Chiapas, Mexico 15K Open Water World Cup Race Report

I know this has taken a long time to show up on my blog...but if you read the complete story below...I hope you will understand! Enjoy! I will start the story of my weekend on Thursday, March 31st. The day started at 6am, when I woke up and grabbed my bags, then headed outside and waited for my teammate Joe to wake up and drive me to the Mexican boarder. It was really nice of him to get up early when he could have slept in and rested for the hard bike ride at 9am...thanks Joe! After the short drive down 805 to the last American exit...I got out, grabbed my one bag, and started walking. I found a shabby little area that looked like it headed to Mexico, there was one small gate to walk through, and then I was there: In TIJUANNA! The taxi stand was close by and I loaded into one and got a nice ride to the airport (this way it cost $13). I only had a few problems in the airport but I just acted like a dumb Engish speaking American (which I am) and people usually just pointed me in the right direction! The flight from TIJ to Mexico City was a little over 3 hours. I think I read a book and slept a bit. Then it was time to find DAD! The Mexico City Airport is anything but well mark and easy to understand...we were both just wandering around and managed to run into each other...he said I looked TAN:)! It was great to see a part of my family after 3 months of being away! We boarded our next flight to Tuxtula Gutierriez and sat back to enjoy the views of Mexico. The airport in Tuxtula was so small...we just kinda exited the plane onto the tarmack and then wandered into the terminal...luckly, there were actually people from the race waiting for us in the terminal so we grabbed our bags and headed to the hotel. We were provided with translators who helped us with the day's schedule. Most of the other swimmers were already at the hotel and they had gone to see the Canyon (race site) earlier that day. When we got to the hotel, we relaxed for a bit, grabbed some food, and then got on a bus with all the other athletes. They drove us all to the middle of the city, a little park place, where they intorduced us to a huge crowd and then played some traditional music...but it was late and most of us just wanted to go home and rest. At dinner, Dad and I made plans with some of the race people to drive us to the Canyon on Friday so that I could see the race site and try swimming in it. The next morning, they had a van waiting...there were also 2 Mexican swimmers who had not been the previous day who joined us. The drive to the dam was about an hour but I got to see the country side and I experienced a bit of culture shock. It was the dry season in the area we were in so it kinda made everything look sad and dead, but I don't think green plants could have made much of a difference in some areas. At the dam, we got into a boat (much like the ones we would be using the next day) and motored up the canyon about half way (7K). Here, we got our swim stuff on and jumped in the beautiful water that was a perfect temperature for swimming and racing! I swam for about 45 minutes, taking the time to adjust to my surroundings, and enjoy the scenery because I knew I would not be able to 'enjoy the scenery' on race day! We got back in the boat, motored back to the dam, got back in the vans, and drove back to the hotel. Spent most of the mid-day relaxing in the room and then attempted to get a taxi to a pool around 4 in the afternoon. That was a disaster, the taxi took us to the wrong pool where we had to pay a fortune to swim. I made the decision to forget that, get a taxi home, and swim a few fun laps in the little hotel pool. Getting a perfect swim in this afternoon wasn't that important...a 15K pace is a little different than a 400m pace in a pool and I was on a much lower stress level than I would be if the next day was a pool event:)! RACE MORNING: about 20 buses were lined up outside, some for the World Cup athletes and all the rest for the 150+ people who were competiting in the 5K age group swim. This time, we drove to a place above the canyon to load into our boats. We got body marked at the docks (I was number 34), and found our boats in the water that were marked with our # and our country flag. There were only 2 American's in the race so it was easy to find mine! As we pushed off from the docks, there were 5 people in boat #34: the boat driver, the Fina judge, a translator, my dad, and I. For the next 20 minutes, we all enjoyed a high speed ride into the canyon...there were about 50+ boats all going at full throttle to the race start; 33 boats had swimmers then there was the lead boat, the press boats, the judge boats, the VIP boats, the medic boats, and plenty of others! Suddenly the boats slowed down and it was time to get ready! Two of the judge boats strung a line between the boats for a start line. One by one, swimmers started diving off their boats and doing a few warm up strokes, and then heading over to the start line. I was all greased up with body glide to prevent suit rubs and hydrated to the max with Gatorade and water. I had 2 Clif Shots shoved into my suit legs (I was wearing a FS2 kneeskin, Speedo of course:). The water was a bit chilly this morning, probably because the sun wasn't shining and the winds were blowing about 50kph!!! I stuck to my race plan at the start: line up next to the fastest guy and hang on his feet...I was right next to Petar when they finally fired the gun...and we were OFF! Of course the first K or 2 is just fighting it out for position...I was on Petar's feet for the very begining, but then I noticed a group veer off to teh left so I hooked on their feet and they pushed the pace up a bit to distance themselves from the slower group. After about 3 or 4K, what was left of the main pack, joined our little group, and we had a group of 13 swimmers with 4 of them women. The whole 'feeding' thing was pretty easy to do, I practiced with dad the day before when we were testing the race course. The most dangerous part was the wind and when it would push a boat right into the line of swimmers...they cut the engine and just drifted through! The wind was also creating MAJOR waves...in a 400m CANYON...it was like swimming through the first 30 meters of the ocean...but for 15K!

More to come in next post!