Windy Possibilities: Ironman Cozumel Pre-race

The week before we left was uneventful, but still pretty stressful. I was worried about forgetting something and Jeff was worried all our bags would be overweight. Jeff and I made lists and packed and repacked during the week. We had triathlon gear, Scuba gear, and stuff for 10 days. We ended up with 3 bags weighing 49.5 pounds and the bike box close to 70. On Monday, Jeff called me at work and told me while packing my bike he and Adrian found that my rear wheel was completely out of true, they tried to fix it but it was too bad to be fixed, so they had already decided I was going to borrow Adrian's Easton wheels and everything would be fine. I was not happy, I wanted MY wheels, I didn't want anything new or different for the biggest longest race ever! But I knew I had no choice and was really happy that they had figured out a good solution. After a couple of hours I was able to convince myself that it would be fine. Besides as Shayla said, "all the cool kids use different wheels on race day". While I was still unhappy and freaked out about the wheel situation, I went to pick up some antibiotics just in case I had tummy issues. The pharmacist told me "there's just one side effect, it's not common, but some people have ruptured their Achilles tendon while taking this" I thought "you must be freaking kidding me!" but I said "I'm doing an Ironman on Sunday, can you change this out for something that doesn't have that as a side effect?" She was super nice, she made a few phone calls and got it switched out for me. I think that was the last of the drama before we left, we drove to Houston and hung out with Jeff's parents on Tuesday. The flight on Wednesday was no big deal, almost everyone on the plane was doing the race or going to support/spectate.

Jeff and I got to Cozumel on Wednesday before noon and I was immediately SO happy to be here!

There were Ironman signs everywhere! This was taken from our balcony

Thursday morning Sandra and I went to swim at Chankanaab, beautiful water! I swam along looking at cool fish and corals in the water!

Jeff assembled my bike

We did packet pick up Thursday afternoon and ran into Ingrid, Del and Kim on our way back

Love our jackets!!

Early Friday morning Sandra, Del and I rode out to Chankanaab and back about 10 miles total. Adrian's wheels were fine, except that his magnet and my Garmin weren't quite getting along. My Garmin info would look normal one minute and next thing I know I'd be riding along and it would read 0 for speed and auto pause itself. It happened about 10-15 times on our 10 mile ride. Jeff did some adjustments and we hoped it would work properly for the race.

Jeff went out on the dive boat Friday morning and saw a shark and a lot of other cool stuff diving. I went back to Chankanaab for a second practice swim. Another awesome swim and I was pretty sure that the race would be the best swim ever! The only thing I was unsure of was the mass start, but you can't really practice that.

After swimming we watched the "dolphin encounters"

and Ingrid, Kim, Del and I hung out on the beach at Chankanaab until about noon. 2 Croatian guys took this picture for us and then we realized they were staying at our hotel, right across from Jeff and I!

On the way back from Chankanaab, we stopped at the bike mechanic area, Jeff had told me to get a new magnet if I could, Del needed skewer springs, and Ingrid needed something for her aerobottle. Ingrid got her stuff, but they didn't have what Del and I needed. Our cab driver was super nice and she told us there was a bike shop a few blocks back from the water front. We had lunch and walked back toward the bike shop, it was fairly far back into the "local part of town" where I had never been. We found the bike shop and just had to laugh! They had mopeds, old mountain bikes and kid's bikes, but not a road bike and certainly not a tri bike in sight! I knew they wouldn't have a magnet, Del asked about springs, but they didn't have those either. Oh well!

Friday afternoon I started putting together my bike and run transition bags and got really nervous. Jeff tried to make me feel better but it wasn't really working, then I remembered I had printed an email Kristen sent me just before we left and I pulled it out and read it and it put me right back in my happy and excited about the race mood. Thanks Kristen!

Getting ready to go for my last run before the race!

Saturday at lunch

Saturday afternoon was bike and gear bag check in

They put all of my bike info into a computer

I went to rack my bike, turn in bags and get body marked, and I ran into Sandra and Del!

Saturday pre-race dinner was at La Mission, one of our favorite restaurants in Cozumel. They were giving 50% off to athletes and 30% off to athlete companions! My parents got to Cozumel on Saturday and came to dinner with us. Ingrid's mom showed us the "Inspiration Stick" and all of our charms on it. She got a fish necklace for me.