Ironman Cozumel Kona Slots 2018

At about mile 8 during Kona is when I knew I’d be signing up for Ironman Cozumel. I was running what felt like my “normal” Ironman 7:00 pace…but could barely keep it below 8:00s. I knew my run fitness wasn’t back yet (I did take 9 months of no running, and was only on my 4th month back), so figured I’d stay as strong as I could in the moment and hope that 7 more weeks of training could bring my “run” back.

Since this is just the pre-race report, I won’t get into too much detail about how my run played out on race day, but let’s just say that my training indicated I should have been around a 3:10.
Ryan and I raced Ironman Cozumel in 2014 after we both had frustrating performances in Kona 7 weeks prior. Mine was frustrating because I gave up mentally on the bike, Ryan’s was frustrating because he got a penalty on the bike (yep, the most honest guy in the world gets a BS penalty when guys suck off of HIS wheel…). So, we signed up for Ironman Cozumel for redemption, and hopefully to earn our Kona slots.

​Long story short, we both walked away from Ironman Cozumel 2014 with our 2015 Kona tickets punched and shiny new PRs in the swim, bike (for Ryan), AND run. Coz was good to us!

​After we both finished slightly lower than we had hoped in Kona this year (Ryan due to his mechanical that cost him the overall amateur win, me due to just not having my run fitness back yet), we decided that we’d give Cozumel another go in 2016. We didn’t really tell too many people…because, really, who does 4(ish) Ironmans in one year except for the pros?

Happy (elated) but hoping to be closer together next time...

​For me personally, it’s hard to do an Ironman during the school year because missing one day of class time with my students is like missing one full week at any other job in my mind. It’s just hard on me, it’s hard on my kids, and I am just the type of person that hates relying on others to help me out (even though my sub is always the best there isJ). But, after coming off of such a long time of being injured, I knew I had to “strike while the *iron* is hot” (get it?!) and capitalize on my fitness (and not being injured), so we signed up for Ironman Cozumel.
Ryan once again coached me on the run portion, really helping me dial in what we both hoped would be Ironman pace once again. I think I had one bad workout in the 7 weeks between Kona and Cozumel, so I definitely thought my run fitness was back. I’ll go into more detail in the actual race recap, but let me just say here that after coming back from 9 months of no running, expectations should not be as high as I held them, despite having phenomenal workouts. Pure running fitness versus running after an 2.4-mile swim and 113-mile bike (Cozumel is 1 mile long on the bike) is just simply not the same thing. Lesson learned.
I bumped my watts up on the bike (since all rides were done on the trainer thanks to our lovely Chicago weather!) and was feeling stronger than ever. My swim workouts were kind of a hit or miss depending on the day, but I kept reminding myself of how much progress I had made on the swim from May (IMTexas) to July (IMLake Placid) and July to October (Kona) and kept those negative thoughts at a distance.
Fortunately for this school teacher, we had parent/teacher conferences the Monday and Tuesday before race day, so Ryan and I left bright and early on Wednesday morning.

​The travel to Cozumel is quite long:
We flew from O’Hare to Cancun (3.5 hour flight). Then, we took a bus from Cancun to Playa del Carmen (~1hour). Finally, we took a ferry from Playa del Carmen to Cozumel (~45min-50min). Our flight left at 7:05am, and we arrived at our AirBnB at 3:00pm local time (2:00pm Chicago time).

​After getting all checked in with our AirBnB host, Ryan put together our bikes while I unpacked. We hit up the Mega (grocery store) and decided to use today as a day off after being exhausted from the travel. We ended the night with a stop at Palmero’s, a restaurant close to our place followed by a fun light/water show. As tired as we thought we were, we had a tough time sleeping. Luckily, our place had Netflix so we watched the first episode of Stranger Things before heading to bed.

Thanksgiving (Thursday) started off with a late morning wakeup. After sleeping for almost 10 hours (!!!!), we decided to go to our favorite coffee shop from our trip two years back. It once again did not disappoint. Ryan did some coaching work, I did some school work, all while sipping on delicious lattes. By that time, it was nearing noon when packet pickup would begin, so we headed over to the Convention Center. The expo for an Ironman in Mexico is so tiny compared to one in the States that we were in and out in no time.

​We then headed to La Cuisine as we hadn’t really eaten much all day. There was a Thanksgiving special, but I of course opted for breakfast instead. For $9, I got a coffee, fruit, bread (OMG the best ever), a mini salad and an omelet. I sure do love prices in Mexico.
​After our food settled a bit, we rode our bikes to Chankanaab Beach, where Transition 1 is set up (swim exit). Since we didn’t feel like paying $20+ each to get into the beach, we found our own little open area and took turns getting swims in. We rode our bikes back to our place, and headed out for a run. Those 5 miles felt like the longest 5 miles ever (until race day!), so I was lucky to have Ryan chatting away as I was suffering to keep up. I just hoped my legs would come around in a few days.

