Ironman Cozumel - Warming up

It's getting close!!

enormous map

Yesterday after my early morning blogging, I caught up with Dan and his parents for breakfast then headed RIGHT ACROSS the street to catch the IMCOZ merchandise tent when it opened. Dan and I were lucky enough to get a peek at some early Christmas presents from Gale and Lew  :)

When we got back I went for another short swim with my other pair of goggles.  This time, leaking wasn't so much the issue, but fogging was - and of course I had forgotten to pack my SBR sports Foggles - DARN!  Ugggh  I will try Lew's goggles today, and if that doesn't work, I will try to buy some new ones at the expo  :(  The nose issue wasn't as bad as yesterday, but still irritating.  I really don't want to try a nose plug b/c I breathe out through my nose underwater (it might be a good idea though), but I may try the vaseline trick - thanks Cara and AJ for the suggestions!!

Swimming with the dolphins was about a block from our hotel, so we headed over in the afternoon.  We were supposed to arrive at noon, and the event would start at 12:20....we ended up WAITING until after 1pm.  I was a little frustrated (we wanted to ride an easy loop of the bike course before it got dark) but let it go because we are on VACATION and we are going to get to see dolphins!  :)

I don't have pictures to show you, since they didn't allow cameras when you were in the dolphin area and they had Kodak photographers taking your picture costing $29 US a pop - no thanks.  but here are some I took before.

It was pretty fun though!  Everyone in our group got to hug, kiss, dance, pet, and belly-ride with the dolphin.  At the end, all the dolphins did a fun little jump show for us!


Although it was fun and entertaining, the dolphin cove seemed very very tiny compared to the endless ocean that the dolphins could be playing in, and the trainers even told us that it was their job to keep the dolphins happy in captivity because they are prone to depression.  Really sad and I don't know I feel about that.

After a quick lunch at the hotel, Dan, Lew, and I went back across the street to the convention center with our bikes to pump our tires up and register (opened at 12 while we were at the dolphin cove).  Registration went pretty smoothly- it was different than other races because we had to show our passports and they photo-copied them!  We also got some pretty sweet jackets, and I really like the hand-bottle!

Cool artwork at the Expo

Dan forgot to pack his helmet, and Lew needed a new one, so they picked one at the expo that Lew would use after Dan raced with it this week.  Finally after that we took off (around 4PM).

No more than 5 minutes into our ride I got a flat on my back tire.  Awesome.  The tube was pinched because I wasn't very careful while pumping it up from a completely deflated state.  Although I am completely comfortable changing a flat tire with my wheels, I got frustrated and flustered because Dan was telling me what to do (trying to be helpful but I didn't want to hear it- I wanted to get the damn thing done myself), and there were people watching me.  Just getting the stupid back wheel on took me forever, which usually is not even an issue.  After TEN MINUTES (embarrassing), we finally got on our way.

View of bike course- southern tip about to head East

But guess what?  The roads are AWESOME here.  At least the 10 miles of it that we saw on the west side of the island.  We didn't get to the windy part, but from what I understand the roads are nice throughout.  My legs felt like CRAP for the first 10 minutes of the ride - heavy, working too hard for the effort I was putting out, like the thousands of riding miles I've put on my legs this year didn't mean anything.  But after about 10 minutes, I opened up and felt GREAT!!  I wanted to do 30-40 minutes at Ironman pace, so we split up for a bit.  My goal pace felt EASY going out and back (so it wasn't because of a tailwind), so I am definitely EXCITED for the bike.  It's going to be FUN!  The question is whether or not I change into bike shorts or not.  I am definitely comfortable in them, and I'm nervous that because I haven't been riding as often as I should that my "seat" won't be happy with Tri-shorts... I'll decide after short test ride on Saturday.

Thanks for making us feel at home!  And the Turkey loves my Kestrel and First Endurance!

Got showered and ready and headed 1 mile to "downtown" to eat at "The World's Smallest Hard Rock"... we had been here before when we stayed in Cancun with my parents and visited the island one day, and yup, it's still tiny!

Gale has the Hard-Rock All-Access card...gotta show it off!

love...and margaritas.

We enjoyed another margarita, and after dinner walked around the shops a little bit and headed back to the hotel.  I had SUCH a taste for that delicious banana ice cream, but couldn't find it ANYWHERE...so I asked my new friend Alejandro if he could find some for me...and he did!!  MADE MY NIGHT!!  I devoured it with a side of the delicious resort coffee and went to sleep in yummy bliss  :)

Lucha libre!

The island is SO excited and accommodating!

Today we are going to Aventura Spa Palace on the mainland for the day then going to the Ironman dinner tonight- should be fun!!

I love all the comments and support - Thanks everyone!