Dealing with the Punches - My IRONMAN Race Report

I invested much of 2022 getting ready for my November 20th Ironman attempt in Cozumel Mexico. I was so looking forward to the event. I felt prepared and ready to go.

As luck would have it, it didn’t go at all as I expected. It turned out that special day is one that I will never forget. Here’s what happened.

My “WHY” for doing the race

After I retired, I wrote three books and got through COVID and also managed to put on 53 lbs. On the BMI scale, I was considered borderline obese. I felt like I was in the worst shape of my life and sadly looked it too.

I was on a bad trajectory health wise but luckily woke up one day after reading “Younger Next Year” by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge.

That single book changed the course of my life and motivated me to work on getting my health back.

The idea for attempting Ironman came soon after while watching the Ironman Championship from Hawaii on TV. For me it wasn’t about who won the race. What interested me and motivated me were the age groupers and their personal stories about why they were there suffering.

Watching them struggle to cross the line before the 17 hour cut off brought tears to my eyes and I was as they say ‘hooked”. I eventually decided to attempt Ironman Cozumel because the timing of the race was right. It would give me all summer to get prepared for the race and I would need every minute of it.

So I started to train for the race. I got myself a personal coach, put myself on a strict training schedule and also focused on my nutrition.

By the time race day rolled around, I had lost the weight, got my blood pressure back under control and felt ready to go.

Pre-Race

The only way I could get a direct flight to Cozumel was to fly down a week before the race by myself. Turns out this was a good thing because it gave me a chance to acclimatize myself to the heat and boy was it ever hot!

I ended up riding one lap of the bike course earlier in the week and swam in the ocean a few times to get used to things. I swam one day in rough water and it felt like I was swimming backwards which wasn’t very encouraging and caused me to have a couple of sleepless nights.

I made a promise to myself not to check out the weather reports. This was short lived as after that swim I felt the need to and unfortunately it wasn’t very encouraging. They called for rain every day with a 80% chance of rain and thunder storms on race day.

Nine members of my family all flew down on the Saturday before the race. In hindsight the timing was good because my nervousness started to build as the week progressed and I wouldn’t have been good company at all.

On Friday I picked up my race kit and spent the next two days packing my swim, bike and run bags. I did this a number of times checking and rechecking everything but still managed to forget to pack my cycling shorts. I luckily caught the mistake at the last minute. Can you imagine not being able to ride because of something dumb like that?

Race day

Finally it was here – race day!

I got up at 3:30am and drank three bottles of boost to top up my carbohydrate stores. At 5am I caught a taxi to get to T1 (Transition 1).

Once there I checked out my bike and loaded it with four bottles of nutrition as well as eight gels and a bottle of salt pills. After that I dropped off my special needs bags at the buses.

I, along with a thousand other people, felt the urge at that time to find a washroom. I walked around the venue in the dark. Some people were smart enough to bring flashlights or use their phone to find their way but I wasn’t one of them.

I ended up tripping over a step smashing my toes but managed to avoid falling on my face. I wasn’t happy about that and was even less happy when I found the public washroom which of course had a long line.

I eventually found a portable toilet but the problem was that it was dark once you closed the door. I won’t go into the gory details but let’s just say, this could have been a better experience and was not a great way to start the day.

I eventually make my way to the buses and stood in line to be taken to the swim start. It was only a short ride away. We all waited for the start of the race with the pros scheduled to start at 7am followed by the age groupers who were self seeded in groups based on their projected swim time.

I chose the 1:20 – 1:30 swim group and waited.

At some point the winds started to pick up and the announcer reported that a rain squall was approaching us and the decision was made to delay the swim start for about an hour until the storm passed. I eventually made it into the water at 8:15 and that is when the trouble started.

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” - Mike Tyson

During Ironman unexpected things happen like a bike flat or a problem with nutrition. You will go through bad patches and your resolve will be tested numerous times throughout the day.

You need to have a big ‘Why” to get through them or you will never make it till the end. That’s the beauty of this race. It will take you way out of your comfort zone right to the edge and keep you there for the duration.

Punch # 1

Within seconds of entering the water someone’s hand hit me on the side of the head and ripped off my goggles. I wasn’t hurt but just mad. After that, I couldn’t get my right google to stop leaking after that so I decided to stop trying to adjust them and just swim. I was uncomfortable at first but eventually found my rhythm.

I kept trying to find some legs to follow but they seemed to always end up swimming off course and it felt like I was swimming all over the place. One minute I was inside the buoys and the next minute I was outside them.

