It’s been about 4 months since finishing a tough and epic course at Ironman Lake Placid and what can I say… it’ been a couple of busy months since then. That’s why I’ve neglected the blog and social media in general a bit. For those who are following me on my Instagram can see what I’m now up to, which is supporting the disaster relief missions in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Finally today I had a little of down time and was able to gather some of my thoughts and revamp the race report I started 4 months ago.
So let’s get to the race report… I can remember the day we first talked about IM LP after finishing IM Coz in 2015. I thought that was so far off and would have time to embrace my love/hate with hills. Well, I did. After moving to NY with my amazing partner in crime, reality check kicked in when I realized training for Placid would be tough since there really is nothing flat here in NY compared to TX. Having been in LP on couple of occasions for work and vacay, it was nerve wrecking to drive through LP and know that I would need to bike those same hills. I was up for the challenge and to get out of my comfort zone because that’s where “the magic happens.” And Sunday July 24th was a magical day!
The entire week leading up to race day was wonderful as reuniting with our ITX family and spending time together was like no other. Lake Placid is beautiful and allowed for little to no stress especially as our condo was close enough to the village, but not in the hustle and bustle. Race day came quickly and it was time to put myself to the test. Everything leading up to the swim was smooth and easy going. We all lined up and I placed myself in the 1:30 pack, hoping to stay in that time frame. Calm, cool, and collective rolling start – perfect. I quickly got into a rhythm, found a clear area, remembered half way about the yellow cable, but realized I wasn’t close and seemed crowded near it. Got to the end of the first loop and quickly looked at my time, but it really didn’t register and off I went, this time finding more of the cable, but
having to move away from it due to crowds again. The 9th buoy on the return came fast and finished the swim. I looked down at my watch again and clearly thought something must be wrong with my watch – this can’t be right, but it was right … 1:24 swim … better than I had expected and huge PR from my first IM!! Boom!
Running into T1 was great, being cheered by friends, volunteers, and spectators. Awesome feeling. Quickly put on my bike gear and ran out. One of my goals was to have quicker transitions to save time and this went as planned. Mounted and off I went. Early on into the bike ride, I felt my feet moving everywhere in my bike shoes and felt the shoes loose, but didn’t pay attention to it and stayed focused. Keene descent had always been a concern of mine, but having been able to do it twice during our camp with Sue I felt confident and ready to tackle the fast 6 mile descent … 
✔️. So excited to see Felipe on the back side of Jay and yelled at each other for motivation. 
💕 I knew he was killing the bike course and so proud! Saw Da Nang and Sue and their smiles were great to see on the course. I knew the toughest sections of the course were coming up as they were long uphills and needed the energy. My feet were now starting to bother me more and the shoes felt like they were moving much more. Stopped to refill at an aid station and noticed it was extra difficult to unclip, which isn’t normal. I lifted my foot and 
🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ I was wearing Felipe’s bike shoes. We have the same shoes but our cleats are different Ughhhh no wonder they were big and didn’t feel right! After a long sigh and a laugh (maybe couple of other words in between lol) #MatchyMatchy problem became a personal challenge! Second loop became easier to tackle mentally as I soaked in as much of the scenery and kept telling myself this is the last time I see this on my bike today! It worked! Sue rolled up beside me at around mile 105 or so and she was killing it as she soared up hills. Because I had been pushing hard to keep my feet straight in big shoes, it was affecting my IT band which was starting to yell at me with each stroke. I knew the 3 Bears were coming and Sue and I pushed through them to quickly get back to town. I was so relieved and thankful to be able to get off the bike.
Another fast T2 and onto the run. It took me some time to get my legs in control, but my IT pain became worse with the miles. My run became a drag my leg shuffle. Seeing my ITX family not only on run course but also seeing Pam and Michelle at aid stations while they volunteered gave me energy to keep pushing through the pain and pushing my limits! Hugs from Felipe, Becky, Sue, and Penni were extra special boosts of energy 
😀The out and back on the second loop was very mental as it was getting dark and I set myself to run to where there were bright lights and aid stations.
The thought of a bear 
🐻 or something else popping out in those dark areas got me worried 
🙄 By the time I realized it, I was back in town and heading for the finish. My mind was no longer focused on dragging my leg or the pain, but rather on finishing strong! Told my legs to shut up and just go! The energy of the crowd carried me in and the bright lights at the finish made me feel like I was flying in the chute! Crossed that finish line and felt so accomplished to have conquered a course that I had been worried about since day 1 of signing up! Ironman x 5!!! 
