Cancun 70.3 September, 2010

Five days before the event I finally made the decision to race and asked Michelle from Tri The World Travel to book me a ticket and was able to bunk in with Luke and Lucy Bell for my time there.

The previous weekend I had a big block of training as I wasn’t planning on racing so went in with the attitude of any other race which was to give my best shot and take it is an adventure!

Jeff was away for work and I was looking after Kaisley and had some bonding time as it is usually me who goes away. She loved it, as we went running, to Dog Park, to the school track to run around it and chase the crows (her, not me!) but she went looking for Jeff every morning and checked his side of the bedroom to see if he was there!

Wednesday morning after our run, Carla came to pick her up and look after her for the five days I was away. She loves Carla so it wasn’t too hard to say goodbye (Carla trains her too-K9sandiego).

The first evening in Cancun, Luke, Lucy and I ventured down the street to find somewhere to eat and came across two extremely ‘out of it’ people on the opposite side of the road doing some  X rated moves…we couldn’t believe it and neither could any of the other passer by’s!

Day two we swam in one of the seven pools at the resort and I went for a run straight after. Boy that certainly sweated out any travel lethargy I had in me. It was about 11am by the time I got out, the warmest part of the day and I came back looking like I had just gotten out of the pool!

Lucy found a baby turtle on its back in the sand from the baby turtle release the night before and after bringing it up to the pool to show us, she swam with it out into the ocean and released it.

Day 3 was a little spin in the searing heat with Luke to spin my legs out which still felt terrible from training and travel, a short run and then the job of putting the bike into T1. It was a sweaty adventure but got it done and went back to the hotel to have a cool off swim and watch the storm come in.

Race Day-the wind was up early and the sky was dark and stormy to begin but gradually cleared as the day went on.

The water was nice and warm but had some reeds until it got deeper which made for fun running through.

Top 4 out of the water and a long transition run, through the water park and onto the Wilier Cento Crono for the 56mile ride in the Cancun countryside.

The wind picked up and there was some good drafting going on behind me but the draft buster didn’t seem to care as he road along beside for quite some time.

The clouds were clearing and it was getting a little warmer and the start of the run became really steamy, very quickly. The heavens opened and we were soaked with a short downpour before the sun came back out and the steam rose from the concrete. The temps rising even more as I ran through each aid station grabbing ice and the little sealed bag of water they were handing out.

My legs were a little fatigued from a big weekend of training the previous weekend (as I hadn’t intended on racing due to a month out in August with bruised ribs) but was glad to be hot and preparing for the heat for Kona.

I came in 3^rd and cooled down under the hoses they had for athletes to shower before getting an awesome post race massage.

I dried off pretty quickly and decided to ride back to the hotel, pack my gear up, shower and relax on one of the hammocks under a couple of palm trees and read my book.

Luke told the recreation guy to rally me up to join the other holidaying people for a game of beach volleyball…..I declined but thanked him and Luke for being so thoughtful!!!