The All Too Short Moments Before Ironman Cozumel

Outside of our room

It all started Thanksgiving morning, packing our things and going over checklists to make sure we have everything.  Triathlons of any distance can be a little nerve wracking since there are so many things you'll need for the race, but Ironman is definitely more hectic.  There are some things you can forget for other races and it won't make a huge difference, however, Ironman is such a long race that one of your primary concerns is comfort throughout the day.  So, forgetting the little things like hats, sunblock, or Body Glide can make a pretty big difference in your race.  We made sure at least three times that we had all of that stuff packed away.  Before we knew it, it was time to head over to get Quinn.  We ended up leaving my car at his place and getting a ride from Dan to the airport.  I would have to say that leaving was pretty tough for me since I was still really nervous, but we said our goodbyes to Neda and Dan and headed off to our stop in Houston.  We ended up staying in a hotel that night since 12hrs in the airport didn't sound too fun!  Next morning, off to Cozumel!

Marty back there getting
his race packet

Friday over there was pretty crazy since we were mainly just figuring the place out.  After checking in and dropping off our bags we went to the expo, got our race materials, picked up our bikes from Tribike Transport (great service by the way) and headed back to the hotel.  I have to say, Ironman athletes are some funny people!  There were a lot of them at the hotel and most of them were wearing triathlon race clothes, bike jerseys, compression gear, you name it!  You can definitely tell them apart from the rest of the crowd.  Anyway, we went snorkeling that afternoon and it's pretty amazing how clear the water was, but it was my first time swimming in the ocean and it was really salty and took some getting used to!  Getting back to our room we started sorting out our race gear into the bags they provided us.  It's a completely new process to me since all of the shorter distance triathlons just have the athletes put all their gear next to their bike in transition.  For Ironman you have a bag for after the swim (T1), one for after the bike (T2), one each for during the bike and run called special needs bags (we didn't use them), and then one bag for before the race that you put your morning clothes in.  So yeah, that was another time going over checklists like 3 or 4 times!




Saturday morning we had to bring our bikes and T1 & T2 bags and drop it off at Chankanaab which is where the swim start and transition 1 was.  We had specific times that we were suppose to go, but went a little early anyway just in case it took long.  Good thing because they weren't checking if you were coming in at your scheduled time and we got there when it wasn't too busy.  I think we ended up finishing around 2 hours earlier than we were supposed to so we headed back to the hotel to enjoy the rest of the evening and TRY not to worry about the race in the morning.  It was nice and relaxing, which really wasn't hard to do at the resort we were at....c'mon, it's Mexico!  Later that night two more of our friends, Mark Garcia and Mark Kurosaki, arrived and we got them situated in their room and headed off to pasta dinner the resort put on for the Ironman competitors.  If you ever do an Ironman, make sure you stay at a host hotel since there will be extra things for you like pre-race pasta dinner and shuttles to the race in the morning...just lettin' ya know!

My bike ready in transition

Marty's bike all set

Dropping off
our T1 bags
at Chankanaab

After dinner we went back to our rooms and tried our best to sleep as early as possible.  I was afraid I wouldn't be able to sleep but I ended up getting enough.  We woke up at 3:30am and went to have breakfast (yeah, they had breakfast that early for the athletes!).  I estimate we took in about 1000 calories as I had planned to including 450 liquid calories...yum!  All we had left to do was get the last bit of gear we needed for the race and head over to the shuttle bus to get to Chankanaab.  It was very surreal being there!  I think it was about 12 or 13 years ago that I was introduced to what Ironman was by a fellow lifeguard who was/is also head of the dive team for the Chicago Fire Department.  His name is Ron Dornecker and back then he qualified for Kona a few times.  Since then it was always a dream I never knew I'd realize, but there I was with my brother in our race suit and all marked up with numbers on our arms and legs signifying that we were competitors for that days event.  Excitement had taken over most of my nerves at this point, even though it was going to be a long day, because I knew this is what I trained for and I'm not here for nothing.  

The calm before the storm

One thing I was sure of was that I was going to finish this race, no matter how long it takes.  I was aware going into this thing that Ironman is not a completely physical race.  After having finished it I would argue that it's pretty much half physical and half mental.  If you want to have a good Ironman race, you really should have something special you're doing it for.  If it's simply to have the title "Ironman", or to get that nice M-Dot tattoo to prove you've finished, good luck out there battling it with your mind whether you should quit or not.  Don't get me wrong, having the title is quite nice and definitely something worth going for, but I don't feel it should be the main reason.  Why did I do it?  Well, if we go back a few years ago, Marty and I started our Facebook fitness group called Fit Lifestyle.  We put that together to help motivate our friends to live healthy lifestyles through exercise.  It's actually become more than we'd hoped.  We wanted to inspire them and watch them do things they didn't think they can do themselves.  I have to say that I'm am really proud of the things I've seen them accomplish in the past 2 years from first time 5k's to first time marathons, from tri-babies (a term coined by Quinn!) to full on triathletes, you name it.  We did this for all of you guys, and you know who you are!  Even if you aren't in Fit Lifestyle and you are inspired by this blog, we did it for you, too.


 But, that morning going into the race I knew I had to narrow down my thoughts to a special few people that will eventually carry me to the finish line and will have their names pretty much written all over that finishers medal next to mine.  I thought of my son Timmy whom I hope one day will see this day as an example that if you try hard you really can accomplish anything.  I thought of my parents who raised me to be the person I am and that gave me the drive to push through tough times to get to where I want to be.  I thought of my brother, who is my best friend and will be toeing the start line with me, and how far we've come together in life (and in this crazy sport).  Whether you guys know it or not, you were all there with me that morning before the gun went off for the start.  It was a good thing because I knew I'd need you later on when things got tough, and it did so thank you!

Ok, so I went off a huge tangent on my thoughts before the race but I feel they were necessary to this post.  Where was I?...Ah, just getting to the race site.  Well, not a whole lot went on but time sure did fly when we got there.  First thing we did was go over to our bikes and attach our shoes and put in our water bottles.  From there we went over to the buses that were taking our morning bags and we put the clothes we were wearing in it and handed it to them.  We didn't have much to do so we stood there for a while before deciding to go head to the starting area.  We got a pretty good spot near the front but it was still packed full of triathletes.  We didn't realize how far up we were until we were walking down the pier and seeing all the other racers behind us which was a pretty cool site.  While we waited there on the pier, which was enclosed and 3-sided and the open end was the beach, they had a little dolphin show which was really cool.  I don't think I've ever gotten that close to dolphins before!  And, before we knew it, people were jumping off the pier into the water.  It was a pretty nice jump down to the water and we hesitated a little but we held on to our goggled and finally jumped in.  The only thing left to do was wait for the gun to start the race!  We were ready to go, no more nerves, just excitement.  The gun went off, Marty and I high-fived and wished each other luck and swam away.