We once again ended our day with some fabulous food. Kondesa’s is a must-go-to place if you’re ever in Cozumel. Their Guak Trio is amazing: regular guacamole, fruit + bacon guacamole and pumpkin seed guacamole—muy deliciouso! For our main meals, Ryan ordered their version of a BBQ Chicken salad and I ordered the Tuna—neither disappointed.
​On our way home, we came across a cute café and stopped for some coffees. The Chocolatte was incredible!! Highly recommend this place to anyone who loves coffee, chocolate, or especially the combination of the two! We ended the night with three more episodes of Stranger Things. This might have been Ryan’s proudest moment of me for the whole trip: taking time away from work and watching tv like a normal person is something he rarely sees me do, so it was fun to “impress” him ;)

Friday: rest day. Ugh. While necessary and important, I hate taking these days.
Luckily, we started it off with an awesome breakfast at Amparo’s. Not only did this cute place offer free bread and “jams” as appetizers before our breakfasts came out, but we also had free refills on coffee (uncommon in Cozumel).
By the way, if you’re looking for good places to eat, use Trip Advisor as that is preferred over Yelp in Cozumel.

We then rented a scooter (for only $28 for the day!) and decided to try out the beach Chen Rio, recommended by our scooter company. The beach was okay, but when we arrived, one of the employees pointed out our scooter appeared to be leaking oil. There was no cell reception at this beach, so we decided we’d grab a quick bite and then head to the next beach to try and call the rental company.

We ordered some food, and MAN, their fish tacos were so good!

​We bypassed the next beach and headed back to our rental company. After being told our scooter was totally fine, we decided to head to Paradise Beach, where we hung out in 2014.

​Most beaches are $20+ per person to get in, but Paradise only charges $3 per person (though asks that you purchase a food or beverage item, all of which are reasonably priced). This beach also offers fun toys in the water for $18/per person, but Ryan snuck in near the end of the day. Only Ryan would be able to make it across the Ninja Warrior type setup in the water: a guy who had been hanging out at the beach all day said Ryan was the first person he saw make it across, and on his second attempt!

Harder than it looks getting from one trampoline to the other!

I got my massage on the beach ($30 for 40minutes—you really have to bargain with the locals!) before we headed back to drop off the scooter.

​We ended the night with a meal at Le Chef. Their Lobster Bacon Sandwich is seriously to die for. If you’re not a mayonnaise lover, you can request it without (as we did). They really go out of their way to accommodate all requests here! Unfortunately, it started raining so we had to move inside. We noticed that many restaurants in Cozumel tend to have a small inside eating section that never has guests, but then a big backyard type section that is just beautiful and full of guests. So, don’t let the “lack of customers” fool you if you’re exploring the restaurants in Cozumel!
We once again ended the night with 3 more episodes of Stranger Things. Seriously, if you have Netflix, we highly recommend this series.

Saturday morning brought some race nerves for me.
​Luckily, breakfast at Coz Coffee helped ease those nerves slightly. The Mexican Eggs were light yet filling, and the coffee…. Oh man. So they have this Peanut Butter Coffee. And it’s amazing. You can SMELL the peanut butter from like 500 feet away. It was so delicious. They also offer their Mexican Café de Olla, which is their specialty: spiced coffee with hints of cinnamon, clove, molasses and vanilla. We ordered one hot and one cold, and they were great!

​We headed back to our place to load up our gear to bring to both transitions. We met the other guy who was living in our divided house, Vasili, and chatted with him for awhile. He was doing his first Ironman, so it was fun to talk about the course and just triathlon in general.

We biked down to Chankanaab Beach (~10miles away) and racked our bikes. We were able to get into the beach for free today since we were racing, so took the opportunity to do an easy swim. We then alternated turns running, and my legs felt much better than on Thursday thankfully. We took the shuttle back to transition 2 drop off and left our Run bags there.
We stopped at the Mega for some carbs and electrolytes before making our way back to our place to shower before heading out for dinner.

We went to Guido’s as we had just loved the place back in 2014.
Of course we ordered the bread, but I balanced it out with a “Greens” salad as well. After my filet and Ryan’s Margherita pizza were finished, we headed back to our place to watch the final episode of Stranger Things.

​Unfortunately, Saturday night in Cozumel seems to be the night that live bands play.
Since our place was close to the “downtown” area, we could hear the band pretty well despite having all of the windows closed.
Even worse, the band was playing songs from the 90s/2000s, so of course we recognized each song, which kept us from falling asleep.
Luckily, we had three prior nights of quality sleep, so did not let this phase us one bit.
​Before we knew it, it was time to get up and get ready for the long day ahead...