It's a great race.. I ran it in 2012 and it was so much fun. The crowd was great.

Yes - very hot and flat!

Save the tacos until AFTER the race!

Have fun!

take the tequila shots offered at the run turnaround. every lap. draft packs will form on the bike. only you can decide how to respond to that. I prepped by having a space heater and humidifier running for trainer sessions, in addition to going to bikram yoga 1x/week. seemed to help me not feel too hot. fun destination race.

Racing

Raced in 2016.

I did some sauna heat prep work, and one or two trainer rides long sleeved no fan (but very little effort). Stated about 2 weeks out as I recall.

Get some de soto cooling gear, including the cap. Although somewhat humid (but not that bad late November) the airflow on the bike will help cool you down. If you see cloud cover ahead, get water on the cooling gear and you'll actually feel cold. Shit ton of aid stations - every 10 or so miles on the bike and every K on the run - so for run I carried a bottle and put ice in as needed.

Great race, enjoy the venue.

Thanks for the tips. I'll check out the de Soto gear. I'd been looking forward to seeing Sebi race in the pro field but just saw on his Twitter that he is withdrawing with a hip injury.

I will be there, once again. I have done the race 5x already (10,11,12,13,14), and very excited to be back for 2019. I love Cozumel, I love racing in Mexico, and this a great race.

I am happy to offer an answers or tips, let me know.

Thanks,
Christian W.

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Team Zoot-Texas, and Pickle Juice

Hi Christian,

Cozumel will be my 2nd full but got a quick question on wheel selection ! Been running on my Zipp 808's this summer whilst training in the UK. So me and the Zipps have been through some challenging conditions - last few rides in September/October had plenty of gusty wind, rain, flooded roads etc - so l got accustomed to a few bumps on the front wheel ( l had ridden on a set of Zipp 404's before ) but l have noted from the previous athlete guides for Cozumel that one side of the bike course has potential cross winds - how intense can these get and should l bring my 404 front wheel as a back up if its blowing boots ?

Not Christian,

But IM Coz will be my first full.
I live and train here, just yesterday i did 140 km ride around the island. Winds can be really bad it really depends on a day, until the day of the race we wont know for sure.

Also not Christian

Check out windguru Cozumel. What we want on race day is a southeast wind which would push us up the east coast and across the island, with much of the headwind section protected What we don’t want is wind out of the northwest which might potentially affect the swim. What we’ll probably get is winds out of the northeast. But as above you won’t know until race day (or a couple before).

I was fine with a 60/90 when I did it and I was told the winds were pretty standard. I wouldn’t want a 90 up front tho. Seems a marginal gain over a 60. But if you can transport both options are always good

Dear Definitely Not Christian ( poor chap - l owe him an apology ! )

Thanks for the advice - will pack the Zipp 404 front wheel and will refrain from calling everyone Christian on the cycle course !!

From my experience living here for years, there will be winds for sure. Usually its more intense on one side of the island. If Norte( locally known windy stormy weather) comes in , swim will suck but bike should be "easier". If opposite then bike sucks; also it depends how fast you are. Wind tends to pick up after 10 am no matter what even on a calm day, its just the question how much. I have a feeling that due to the configuration of the island you have always some head on wind but the "wild" side of the island is the worst for sure. I did 2 laps yesterday and there were winds and pre storm weather on the "wild" side. Wasnt unmanageable but for sure i am not looking forward to that option on a race day. Its such a weird situation here winds and currants change in matter of minutes, have seen some crazy things here.

Use the mangroves on the right side of the road to help block the wind on the back side of the island. It will not get you completely sheltered, but it definitely helps. However, if you go this route, watch out for th road reflectors on the ground. I almost went down when I hit one while trying to put my BTA bottle back in.

Chris - thanks, this WindGuru site is pretty cool. For reference - what would be considered a "strong" wind day vs. normal day in Cozumel? Just trying to calibrate relative to the forecast the next couple of days. Looks like most of the week is northeasterly direction, as you said to expect.

Yeah it's a good resource. Remember it's in knots though which is (I just had to look up) equal to 1.15 mph. I'd say any time you're getting into the orange or red on that site which is over 20 knots it's getting very spicy

Hopefully doesn't screw anyone else up, but I actually found that the exposed east side wasn't really all that bad, and not the worst. The worst for me was the looooong straightaway, about 18 K, heading southeast on the map, just before the aid station and left turn. I Hopefully knowing this going in will be less of a mindf**ck for me, not even really sure why it got to me so much and more than the 20+K section on the coast.

