Zitat:
Zitat von Kiwi03
(Beitrag 313812)
Abgefahren, wie sahs denn da wohl mit der Plattenquote aus bei den Strassen?
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http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.c...611686#2611686
Had a blast! I would recommend the race for anyone looking for a fast course. It is a little weather permitting, but if you are OK with heat, it is a flat and fast course.
The asphalt was very smooth and clean, They even removed the speed bumps for us, and put fresh asphalt down. I did not see a pothole, and I have never seen so few people with flats - maybe about 4.
Lots of gels, gatorade and fruit on the aid stations, excellent post-race massage and medical staff.
I got my special need bags in about 20 seconds each time. Learn to say it in Spanish, and you are good to go. Remember, you are abroad: don't expect everyone to speak English ;)
I would recommend getting there a few days before, to get used to the heat. The more days ahead, the better, especially if you are from a cold region.
The race day had the absolute best weather of the 8 days I stayed on the island. Finally a partial cloud cover day, with smooth sea.
Yes, the longest stretch of the swim was with the prevailing current. Most people swam about 10-15 min faster than usual.
On the Thursday training swim, I could barely reach the buoy, due to the strong head on current, many swimmers had to give up and turn around.
I befriended a local divemaster that clued me in on a counter current going along the beach on the way out to the first buoy. I did a few floating tests in a few spots on the day before the race, and realized he was right! Close to the beach, I was actually drifting up towards the buoy!
When the pros started, I saw one of them take this line, and gain a huge gap to the rest by the first turn. That was Tyler Butterfield from Bermuda, he probably knows a thing or two about island currents...
I was not the only one to observe this, a lot of us spread out halfway down the pier. It was a little longer to swim, but the current definitely made it worth it. I looked up before the buoy and realized I was at that point in about the top 50 of the field (normally MOP swimmer), ended up swimming a very easy :59.
The bike was a little windy, but that is the same for everyone. Hard going North, easy going West and South; Sat in 53 X 12 in the long tailwind sections.
I did cuss out a very obvious draft pack of about 20 as I passed them on the first loop: "Fucking cheaters!", " You are a disgrace to the sport" and "Who's gonna carry you on the run?"
That was all I could think of at the time...
I saw the officials on mopeds a lot of times, and heard there was a list of people DQ'ed for not stopping in the penalty tents after getting the red card. Overall there was much less drafting than I expected, maybe the 90 degree strong crosswind eliminated that problem? The weak ones got sorted out Darwin style.
The run was awesome, the crowd downtown was very loud and encouraging, felt like a Tour de France hillclimb, at times!
There is normally a fiesta downtown on Sundays, huge crowds of locals and the tourists were partying. I kept hearing shouts of "Animo!" (Go!) and "Chele!" (Beer!). That's the spirit!
The sun set about 5, and the mosquitoes came out like crazy - a tip for the RD next year; have mosquito spray at all the aid tables for this.
Getting the bike there was a "learning experience":
I flew Delta, and did not want to pay the $300 fee for the bike. UPS quoted me $500 to ship the box, FedEx $280.
So, I FedExed the box two weeks ahead to make sure it got there in time. The FedEx person warned me that anything made in China or Taiwan could get a hefty import tax, even if you just were going to use it yourself for a few days. That did not happen, but the customs officials found another way to get some extra holiday cash.
I knew something was up, when the tracking info read "customs delay" for several days.
After a few phone calls and a trip to the Cancun customs office, they told me my race gel packets constituted an "illegal import of food products"! They offered two solutions: They could either return the parcel to the US, or destroy it!
Obviously not an option as I was there, and was going to race in four days. They had the screws, and knew how to turn it.
My fault for having undeclared gel packets in the box... I probably should not mention anything about bribes or corruption with my name attached, but let's just say I got the bike out of customs two days before the race.
In the mean time, the President of the local bike club lent me his own Trek 2200 to train on, and I did a spin class with them. Very cool to meet the local bikers. There were 8 IM participants from the island of Cozumel, and many of them competed in a road race around the island two weeks before.
Turns out the president was a "wheeler and dealer" a bit like myself, and bought my 2004 Aluminium Cervelo P2K after the race. It was a win-win; I got way more than the bike was worth in the US, ($1500), I did not have to pay anything to transport it home. He avoided the import tax, that makes bikes really expensive in Mexico.
So all in all I got home actually making money on the trip, lowered my PR from 11:45 (IMWI '08) to 10:44 (IMCOZ '09).
As usual, every journey turns into an adventure with me...I am still on a "race high" three days later!
