my past races that I can thrive that way. Similar to France and Santa Rosa, this race will mean new terrain and a slightly different climate. The swim is a down-river-with-the-current course, the bike is 116 miles (not the traditional 112) in North Georgia within sight of Lookout Mountain and the run will be the hilliest I’ve ever done.

Of course, I’ve had a few full-circle moments in the lead-in to this race. Last year during my Level II Endurance certification clinic, I created a presentation about Stephanie - a triathlete with her first Ironman in her sights. She wanted to do Chatty and place in the top ten of her age-group. I immersed myself in that Chatty race. I found pictures and a few race reports and blogs to add to my presentation. It was shortly after that that I signed up for this race myself! On September 1 of this year, I turned the page on my office wall calendar to find a picture of a runner on the Walnut Street Bridge in Chatty, the one I will cross twice and the one that will take me into the finish area of the race on Sunday.

The quote for September:

“Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. ”

— Steve Prefontaine

PIGGY-BACK

It started with a piggy back ride in Haiti. With a kid on the front and a kid on my back I raced back and forth on the gravel yard against Jennifer who had two other kids from the orphanage hanging from her neck and shoulders. We took turns loading kids, running to the sour cherry tree and back. Those out and backs almost felt better than crossing the finish line at Ironman. Almost.

ECHO Haiti

My functional strength training prepared me for all the squats to get kids on my back. It helped me lift kids over my head. It helped me balance and dance and play duck-duck-goose.  I felt a little sore all over later that evening and was pretty sure I had kick-marks on my booty from the piggy-back rides, but overall felt strong. Haiti was good for body, heart and soul. 

Fast forward to the week before Easter.  I did water aerobics with my class instead of teaching on the deck. I attended a 15-minute boxing demo class at the gym while waiting for my spin class to show up. I did the step climber, too. On Thursday, I put on my prettiest golf skirt and hot pink sweater and headed to the Country Club for the annual adult Easter Egg hunt. The starter yelled GO! and off we went to find the plastic eggs filled with Mega Million lottery tickets, wine vouchers, free dinner vouchers, chocolate and more. I ran 50 yards at a good clip and as I climbed the 18th green I felt the world jolt beneath my left leg. 

Hubby has the video and I can see the moment it happened. My arm flies up in the air as I steady myself. I watch as I fasthobblewalklimp to the rough around the 18th hole bending to pick up as many eggs as I can get my hand on. I walked back to Hubby with a slight limp and groan: I think I broke my hamstring. 

True story. It's a low grade proximal hamstring strain.  Literally a pain in the butt. 

It's been two weeks and five days and it is finally feeling better. I've had to drop out of an upcoming half ironman and I won't be running for another four weeks. But, there is good news:

• I can swim without kicking and without pushing off the wall with my left leg.

• I can bike. I haven't pushed the intensity, but Lucinda and I went outside for a ride on Saturday morning. It was glorious!

• I can do Pilates. 

• I can write! 

One of the benefits of being injured is that there is more time in the day to do the other things that you think about doing when you're swimbikerunning. Whenever there's a run on my calendar, I stretch. I sit on a heating pad. I have started using the COMPEX. I have used my compression sleeves.

Apparently, I think about writing a lot and so.....here we go. 

WELCOME BACK

On Saturday, at mile 94 on the bike in Ironman Santa Rosa I got my mojo back. Not my athletic mojo, but my writing mojo. I realized about a month ago that have taken almost a year off from writing articles. Instagram makes it easy to be creative in short bursts without words. Plus, on that bike ride I realized two things have been holding me back: comparison and perfection.

Part of my break is due to comparison. Why would I put anything out there when there are PLENTY of other talented coaches and bloggers out there already? What content can I put out there that is different or will make a difference? What can I say that hasn't already been said? Why would I write about my experience when other bloggers will share their race reports with better grammar and a bigger audience?

I actually met one of my favorite bloggers at Ironman Santa Rosa. It was as exciting for me as meeting a pro athlete! I recognized Amy Stone of amysaysso.com on the way out of T1 on Friday before the race. I've been reading her training and racing stories for about three years. I love getting her updates delivered to my inbox and always take the time to read them - and save my favorites. I stumbled upon her blog a few years ago and devoured her IMFrance race report. It helped me last year execute some of the details of my own race last June. The last thing I said to her: have a great race and keep writing!  My inner voice said: take your own advice.

Amy Stone - FAMOUS TRIBLOGGER

Just like comparison steals my joy, perfection is the enemy of my progress. I want every article and thought to be whole and profound and complete and PERFECT before I hit publish. I fear the misspelled words and fret that my advice might be wrong.  But, dude! I don't even have an editor.  So, of course, there might be bad grammar and too many commas. And, this is my blog! So,  I have the power to retract a statement if I learn otherwise.

And so, I am going to write again.  About training, races, athletes, advice and more.  And yes, I'm sure these two things are holding me back in other areas and so I'll probably write about that, too. I hope you will join me for my next adventures. Ta Ta For Now.

Tis the Season

A lot has happened since I last wrote (in August!). Life and training and racing and fun and coaching and now the holidays. The great news is that it was a fabulous season. The bad news is that it simply got in the way of writing. And, that is really not a bad thing! I have been writing, but I actually blogged the old fashioned way: I wrote about my adventures in diary form in my calendar.

Of course, I can't leave this format forever. I like posting pictures and telling stories right here in my own little corner of the interwebs. And, I love to look back and remember what stood out in the past 365 days. Like I did HERE and HERE.

