Interested in doing this race, and would like to know what people who raced there think about the water. Unfortunately, I have a very sensitive stomach that has ruined many races for me. St. Croix’s water was way over chlorinated (tasted like pool water) for me and left me throwing up through the bike, ultimately destroying my race.
Thanks for your help,
Chris
I haven’t raced there but have dove there quite a bit over the past 15 years.
Are you talking water where you swim or water you drink (possibly given to you on the course)?
I had no problems with the water from either venue. Only issue i had at Cozumel was the special needs for bike (bags out of order), but i am sure it will be much smoother this year.
Talking bout the drinking water. Thanks for helping.
Talking bout the drinking water. Thanks for helping.
I am a mexican and my best advise is for you to drink only bottled water. The water given at the races should be OK.
Sergio
When showering, I noticed the water is a mixture of fresh and salt water. Presumably, the tap water is the same, but I didn’t drink any. Bring your own food and drink for the race lead up. Race water was bottled, but watch out for volunteers on the run. Some put ice in cups, then water on ice instead of handing you the bottle. Enjoy the local cuisine after the race.
all the drinking water/cooking supply(including ice) on Cozumel is purified.
According to mycozumel.com: Although Cozumel’s water supply is chlorinated to some extent, you should never drink the tapwater. (This includes anywhere in the Yucatan, by the way–even if you are staying at a major resort with it’s own filtration system.) Vacation rentals provide bottled water in 5 gallon water cooler jugs and some hotels provide small bottles each day. You should drink that. In addition, the bottled water is made via osmosis and tastes great and isn’t salty and hard like the tapwater.
My rookie mistake: Having only raced in North America, my GF and I avoided the Cozumel water in the lead up to the race, but ate at local restaurants. Revenge: I had a fever and spent much time in the baño all day before the race, and race day. Chewed Imodium three times during the race. My GF was fine until the day after the race, when she developed symptoms that lasted a week. It’s impossible to determine the cause, but in the future, I’ll bring my own pre-race food and drink. I’ll savor the local food after the race.
I did IMCZ this year and the water was fine for me. A few of my friends did suffer some GI distress. The are alot of sea lice in the water and you do suffer from a couple of stings to many little stings.
So are there any places you would recommend eating - hotels? Did you get water at these places? Or do you think it was the water used to make the food? How bout the grocery stores, if I am going to cook is there food safe? Any recommendations would be extremely helpful.
Thanks,
Chris
I drank bottled water but I did eat at the hotel a lot and never had any problems. Mega food store in the middle of town was fine, no problems.
The race was great.
I did IMCZ this year and the water was fine for me. A few of my friends did suffer some GI distress. The are alot of sea lice in the water and you do suffer from a couple of stings to many little stings.
Does sea lice = jelly fish larvae?
I got stung ( bit ??? lol ) a couple of times on Thursday but I was fine for the race, never felt anything. ( sea lice just sounds bad…lol )
I’m from Jersey so I know jellyfish and it was a non factor to me.
We drank bottled beverages exclusively* before, during and after the race. My observation was that the locals drank bottled water.
As jime posted, the Mega market, has pre-packaged foods. There are a few other large markets.
Most of the people in our group didn’t get sick. Possible reasons we had Revenge: There was a storm/flood a few days before the race, and we were biking in knee deep runoff that was rushing through the city streets. We were covered with runoff water mixed with rainwater, some of which was running off of roofs onto us, so it had whatever was on the roofs. Who knows what was in that runoff. It’s possible we ingested some incidental shower water. *One restaurant served our beverages over ice, and we absentmindedly finished half our drinks before realizing. Though we washed our market-bought veggies with bottled water, produce might not have gotten clean. Something from one of the restaurants could have been the culprit. There’s no way to know which, if any of those was the cause. Unless racing with a fever and gastric distress is worth the risks, my recommendation is that you get cautious and delay risks until after the race.