Cancun Ironman 70.3 2nd place! Yes!

Cancun, Mexico September 20th, 2009.
6am and I'm at the transition zone in the parking lot of The Aquatic Park, Wet'n Wild.

We are just 1 hour before the start of the Cancun Ironman 70.3 2009. Today after so many races I feel nervous again, maybe because my inner type A Triathlete, knows that especially today I "have" to race well for so many reasons, first because is the only Ironman 70.3 in Mexico, and second, after an excellent start of my 2009 season I will race against the whole Mexican Triathlon Community, many of them being this race their primary target or key race of the year. So this time I "HAVE" to do well. So I check my gear, once again and we all start walking the 300 meters to the swim start at NIZUC Beach, the time flies as I put on the speedsuit, warm up, and Paola shoots some pictures, before I know it, I am at the starting line and the siren goes off, normally my heart rate is about 80 bpm but this time reaches 3 digits. And the reason is that in the last 3 races, the swim has been very violent the whole time, specially in Hawaii and the X-Terra, so the last couple of months I've been working in my swimming, and it's time for the truth. The Siren goes off and here we go! I swim as planned, fast as I can for the first 200 meters, I was expecting violence but this time after the first buoy I see that I left behind the chaos. I realize that now I have no one around to push my pace, and I will have to keep up the pace alone, so I do my best to keep up the pace and I exit the water in 29:56, not bad knowing (after the race) that the Elite group and the Overall winner, Oscar Galindez swim time was 27:23.

Already on the Bike is time to work my strenght, that is, and has been always the bike. In the first 5 kms I pass at least 20 guys and when I reach the first aid station I found myself alone, at this point the course consisted of 2 laps of 40kms to complete 85k and then back t2. For the next 20 kms I ride alone, and as I was getting closer and closer to the turnaround point, I realize that I was in an excellent position overall, I see the first pro, then the second, and then Oscar Galindez with another 4 guys, I try to count everyone, and I get to the turnaround surprised and of course very happy, seeing the there were no more than 15 in front of me. After the turnaround I pass 2 of the 3 Women that were in front of me, the remaining one, was Michellie Jones, then in the 45k mark I see that I'm getting closer to a couple of the guys but I also realize that I have at least 5 guys hanging on my wheel, very annoying by the way.

And I have no other option than keep up the pace, hoping to leave some of them behind. At least the Race Marshall saw a couple of them and penalized them with a 3 Minute stop, but the others just kept drafting behind me. The first 40k split was 1:01 and as I said I had no other option to keep up this high pace, even knowing that I would have to pay later.

So I get to t2 in 2:22 and start the run with my passengers haha! in the first mile, finally they blow up, the split is 7 minutes, second mile 7 minutes again, and then I found myself chatting with Chris Davy from Florida, he is the guy who was second place last year, he was looking strong and he confirms my idea that the first place was ahead of us, a guy from Argentina, that I think was having breakfast with Oscar Galindez, it was in this 3rd mile that Chris left me.

I was not sure if he pushed the pace or I was slowing down, so after checking the split in 7:30 I knew I will soon start to pay that 2:22 Bike split in that kind of heat. The next 2 miles were hard but I think that realizing that I was running in 10 or 12th place overall helped a lot. But after mile 5 the real crisis started, I couldn't drink water, I had some abdominal pain and the Gatorade made me feel like trowing up, so I had to walk at the aid station in mile 6, bad choice because there was Paola waiting for me, she shouted as loud as she could "keep running! keep running!" so I had to run again, then I had to walk two more times and after mile 10 is when I started to feel good again, I pushed the pace again and there I see Chris Davy, he was not running as he left me, you could see he was in bad shape and maybe in the middle of he's own crisis, so I got behind him, trying no to alert him with my presence and I matched his footsteps, I knew that no one was closing on me, so I rested there for a couple of minutes, trying to prepare for the battle for second place, so after the marker of mile 12, I attacked, running as fast as I could for what seemed like an eternity, later I knew that from the marker of mile 13 there was another 2 miles left!!!! so as my friend Erich said in his Blogspot, it was the Cancun Ironman 72.8.

At the end I feel very happy with my second place, because this might be the hardest race I've ever done. Next time that I wish for a hot race, I will think twice......

It's been a Fast and Crazy 2009

After the Hawaii Ironman 70.3 last May I knew that something had changed in my view of Life.

Now..... after reading my last blog I realize that the change of perspective of "everything" started almost 3 years ago, and maybe a couple more. I was just coming out of a dark stage in my life and at the same time I was starting to take Triathlon more seriously, it was October 2005 and I went to the ITU World Championships in Honolulu, and after that, in December I went to Australia to train & race for almost 3 months, it was in Melbourne where I found out that the 70.3 Distance was better for me, and specially I liked it much more than the Olympic Distance. I returned to Mexico to find out that things could get worse than they were before, so I was forced to quit training like in those last 10 months, then......... Again I found the way out to much brighter and new life, but in those 3 years (2006, 2007, and 2008) I almost didn't train, at least not for more than 4 months straight, so.......while I was enjoying life again as it is supposed to be, I forgot about my passion "Triathlon" and it was in November while I was in California with my wife Paola where I think that the real "change" began, and I mean the one that has to do with this Blog haha! (I see that I entered existentialism waters ) anyway, after that trip to L.A. I started training again with a new energy, and I remembered that last race in Torquay, Australia, so I signed for the Lonestar Half Ironman in Galveston TX, I shed 11 kilos that I gained of the Dolce Vita, that's 24 pounds! and went on to a PR of 4:34 in that distance.

After that race I planned my 2009 racing season with most of the races being Olympic Distance in Mexico and finishing up with Ironman Cancun 70.3 in September, it's funny how things never come out the way you planned, but it really depends on your point of view or attitude if the change in the outcome is for good or bad.

2 months later I was racing the Hawaii Ironman 70.3 and earning a Clearwater slot, another month and I was getting a 4th place overall finish in Half Ironman race in Alchichica, Mexico. (missing the 3rd by 56 seconds) Then...in August I raced The Xterra Mexico Global Tour without much expectations, I was more than happy of placing 2nd and earning a slot for Maui, so as soon as we were back in home, we started planning our trip back to Hawaii. Time went by, some 10k races, a PR of 38:30, and a Half Marathon in 1:28 at 158bpm so I decided not to go to Maui and focus in the 70.3 distance and Clearwater.

About those Olympic races, none........ Why do races that I've done over and over again since 1995? Why not go to new places? new races in the distance that I like so much, why not even change place to live? I mean...... If I am thinking different, why not really different? I am about to be 40 and I never felt so good in my life, so instead of thinking what I would like to do, I will better do stuff and write about it in my new 2009 blogspot and website.

I don't want to sound to deep or like Scott Tinley, but I really think that in life we have to do more and dream less, this way our dreams will come true.