Steve V's IM Arizona Race Report

Saturday morning checked in bike and transition gear bags. Since the weather was questionable in the bike bag I packed my helmet, bike shoes, arm warmers,
gloves, socks, bike shorts, a sleeved jersey and a tri jersey. In my run bag I packed running shorts, running shirt, compression socks, and running shoes. I don’t use the special needs bags. Realized Friday night that I had forgot my swim suit and had to fight the crowds at the Ironman store. I bought some CEP tri shorts to wear as a suit. Woke up 4AM ate an apple and bagel with almond butter and honey. Drove down to the course at 4:30 got my nutrition stuff on the bike and chilled out in the car for an hour.

The water temp was 61 degrees the coldest I have ever raced in. I wore the tri short but no top because of the cool weather. I thought a dry top would be better for the bike. Fortunately I brought a neoprene cap to wear under the race cap. I wanted to get in the water early to get towards the front so I hopped in and holy crap it was freezing! By the time I got to the start line I was shivering. So I headed to the wall on the right side and sat up on the wall to try and warm up. I sat there shivering and looking at all the floating trash until the start. When the gun went off it was a washing machine as usual which lasted about 5 minutes. At that point I found some open water and focused on getting into a rhythm and avoid drinking the water. Staying on the right side is a longer swim but allowed me to sight on the wall for about ¼ mile before moving to the center of the lake. The overcast made it easy to sight the buoys. The swim is an out and back with an exit on steps. Fortunately there was a hand rail and volunteers to keep me from falling over from the head rush. My swim time 1:04.23 (1:31/100yds) 3rd out of 84 in my age group. I was pleased with the swim since I hadn’t had much swimming in in the last month due to my 2 cracked ribs.

The wetsuit stripper was great and I was off to T1. During the swim the clouds broke so I decided to go with the tri top and stay with the tri shorts to save time in transition. I decided against the gloves and arm warmers. T1 time 6:00.

The air was cool but not cold heading out of town. Once out of town the winds picked up to about 20 mph. It was a diagonal cross wind that seemed to be from the front so I figured it would be better on the way back. Wrong! It was worse coming back. The first loop was bad the second loop was worse. The third loop the wind seemed to let up some but not much, probably a change in direction. For nutrition I took a GU Roctane every 45 minutes, one Salt Stick tab and one Sport Legs tab every hour. For hydration I stuck with the Power Bar Perform drink supplied on the course. I also ate an almond butter and honey sandwich on white bread at 3 and 5 hours. I felt good on the bike for the whole 112 miles. My bike time was 6:04.55 (18.4mph) 21st out of 84 in my age group. The time was much slower than I wanted but I am satisfied considering the winds.

I decided to keep my tri top and shorts on for the run to save some time in T2. The only problem was I struggled to get my compression socks on so T2 was 5:23.

On to the run. The first 3 miles were on pace with 8:00/mi. Then the hammer fell
and I was running from an 8:30 to 8:45 to mile 16. The last 10 miles were between 9:11 and 9:59. I managed an 8:20 for the last mile. For nutrition I took a GU Roctane, one Salt Stick tab and one Sport Legs tab every hour. For hydration I stuck with the Power Bar Perform drink supplied on the course. My run time was 3:53.18 (8:55/mi) 1st out of 84 in my age group. I guess I wasn’t the only one hurting out there.

My finish time was 11:13:57 5th out of 84 in my age group. 359th overall out of
about 2360 finishers. Overall I am quite pleased. I missed Kona by 2 slots but that means I will need to work harder next time. I wish someone would have told me that 1 week between Clearwater and Arizona wasn’t enough time to recover. Oh, that’s right everyone told me that.

Ironman Cozumel Report by Rich Kiser

Rich Kiser wrote his race report on Ironman Cozumel and it sounds like he had a great time at this first year event. The race was held on Sunday, November 28th.

We got to Cozumel on Tuesday 11/24. I wanted to get to the island a bit early to try to acclimate to the heat. It was pretty warm and humid. It was 75 and 80 + humidity so it was nice to get some time to acclimate. It was pretty nice as there was usually a breeze and it never seemed too hot. It was very buggy and the mosquitos were really bad especially at night. The locals said there had been a storm a couple of days before we got there and the storm blew them in.

Getting to the hotel was pretty uneventful, we had transportation set up so we were able to bypass the gauntlet of people vuying for your dollar. Tues was pretty uneventful, we got to the hotel and settleded in. On Wed we went into town and got caught in a major rain. It rained very hard for 90 minutes or so. The water in the streets was up to the doors of most cars. After the rain it cooled off a bit and it brought some strong winds with it.

They had a pre-race swim set up for Thursday and Friday. The course they set was 1500 meters so you could get a feel for the water, but they didnt have to set the whole course. It made it nice there was some order to the swim unlike IM Arizona. Thursday I got to the swim and planned on swimming 30 min which I figured would be prefect for the distance they set. I didn't know how bad the current was. On the practice swim I had not even made it to the bouy at 750 yards by 30 minutes. I was hoping it wouldnt be this way for race day ! Took 45 min for the swim. Friday the wind was so bad they canceled the swim. The locals said this wasnt typical and it would be nice by race day.

Saturday was bike check in. It was interesting as the race had set up transportation from the host hotels to the race start. It was also a 2 transition race so you had to check in you bike, bike gear and run gear. You could get to your bike stuff race morning, but you couldnt get to the run stuff until getting to T2, as T2 was 6 miles from T1.

Sunday we had transportation to the race start. There was no warmup allowed, so everyone had to stretch on shore and we would get into the water 10 minutes before the start. The seas were very calm. they played the Mexican national anthem then the pros started. Then they got the AG into the water. I got into the 3rd start row with a good line to the first bouy. The swim was very FAST race day and I came out at 58 minutes which was my best time by 7 minutes.

Into T1 pretty small changing tent, no chairs so I just threw on my bike shoes, ran to my bike and onto the couse. The course was very flat with just a few slight raises. There was a pretty good cross wind especially when you got south and were right on the water with nothing to slow down the wind. Things bunched up quite a bit in the section and there were a lot of packs forming which sucks as this is supposed to be an individual sport ! I got caught in 1 pack as I had people pass on the left and on the right then slow down and box me in. At one point an official came by and gave out a bunch of time violations and a number of the riders were complaing to me and said to watch out. I told them it served them right as they were cheating.
Finished the bike at 5:50, a bit slower then I wanted but the wind took a lot out of me. Also on the first lap the road was very rough through downtown and I lost my computer, so I had no speed info for the second 2 laps.

Getting to the run it was a little over 8 mile out and back which means it was the same 4 plus miles back and forth for 3 laps which ment you say the same section of road 6 times. The last 2 miles or so near the start turnaround and finish were amazing the crowd was awesome ! The run was tough as it was hot and very wet from all the racers in the small course. They had aid every km so there were cups a long nearly the whole course. I got some bad blisters at mile 13 and tried to fight through them. I felt pretty good, but cramped a bit the last couple of miles, I missed my electolytes by a little bit.

Finish was incredible the energy of the crowd awesome. The whole island pretty much shut down and all the residents were there lining the streets. Overall pretty good race. 10:57. 12 in Age group and 131 overall.
Nice race, they have some problems as a first year race. The biggest problem was the finish line was a mess and I would say 1 in 4 ended up in the med tent as it was pretty hot and humid, which overwhelmed the medical staff a bit. I think this could be a great event with a little work and some minor adjustments.

Thanks for reading
Rich Kiser