Terenzo Bozzone Wins IM Cozumel

It has been a rough year, but training in San Diego during the last 5 weeks has gone really well. I raced the Ironman 70.3 Cozumel over the weekend to open up the motor and to see where my fitness is at, as well as getting some extremly hot and humid race conditions in.
 
With all the training and not a full taper I knew I was going to be on the back-foot and things might get ugly out there. I had a solid swim, which was positive. My legs then struggled to get going on the bike, but by the 25km mark, I was finding my rhythm and moving up to the front. By the end of the bike-leg, there was Matt Chrabot, Paul Matthews and myself with a good lead over the rest of the field. The conditions were much hotter than when I raced here in 2013 and starting the run, I could feel the heat.
 
I was in a world of hurt and my strides were not flowing the way I'm used to. Every step was a conscious effort and when Matt made a move in the early kilometers of the run, I had nothing to match him. All I could do was stay focused and work my way through the half marathon as best I could. His lead had developed to almost a minute at the 10km mark. Starting lap two, I wasn’t sure I was even going to make it to the finish as the insane heat was getting to me, but when I noticed the gap to the lead getting smaller by the minute. I ultimately got a hunger for the finish line and my objective was to arrive there first. My pace wasn’t getting much faster, but my heart rate was climbing. I snuck into the lead at the 15km mark and I wasn’t going to let this go.
 
I managed to hold things together and grab the win, although things did get pretty ugly in the closing couple kilometers!
 
I definitely had to work for that one, but all in all a good hit out for Kona in 3 weeks’ time; especially racing in those extremely hot weather conditions.