Ironman Cozumel 2012 Race Report
The Cozumel Ironman in 2012 would be my third full Ironman after Nice, France in 2008 And Florianopolis, Brazil in 2009. 
At the time I had two fitness centers in Long Beach called Roworx and decided that training for another Ironman would be the best idea to keep me motivated to try and teach all the classes I possibly could to save money on instructors/staffing and possibly inspire clients at the same time to keep their memberships and get new clients. I gave it my best but after training for this particular Ironman and coming home I closed my location due to higher overhead costs and now just operate Roworx at it’s original home location at Marine Stadium in Long Beach. I have no regrets though as I gave it everything I possibly could and now know that there was nothing more I could do and made the best decision at the time. In the process I got the opportunity to race at this beautiful venue at the Cozumel Ironman in Mexico.
The days leading to the Ironman, the wind was strong and water was choppy. Race morning, the sun was out but the wind was still there and water was not what I was hoping for. There was a dolphin show before swim start and the national anthem was sung right before we had the in water swim and cannon start.
en dock started to buckle. The race organizers quickly told us to all get in the water as the pier was almost going to snap in half due to the immense weight from all the competitors. This race was the first time I experienced an In water swim start and at the same time was not allowed to wear a wet suit due to the warm water conditions. My plan was to line up front to the right and stay wide and hope to avoid the Ironman swim chaos. The current was also very strong and we swam with jelly fish that stung you in the water but you couldn’t really see them. They were very small but hurt quite a bit through my triathlon suit. I was moving well on the back leg of the swim as I was moving with the current but as soon as I made it to the final turn I noticed I was getting pushed back against the strong current and now headwind. I sighted the first buoy at the last leg of the swim coming into the finish about 200 yards away and swam for about a minute then sighted back up and the buoy was still about 200 yards away. On the last leg of the swim I panicked a bit because the current was pushing me backwards as I could not seem to get into a good rhythm but then I noticed the other competitions having the same problem. I ultimately had one of my the slowest swim times in any triathlon I had done to that point. After the race I found out that the swim was very slow for all the competitors and 350 people did not make it through the swim portion of the race.
:58Heading out of T1 to start the bike. The bike course starts at the CHANKANAAB parking lot and is a 3 laps along the highway around the Island in a counter clockwise direction. Every lap will go by the City Hall which is located next to T2 and the finish line. At this point I was just happy to be out of the water and ready to hammer the bike. The plan was to make up some speed on the bike from the slow swim and ultimately go sub 11 hours for the entire Ironman. The first section of the race during lap 1 I was moving and kept it at around 21mph. I was feeling good and decided to go a little faster on the first lap but the back side of the island was very windy with some nasty cross winds. I was flying and passing people and feeling amazing and was averaging around 24mph doing over 200 watts. 20 min later I started feeling little discomfort all over my body due to the stress of the high cross/head winds, extreme heat, and vibration from the roads on the bike. As I turned toward the east side of the island and started the fight against the head wind. Th
e wind and heat in that section got worst as the day progressed. This is about 15 miles stretch where the cross wind can be very strong. However this year the wind was coming from the north at 20+mph head straight. According to my Garmin, the temperature reached 91.4 in that stretch. Three laps of that and that’s 45miles of head wind. Unfortunately, the other side of the island was more inland and covered mostly with trees so the tail wind didn’t help as much. Overall the bike was hot, humid, and windy but exciting as you rode through downtown and very scenic around backside of island. The water was aqua blue and beautiful and even though the roads had been newly paved they were grainy with loose asphalt and were bumpy and very rough. It took a serious toll on my body and I never looked forward to running a marathon so much in my life. It had a positive effect I guess as I had one of my fastest ever Ironman marathon’s to date.
No wonder no disc wheels were allowed on this course. It was also my first time riding with faster wheels on my newly purchased matched set of Zipp 1080’s. The roads were also very rough on top of riding on aluminum frame 2005 Cervelo p3. The aluminum frame caused more vibration and hurt my upper back more than anything as I got nerve damage near the upper part of m
y shoulders and lost feeling for months after the race.
Bike Time: 5:24:40
Run: T2 was extremely fast for me with turning in my bike and getting on the run in under 2 minutes. The run is a 3 laps out and back course with portions of the course going through downtown Cozumel. Each lap is about 8.7 miles and goes through Cozumel’s signature sites, including it’s waterfront walk, downtown main plaza, and historic neighborhoods. My goal was to run sub 4 hours. I was happy that I had a whole box of salt stix, caffeine, and GU roctane in my run gear bag but things were not going as planned. As a result of the rough winds, heat, and vibration from the roads on the bike as I stood up straight on the run my lower back immediately seized up and was afraid I wasn’t going to finish the race. It was very hot and humid but luckily they were handing out ice bags so that I could hold them in the back of my race suit and create more circulation in my back to free up more movement. Almost had to quit race if it wasn’t for bags of ice that they were passing out during beginning of run. I also used the ice bags around the tops of my shoulders and upper back as that helped calm the pain and deal with swelling. My legs were feeling good at the start and was running around 8min/mile. I decided to slow down and not push anything and see how I feel. I was very emotional as I ran down the last stretch of the run course and knowing that I was going to miss breaking 11 hours didn’t matter anymore but being able to have the experience to race in Cozumel was amazing. Finally made it back into town and into the finish and heard my name “Jack Nunn from the USA, you are an Ironman.” I actually signed multiple 
autographs after race to local kids and they made special bracelets for all of the Ironman finishers.
Whoever it was that caught me at the finish line and held me up while I balled my eyes out – big thanks to you too. Finally, to my awesome sponsors at Red Ace Organics/Beets, Rudy Project, Juice Plus, MG Sport, and Honey Stinger for your continued support, as none of this would be possible without you.
Finish: My second fastest Ironman to date at 11:26:08
zip lining on Cozumel island. I also took the Aztec ruins tour to Chichen Itza. It was one of the largest Maya cities and it was likely to have been one of the mythical great cities. The city may have had the most diverse population in the Maya world, a factor that could have contributed to the variety of architectural styles at the site. The ruins of Chichen Itza are federal property, and the site’s stewardship is maintained by Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History). The land under the monuments had been privately owned until 29 March 2010, when it was purchased by the state of Yucatán. Chichen Itza is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico with over 2.6 million tourists in 2017.
Due to the non-impact nature of rowing, the legs, back, and core are constantly working through every single stroke. It is the perfect cross-training workout for any sport, especially Ironman distance triathlons.Triathlon Training by an expert: Jack Nunn is the ‘unconventional’ triathlete – standing 6’3″ tall and weighing in at 220 pounds and was the 2015 Olympic Distance USA Triathlon Clydesdale Champion while still holding the fastest time to date at 2 hrs and 15 minutes in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Since 2008, he has competed in 14 Full Ironman competitions around the world and in August 2017 Jack recently completed the Isklar Norseman Xtreme triathlon in Norway. This race bills itself as, ‘simply the ultimate triathlon on planet Earth’ and is regarded by many athletes 
and pros as the hardest Ironman distance triathlon in the world. It’s a total of 226km spread over a freezing cold swim, a brutal bike ride with 17,000 feet of elevation, and a seemingly impossible marathon footrace up a mountain. In 2013, he also began racing shorter sprint triathlons, winning his age group in almost every event and has now raced in over 100 events around the world.
Tags: Indoor Rowing Classes, Ironman, Ironman Brazil, ironman coaching, Ironman France, Ironman Texas, Jack Nunn, Long Beach fitness classes, Relay Fitness, Rowing Classes, Roworx, triathlon training guide, TriCore indoor cycling
