Race Coverage

Katy's Cozumel - Prelude...

Saturday, 07 December 2024 00:10

Ed. This is Part I of a three post race report.

By Katy Bloomquist Freitag

2024 Ironman Cozumel Race Report - I had my "miles for money" day on November 24, 2024, at Ironman Cozumel. (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run).    My past ironman training and competitions were helpful to Scott in preparing for his perimeter ride just as my chasing Scott around on the bike this summer, as he got ready for his 100-mile gran fondo bike race, was helpful to me! First and foremost, congratulations to Scott on a great 100-mile gran fondo bike race- he finished in 4:35, on a very rainy windy day to finish 11/51 in his age group and complete his very first 100-mile bike race!  So very proud of him - I took loads of Facebook live videos of him flying by.    

 This was my 5th  ironman and my 3rd ironman Cozumel.  My last IM Cozumel was in 2022. I had finished in 12:53 in 2022, had a great race in the 55-59 age group. But a week after the race I had emergency..

surgery in Mexico to save my life, ended up having 3 ½ feet of dead intestine taken out. (Side note: International Hospital great but be sure to have ability to pay for surgery.)   I took a substantial amount of time off after that surgery to heal. We then left on Scott’s milesformoney.org journey (11,000 mile charitable cycle perimeter ride of the United States, to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer and schizophrenia) so I had very limited training until June of this year when we returned.    I then promptly managed to crash on my bike, and then sprain my ankle. 

So, my lead into training for this ironman race was not my typical IM prep. I felt less prepared, under powered on the bike and not as fast on run. So, my event goals were to 1) stay out of medical tent, and 2) smile and stay calm, happy, on the whole course.  I was very excited as fellow miles for money team member, Julie Halvorson, newly back from Nice for world championships, had also agreed to wear a ZERO prostate cancer Zoot brand kit, so I felt like we were a team going into the race!  We both did the race to raise donations for zero prostate cancer and give us something to focus on other than ourselves.  (Scott continues to treat for metastatic stage 4 prostate cancer and is doing very well.) 

  1) pre-race

I had to really prioritize getting away from my lawyer  work to try to get rid of my stress headache and to actually relax and rest. As a lawyer with my own business the advantage is a I can work remote, but the disadvantage is I rarely take time away from work. I tend to go into races over tired and stressed, which does not help me for an ironman. We got to Cozumel very early for Scott to acclimate to conditions for the 100-mile bike race, and for me to acclimate for the IM. I also had the benefit of training on the course and in the ocean, which is super helpful. Going in I knew how hot and humid it could be, how windy the “wild” side could get, and how wavy the ocean could be.   I had switched to tubeless tires, so I also got time to adjust to that – which was a good thing as I had a major blow out. I also lost a part to my bike wheel in an early morning ride where I tried to set up in the dark, requiring NOW sports and Mike Bieber to send me a backup wheel with Julie Halvorson. I had so many bike challenges I was just grateful to have a working bike the day of the race! Thank you to our Cozumel friend Mark Lindsey who was great at helping us solve bike problems, and to the Bike box in Cozumel.

2) race day 

After a few days of an “el norte” (northern wind that shuts the port down and causes rough swimming conditions on the west side) race day was less hot, humid but windier than previous races. We “only” had a temperature of 80 with a 67-degree dew point, rather than mid 80s with a 76-degree dew point. These temperatures actually felt cool to me which told me I had indeed acclimated to the warm humid conditions. The day was however expected to be windy and  It was the windiest of the three IM I have done in Cozumel- but not as windy as I had experienced in training. ...