Race Day!

Sunday, September 18, 2016
Alarms went off at 5:15am! This was such an important day-the whole reason for traveling to Cozumel-that everyone set their alarm the night before to make sure we wouldn't miss it! This was the day that Jayme would compete with triathletes from across the globe in the World Championship!

Sunrise over the marina

Everyone was up, dressed, with breakfast eaten, and we were out the door at 5:45am. We walked a little over a mile in the dark to the race venue and Jayme went to set up her transition area. When everything was set, we walked to where she would begin her race with a swim in the ocean. The sun rose over the marina as she was warming up, and she started swimming at 7:08am. They swam in a rectangle, following the buoy lines off the coast from where we watched. The current on the longest part of the swim was so strong that the race officials had shortened the swim course earlier that morning. Sue and Dave stayed with Andy as he video graphed her entire swim, and I waited with my camera where I could get a shot of her running to her bike.

Ready to swim!

Sue, Dave, and I lost Andy when he followed her to the transition to the bike, and we weren't sure on the exact course route, so we picked a spot where we thought we would see her coming in from the bike leg and waited. We cheered her on as we saw her start the last portion of her race - the run. We moved to a corner and waited for her to return. We stayed in shade most of the time, but it was still so hot with the sun beating down, no trace of a breeze, and the Cozumel humidity crushing you on all sides. And we were just spectators! How could the athletes do it!?

Looking good despite the blazing sun and crushing humidity!

As we were waiting, a female Great Britain athlete came around the corner obviously struggling to stay up. She staggered around with what appeared to be no control over her legs or arms. She came very near the sidewalk and almost collapsed when some Mexicans grabbed her arms and walked her to the curb. She mumbled that she was fine - she clearly was not! Her face was gray. A man in Great Britain attire (either a team coach, or fan) wasn't far down the sidewalk and came over along with some other spectators. They poured all the water they had on her and eventually moved her farther on the sidewalk into the shade. Meanwhile, a race staff member came over and called over her radio for ice and an ambulance. The three of us knew we would be no help, so we moved along farther down the street. When the medics came they put her on a backboard, but their walk to the ambulance was halted when the girl threw up. Yikes! After seeing all this, we decided that if you finished this race you were doing good-who cared about your time!?

Jayme passed us on her run twice, the second time saying "See you at the finish!" We hurried down the street, crossed the race route at an intersection, and continued to the finish line. We waited there quite a while and came to the sad conclusion that we must have missed her finish. We walked over to the "finishers village" where there was food, shade tents, athletes could stretch out, and results were posted. We found Jayme and Andy, and Jayme let me try water from a freshly cracked coconut she got after finishing! I wasn't impressed with it. Maybe I would like it better if it was cold, but after just a couple sips, I had had enough.

Team USA/Wyss!

Excited to drink from a coconut-not excited about the taste

We checked out the results, and Jayme was very happy with her performance and how she finished. She picked up her bike from the transition area, and we walked back to the resort, had something to eat, and hit the pool - all before noon!

The afternoon was spent relaxing in hammocks reading, for me first under the pool deck, then outside our room. Uncharacteristically of me, I got the itch to jump off our resort's dock into the ocean. I didn't know how deep the water was, and normally do not like heights or jumping from them. However, I had seen several other people do it, and was feeling adventurous. I convinced Jayme to join me and we jumped off twice! My foot hit bottom a little on the second jump. After the ocean, a dip in the pool is always next! We ordered Dominoes pizza for supper and watched the extremely disappointing Packer/Viking game.