Cancun 70.3 Race Report

4:52 – 33:24 Swim, 2:33 Bike, 1:38 Run

1^st 20-24 AG, 8^th Overall Female

Racing in Mexico – Round 2!!! Not too sure this was the year to race down there, but hey, it’s all in good fun, right?!? Absolutely.

At any rate, the preparation leading into this race was great until about 2 weeks out. I had put in some big weeks at some very high altitude and never really recovered too well, hence putting myself in what us endurance athletes like to call a ‘hole’. After digging myself out of ‘the hole’, I had a stellar taper the week of the race and a great attitude going into it. After lots of running around, tying up loose knots with each of my clients and the stress of packing, I finally made my way down to Cancun where I met my Mom at the airport. She flew in from Michigan and was ready to have a fun little vacation since she had never been down there before. We walked outside and it was absolutely gorgeous. Well at least for the first 5 minutes. Then, it just started down pouring like I had never seen before. There were gigantic puddles and flooding everywhere. I started to get a little worried as the forecast was not predicting such stellar weather. However, I stayed optimistic and when we arrived at our hotel, which was beautiful, I met up with fellow teammate and good friend Laura Tingle and the rain finally stopped.

Unfortunately, when I woke up on Saturday morning, the day before the race, it was completely dumping rain once again with some added hurricane-like winds. Let’s just say that those conditions never let up from 6am-9pm that day…talk about stress. I ran on the treadmill in the hotel in the morning, swam in the ocean with waves crushing over me in the afternoon and then had to ride on a bus from the hotel to transition with my bike (covered in plastic bags) and drop it off for the race the next day. I definitely did not sleep well that night.

Maybe that is why I felt like such crap race morning! Imagine that. Lots of stress plus little sleep…hmmm. Crappy for me, when my tummy doesn’t feel so great, there is no possible way for me to force food down. So, I just take the caloric deficit and pray that I can refuel during the bike. Luckily, when we arrived at the race site, the condition were not too bad, just a little windy. However, windy conditions in an ocean swim usually lead to lots of chop and giant waves. Oh yeah, and that’s exactly what we got. Because I was having such a hard time sighting over the waves, I mistook a yellow kayak for a buoy and swam a good 200m off course – grrrr. So after yet another unsatisfying swim (I haven’t had ONE yet this year), I was able to get my head back into the game and get on my bike, eat some food and just hammer. The course was flat and fast. With my Bontrager disc and 6.5 Aeolus front wheel, I was flying and buzzing by people left and right as my legs just kept feeling stronger and stronger. It’s feelings like that that make racing so much fun. After being engulfed by a giant peloton of 20 or so people chitchatting, I decided to try and put out a solid effort and get rid of them as I was not going to get a penalty for drafting. Well that lasted a good 10 minutes until I got swallowed again. By this time, the sky had completely opened up and started shooting rain at speeds that made the drops actually hurt as they hit my arms and face – now try riding behind a group of 20 egotistical men who refuse to let you by but when they pass you slow way down so you’re forced to be stuck behind them…ugh. After several ‘mini hurricanes’ (at least they felt like it – not that I’ve been in one) and some road that was only a few centimeters under water, I decided to just put my head down, pass the pack of guys who were completely driving me nuts and go after the last 10 miles in a pretty strong headwind. Mission successful and when I arrived in T2, the rain had stopped and I was ready to rock the run. The first couple minutes are always so darn awful, but that feeling usually dissipates very quickly. As I was finally finding my rhythm and getting a good pace together to lock and load, boom – another massive downpour unleashes. I just kept telling myself that at least it’s not 110 degrees with 100 percent humidity as I’m trying to run through enormous puddles with soaking shoes that feel like 10lb bricks on my feet! ‘Remember, it’s ALL IN GOOD FUN!!!!’ – I repeated this over and over. And it was a lot of fun. I had a decent run that was very average time-wise but I only got faster as the miles ticked by which is a great sign.

The race overall was an absolute blast and a fun experience. The spectators and volunteers were absolutely amazing, as always, and even though I didn’t quite get those times I was hoping for, it just leaves me more hungry to get even better ones later this season at Worlds. Now that the race is over, it’s time for that little vacation with my Momma which she deserves after standing in that crazy weather all day!!! Cancun, here we come…