Chris,

you are very experienced so what ever comes you will be ready for it. I know the part that you are talking about, its a stretch from Palancar beach to Punta Sur. Yesterday there was zero wind there but as soon as you make a left turn it was head on. My observations are just based on my daily experience here and that says that we wont know until the race day and that has potential to change through out the day. Thats why i would count on a windy conditions. I am planning to do GFNY this weekend that is taking place here and the organizers are making KOW sponsored segment for those 20k on the east coast. Here its still hurricane season until Nov 30th so weather is very unstable and changes 10 times a day.

very helpful - thank you

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Dan Kennison

facebook: @triPremierBike
http://www.PremierBike.com
http://www.PositionOneSports.com

You are welcome Dan,

I am not experienced triathlete so i cant help anyone in those regards but if anyone needs any more info about the island,conditions etc. i am more then willing to try to help.

As i live here permanently for past 7 years i get some knowledge about how things go here.

How are the road surface conditions? Smooth, rough, cracks, potholes?

After you complete the wind section and turn left toward start line do you get a tailwind or is the wind blocked?

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Dan Kennison

facebook: @triPremierBike
http://www.PremierBike.com
http://www.PositionOneSports.com

In general surface is good, you need to be careful with road reflectors. Bumpy part is the one that goes through the town itself, on that stretch there are potholes and road is mostly uneven surface; that is maybe 10k of the whole lap.Also to make a note i do this weekly and never got a flat but through town is bumpy. If the wind will be from that open ocean east side we will get some tail wind but it doesnt last for long, maybe 15 min until you reach the town.

Hi All,

As for wheel selections, I typically (and will be again for this year) using tri-spoked wheels front and back. Yes, from Punta Sur, to the transverse road is typically head/cross winds. 3x in the past the transverse road was a tailwind, 1x is was neutral, and 1x was a headwind. Road surfaces (up until 2014 is all I can say about) has been very good. Keep in mind that in the late afternoon, it has rained quite hard while on the run course. Done the run several times when the streets flood and shoes are drenched. The swim should be good, as the current is usually in the swim direction.

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Team Zoot-Texas, and Pickle Juice

I can confirm this,if there will be rain the streets will be flooded. The town doesnt have typical draining system but everything is designed that all the water from the town streets are going to the main run course street and from there to the sea that is just few feet away. So expect drenched shoes if that will be the case.

My shoes will be drenched by then anyway :) And when it rains there it RAINS. And then it stops and just gets humid again.

Slight change of topic - but how would you assess the "usual" impact of current assist on the swim? Is it good for 10 sec per 100 yards relative to your pool times? More/less? And do people typically self seed with that benefit included or on their normal pool pace? Trying to gauge whether I should seed more aggressively than usual with the expected current...

Zero to all of the above. You do not know until you get in the water what the current will be doing, and then it will change mid swim. Don't fall for the "downcurrent" swim sales job. The prevailing current for diving (out on the reefs) is actually in the opposite direction, but nearer to shore there are eddies that form.

2016, the current was strong against us for a bit over a mile, then super fast with us for the rest. I went 1:03 and the last mile was about 14 minutes (give or take). I was about typical for my usual hour IM swim, most people said they were :20 slower.

in 2017 I it was super fast and loads of folks swimming 45s and 50s, none of the top 10 M 50-54 went over an hour.

2018 top 10 M 50-54 AG were swimming high 50s to 1:15, most over 1:00 (winner went 1:15)

Long story short, seed where you think you will swim regardless of current. If you are a strong swimmer, a counter current will affect you less and a favorable one will help everyone. If a weaker swimmer, unfavorable current will have a greater affect, and favorable one will float you to the finish

Also, swim can be a little disconcerting as it's a long, straight point to point. There are three landmarks on shore you can use ( i believe they are pretty much the only structures along the stretch of coast)

First is the Intercontinental, just past the marina opening and about 1/2 mile in

Next is the Landmark Condos, about a mile in.

Third is the Fiesta Americana Hotel, about 1.5 miles in.

From there you can see the pyramid thatched roof huts of the finish at Chankanaab

Google the four properties above for images, you can see what they look like from the water. Pretty distinctive properties .