Winning my first “official” Ironman!

Sunday already feels days ago, still can’t believe that I really won this first edition of Ironman Cozumel. Heading to the race and preparing for it I had a clear opinion about my goal. I would go to Cozumel to win my first official Ironman and nothing else would be good enough on November 29.
As most of you know I had a disappointing experience in Kona, when you prepare so hard for something, you know your in great shape and you will do great on the biggest race in your sport, its pretty hard to cope with a technical issue that messes up your race. But you know how triathlete’s are, we just cry a little and then stand up to strike back:-)

To end the season without feeling satisfied is not a good idea, so just do another Ironman. Because Australia has the worst Tax system that you can imagine, it was clear that I wouldn’t go to Ironman Western Australia, plan B we had, was racing the new Ironman in Cozumel.

Thursday before the race we had a pressconferenz and both Rutger Beke and I agreed to win the race on Sunday. I thought it would be a great thing to have a double Dutch speaking victory, besides that,Rutger is a amazing athlete and for me he was the favorite by far.
Still people can have you as a favorit,you have to race and cross the finish line first, you never know what can happen on the day itself. I felt ready to do a great race in Kona and look where I ended.......you don’t have control over everything, as hard as it is.

For some of you that don’t know where Cozumel is, it's a little island in Mexico, just 18 km. out in the ocean from Playa del Carmen. It's a small island with beautiful blue water and a lot of sun and wind.
The cruise ships love this place as much as we do, today there were 7 off those amazing vessels that came to visit Cozumel.
We had some luck with our Condo, ocean view everywhere and the best host you can wish in the person of Italian Isabella.
In race week I didn’t swim in the pool, I just walked down and did my swims in the blue waters of the Golf of Mexico. Have to admit that I loved looking at the fish and coral and wasn’t really doing my workouts properly:-) Checking out the swim course on Thursday I got distracted from all the dolphins and didn’t think about the race for a sec.Just looking at those beautiful creatures gives you so much energy and I couldn’t stop looking at them. Now the race is behind us we will go for a swim with the dolphins on Friday ,I can’t wait & feel like a little girl that’s looking forward to her Christmas present.
I was amazed about how well the organization was for this first edition race. From picking up your number to getting your stuff back after the race, everything went smooth and without any problems!
The transitions were perfect, the Pro’s even had there own personal rack for there bike with carpet surrounding it. I would love to see that at all the races, I like to spoil my bike because she deserves the best!:-)

Starting the race, the Pro’s had a 15 min. head start, something that I always like. For me as a good biker it’s a big advantage to have a separate start, but it does mean that you have to swim well and take care that you don’t get stuck alone. Last 2 months I worked hard on my swim and I got the feeling that my open water swim had improved a lot. So on race day I was happy to feel great in the water, have my best swim ever and only had a little gap to the head of the women's race.I only had 1 min. on my main competitor Bella Bayliss,she's a amazing athlete with several Ironman wins under her belt! This changed my whole race, normally it takes me a long time to close the gap and a lot of times I’m not even the first girl going out on the run. I reached the girls after 50km.,stayed with them for a little while and then took off to catch Eva Dollinger how was leading the race.

The wind on the bike course was amazing, I almost felt at home in the Netherlands on a windy day and I could see that a lot of athlete’s were having problems. At that moment I knew it would be my day.
Starting the run I had a lead of 10 min. and felt great. Running my first lap of 14 km. in 58 min. I knew that nothing could go wrong anymore. Thomas called out to me on the course, he started 15 min. later and for that reason was chasing me:-)He told me to just run smooth and “don’t do anything stupid”. So that's what I did, I have to admit that I had some bad stomach problems in the 2nd part of the marathon and for the first time in my career I had to go to the bad room, I had to repeat that 5 times.......I would have loved to go below 9 hours again and I think, without those visits, I could have made it, but it doesn't matter.
I was the first girl to cross the finish line and even took 10th place overall.
I don’t know what makes me proud the most, my first official Ironman win or my improved swim. I do know that when I can keep up the good work on the swim, that my racing will change big time. For the results you can just have a look at www.ironman.com 

The people of the Island of Cozumel were amazing, they were so friendly and so excited. It made this Ironman very special and I hope to come back and race here again in the future. I want to congratulate the organization of the race with doing such a amazing job. I think this race has a big future and will be a big success again and again.
I’m taking a winter brake and looking forward to spend some time with my sponsors, family & friends. First a little holiday here on this island and then to Austria and the Netherlands.
Thank you all for supporting me and I will come back here on my website with some more news later in December.

Yvonne