The morning was cloudy but there were lots of fish to see along the way with scuba divers watching from below taking photos of us swimming by.

Punch # 2

At some point I felt a rapid drop in water temperature that surprised me. I started to swim through what I thought was sea weed but it wasn’t. I was swimming through jelly fish and ended up with lots of jelly fish stings at the end of the swim. Figures.

T1

After exiting the water there was a shower and I spent a few minutes trying to wash out my right eye that was really hurting from the salt water. It was discouraging to arrive at the bike rack and discover there were only a few remaining bikes there.

But my spirits were buoyed by another retirement rebel who was just sitting there taking it all in. He talked like someone from the seventies cheering me on and reminding me what a great day it was.

This reminded me of how much I love hanging around retirement rebels.

The long shower really slowed my transition time. As I exited the shower I discovered that someone decided not to provide us with the usual change tents.

Have you ever trained to take off a swim suit and put on cycling shorts while holding a towel? I tell you, it’s a special skill that needs to be practiced. And you just hope no one is looking!

Punch # 3

One of my goals was to spend as much time on my aero bars as possible but for some reason I had this terrible neck pain from the swim and couldn’t hold my head up.

Not sure what caused that but I was forced to ride upright for the entire first loop and that cost me some time. Luckily the neck pain went away during the second loop.

Punch # 5

For some reason my bike computer was not working properly and my cadence nor my power output was showing. Luckily it still provided me with my heart rate, distance travelled and time taken so I could make sure I remained within the bike cut-off or so I thought.

I loved the bike course. Most of the ride is near the ocean and it’s simply beautiful but on the negative side the ride is hotter than hell.

At some point I rode past some vultures that were feeding on some road kill and on the second loop there were a lot more of them forcing me to ride between them. They were looking at me funny probably trying to figure out how to knock me off my bike because someone my size could feed them for a week.

I think at this point the heat was starting to get to me.

Punch # 6

After about 30k of riding my right leg began to suffer from hot foot a painful burning of the ball of the foot caused by riding in hot weather and it eventually spread to my left leg as well. The pain became excruciating forcing me to stop and get off the bike for a few minutes at every aid station (every 12.5k) for a few minutes. My routine was to take a bottle of ice water from a volunteer have a gulp and pore the rest over my shoulders and head.

Eventually I made my way to the bike special needs section at 90K and was surprised by the number of bags still hanging there.

I later learned that a third of the competitors had dropped out of the race for various reasons but mostly because of the heat. I avoided dropping out because my nutrition plan was solid. I also had done my homework and had packed my remaining bottles in a cooler bag with ice packs and they were still cold when I got to them. Boy did they ever taste good and my spirits were lifted.

The sun started to go down and based on my numerous hot training rides I knew I would soon get my second wind and become stronger/faster.

My Knock Out Punch

I rode into town and took the turn for my third loop but for some reason it was blocked off. A race official told me to get off my bike and that my race was over.

This didn’t make any sense to me.

I was within the bike cut-off time and tracking at a 16:45 pace over all. But I couldn’t get a straight answer other than it had something to do with road closures.

I walked over and put my bike on the rack at T2 and meet other age groupers who were complaining about the same thing.

One young lady told me it was her first Ironman and that she was ashamed from getting a DNF (did not finish). I told her not to be ashamed because it wasn’t a DNF but rather a NATF (not allowed to finish) and it was the race organizer’s problem not hers.

As for me I was in good shape and knew I could have earned that finisher’s medal as I had spent a lot of time practicing my walk/run in hot humid weather. The added bonus is that the crowd support during the run is electrifying with the additional motivation of my family being there only adding to the mix.

But victory was denied to me after all those month’s of training and expense.

This wasn’t right and despite sending emails to both the organizer and race judges, I have yet to receive any type of response.

My November 26th Horoscope

To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. After all the time, energy and expense – never mind having to explain to people why I was unable to finish was heart breaking.

But when I got back home I read the following horoscope in the paper.

‘It may be that something you have been working on for weeks, maybe months, must now be abandoned but it’s not the end of the world. It could in fact be the start of a more creative phase, thanks to the lessons you learned from your failure.”

The horoscope pretty much sums up how I feel today. Although I’m tempted to return to Cozumel next year to take care of unfinished business, I don’t plan on going back.

Despite not being allowed to finish I feel that I accomplished my goal. I have regained my health and engrained healthy habits that will last me the rest of my life.