Cozumel Ironman- NOV 29, 2015 .....PRE-RACE
And it look like a major rock concert.
Thousands of hyped-up triathletes and their supporters getting organized, Huge concert speakers are pumping tunes, eager volunteers are everywhere. Complete organized chaos.
We walk under the huge "Bike Exit" banner, past the Pros' gorgeous bikes and over to where the rest of us humble humans have our bikes.
We have ours amongst the 2500 others. Ours are flat black, carbon copies (literally), of more famous bikes, made in China, and mail ordered off eBay. But still great bikes though! Others here are spectacularly beautiful (and expensive ) bikes. At a rough guess about $5-6 million worth of bikes sitting has been in the lot overnight. Security must have been tight!
Ready to Go
Check the tires, fill water bottles, load food onto the bikes, hand off our Special Needs bags, run to the PortAPotty and hop on buses to the swim start at the Presidential Hotel. It's a huge marina, hosting 2500 tri-geeks and hundreds of volunteers.
We hit the PortAPotty...again (pre-race jitters) strip down to our swim gear, hand off the last bag and head to the corrals. In previous years the swim was a mass start. 2500 people hit water at once and scrap it out. One veteran described as being in a washing machine.
Now it's a rolling start. Pros first, then Age Group, organized by fastest swimmers first. This minimizes passing and collisions. Very welcome! But it takes time, about an hour to get everyone in the water. The last swimmers suffered more wind, higher waves and one person took 3 hrs 20 min. That's brutal.