In keeping with that first link, I'll look back this month at some of my favorite memories of 2016. I wrote back then in response to the question: what keeps you motivated? why do you train day after day? Why do you race year after year? As you might have guessed, the answer is similar to back then:

TO FIND MY EDGE:  I did two IRONMANs this year. And one of those was in the Alps of France. I hope I never forget that feeling of flying into Nice and seeing those mountains in the distance. I was truly scared that I would not be able to climb them - after a 2.4 mile swim and before a 26.2-mile run. I thought I would fail. I was afraid, discouraged, vulnerable. I was awestruck: a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear. 

I also hope I never forget the feeling of getting on my bike days later and facing that grueling ride. I hope I never forget the feeling of riding up a 17% grade hill for half a mile with people screaming for me to succeed and running alongside me. I hope I never forget the feeling of climbing at 9mph on a 8% grade for 90 minutes in the sunshiney switchbacks of the Alps-Maritime.  I hope I never forget blazing down the slopes in the rain and thunder. I hope I remember the feeling of finishing that ride on the Promenade des Anglais - the noise, the people lining the streets, the emotion. It was more than pride or relief. It was joy and more awe. This time, a reverential respect mixed with wonder.

I had seen the edge the lineof what I thought I could do - and I crossed it.

Ironman Florida Video

IMFLA 2015: The Start & Swim

My day started at 3:45am. It really could have started at 1:27am because I woke up, "checked my hydration level" and ate a pop tart I had stashed in the nightstand. Somehow I willed myself back to sleep between making lists of things to do when I woke up.

We were all up by 4:00 and out the door by 4:30. I hopped out near Alvin's Island and headed to transition. I made a list of everything I needed to do - get body-marked, hydration and computer at bike, sunscreen in the bike bag, nutrition and headband in my run bag. Fortunately, on the way out of transition,  I heard the announcer say something about rubber bands and remembered that I still needed to put my shoes on my bike!

There is something so beautiful about the hours before a race. It's quiet and loud. It's calm and frantic. You can choose where you want your nerves, your mind, your attitude to go. That day, I was calm and quiet. I sang along to The Way You Do the Things You Do and Sugaree [a gift on race day] as they blared on the speakers. I got to hug a friend from Wilmington doing her first 140.6. I got to hang out with my crew.

Race directors announced the water temp and that this would be a non-wetsuit legal race. Athletes were allowed to wear a wetsuit, but they'd have to start at least 10 minutes behind the last non-wetsuit wearer and wouldn't be considered for awards. It was an easy decision for me to go without the wetsuit. I am a strong swimmer and sometimes feel I swim better without the wetsuit. I knew I wasn't going to see a podium slot or a chance at Kona, but I'm in it to play the game on race day. I didn't want a penalty or an asterisk by my name for performance enhancing tactics.

Spice Girls! Erica my social media director and Jen my coach for the day.

By 5:45 I was warming up with Jen. The water was a perfect temp. There was a strong east to west current in the first 25 yards and two sets of breakers on either side of the sand bar. Past the sand bar, the waves were rolling, but not steep. I felt good. I sculled and did a hand stand. I did a few drills and was ready to go.

Florida is now a self-seeded rolling start instead of the mass start from years past. [See this video from Jen's first year in the mass start. The year that Erica and I looked at each other and said simultaneously: oh, hell no.] Athletes are funneled into a starting chute and the idea is that you swim in the group closest to your estimated finish time. Well, that did not happen. They opened the gate and all 3000 athletes shuffle in. Somehow I got stuck-slash-wedged in with the 1:30 section instead of the intended 1:10 group. I couldn't move. Plus, I was a little disappointed in the start - no cannon (not even an freakin' air horn) and no Van Halen (Panama!).

It took me two minutes to make it to the start line and into the water. I danced across the start line to GO BIG OR GO HOME and swear I was smiling as I went in. It felt just like home. It was exactly what I trained for at the Carolina Beach Double Sprint and the Pier to Pier swim. It felt like being on Masonboro Island in the summer. I dove under waves and was at the first buoy in no time. I actually had a lot of real estate until about the third buoy, then it seemed like every buoy was a cluster-eff.

There I am in the pink cap - ha ha. I'm in at about the 2:40 mark. Check out the waves at the 3:05 mark.

A fog moved in and the rollers were a little bigger the closer we got to the turn. At the top of every wave I could look down on the sea of caps. It also got physical in the stretch between the turn buoys. Some guy kept zig zagging across me and I got a punch in my left arm at some point. On the turn back to shore, I found two men with the exact same swim stroke as mine. For two buoys I drafted off their hip. I barely sited and was able to breathe bilaterally again. That might have been my favorite part of the swim.

Headed out for Lap Two

I reached the shore and I checked my watch. I knew then I was off my timing mark. I was a little disappointed when I hit the beach, ran 25 yards down the sand and jumped back in for the second lap. But, I reset my goals and dove under a wave. I knew that I could probably negative split this lap and still come in at 1:20. Plus, I'm doing a freaking IRONMAN! I love this! I came up from the next wave,  gave a big woo hoo! and dove under another.

I watched a man beside me try to jump over the next breaker and when I came up on the other side of the sandbar, he was back in the trough and I was in clear water. I sited on one pink cap in a sea of green caps for that second lap. It felt long, but I felt strong. I remember thinking: this is hard, but I don't hate it. I remembered my last super-long set with Sami and Lance - the 4500-yard-She-Ra workout - and reminded myself that if I did that I can do anything.

Getting back to shore that second time was hard. My siting was a little off - maybe because of the wind - but, I made it out of the water and up the sand and stairs in 1:18:59. I found out later I was 16th in my age-group - and I beat two of the podium finishers out of the water. Outstanding!

I headed for transition. R2D2 was waiting.