✅ The hardest part of moving to NY was having to leave our ITX family, but this race was proof that no matter near or far, family is family and picking up where we left off was epic. So thankful for all of you and ready to create more race memories!! 
🙌🏼💕
Looks like the time is here, we are 24 weeks from Ironman Lake Placid and the training will start. Not that we haven’t been couch potatoes over the last 2 months since 
So, for now… shit got real! time to get serious and start the training so we are ready for the next crazy adventure of our triathlon life, our 5th Ironman. I’ll try not to bore you too much with the details of our training, they get pretty boring, for that you can check my 
When we started looking at our plans for the trip, we soon realized that JetBlue flies direct to Cartagena from JFK. This was a pretty good option, since JetBlue is one of the airlines that have the best prices when it comes to flying with bikes, and even better, they honor Active Duty Military when it comes to baggage fees no questions asked (other airlines tend to give us a hard time since USPHS isn’t usually considered a military branch which it is). Earlier in
the year my sister in law had moved to Medellin and had told us to start our trip there. JetBlue also goes to Medellin after a short stop in Fort Lauderdale. We then planned our tri
After a week in Medellin we then all took the same flight to Cartagena. This time we flew Avianca which is one of the local airlines. It was only about $100 per person (one way) so it wasn’t too bad and it is a short 45 minute flight from Medellin to Cartagena and the bikes were flying for free since it was the official airline. Once we all got to Cartagena since we were meeting 2 other friends (one of them doing the race) we had gotten a bigger van to take us to the condo. It was about $20 for that trip. We did the math later and having 4 bikes would’ve made us have 4 Ubers which was probably $40 for the whole thing. That worked out great. We had decided to get a condo instead of a hotel since originally it was going to be just our family. Our friends, Margo, Shayla and Brian with his wife were going to rent another one. At the end, due to shuffling of trips and last minute cancellations we all ended up in a bigger condo where the 9 of us fit just ok. The condo for all of us for the 6 days was about $1000.
We all got up and since we (Felipe and his brother) just had put together all 4 bikes we wanted to go and ride them a little as well as check out a little bit of the route. The condo actually had the route going in front of us so it was just simply get on the road and we were on it. Leaving the condo was a little sketchy because it is only an undivided 2 lane road but a couple of miles north it converts to a 6 lane divided. The first few miles had me super nervous, trucks, motorcycles, cars, you name it passing us. We had a car as an escort but still some people don’t respect. Once we got to the divided road, it was a lot better. We were able to get aero, try the gears a bit more and about 9 miles up the road we made the return. I felt great, the heat for sure was hitting hard. We left at around 10 am so figured that’s how it was going to be on race day… only one word HOT!!!!. We made it back to the condo and made some minor adjustments to the bikes.
Packet pick up was on Friday too, so we got ready after the ride and wanted to get the packet pick up stuff out of the way as soon as possible but it seems like everyone else had the same idea. The convention center was packed and we stood in line for about 2 hours going through the checkin. Then we did the store stuff and bought our race gear. International races usually don’t make it to the online Ironman store so that’s why we bought it all there. Didn’t want to risk our chances of not getting anything. After about 3 hours of being in lines we went to get some food and then back to the Condo.
Sunday came pretty quick, by 3:30 am our alarms started to go off. We all got up and got ready for the day ahead. We had set up 2 vans to take us from the condo to the start. That trip was about $15 for each van which we pre-negotiated the night before. We got to transition and the setup started. Felipe and I went first to my bike to set up my transition. Felipe’s brother went to help their sister to set up hers since he wasn’t setting up transition. Margo set hers while I did mine and lastly Felipe set his. Then we were all ready to get going. Only problem is that we ended up waiting for about 2 hours or more to start. Some of the buoys had moved so the organizers had to re-set the swim course before the gun went off. The heat was really starting to climb while we waited. We were all getting worried because we had no water and the race people weren’t giving us any updates. Once they started things got moving pretty quick.
Once I got out of the water I felt the heat, I got into transition and tried to get all my stuff quickly and get on the bike. The first part of the bike was getting out of the city, the road has a little cheapaseal and then about 5 miles out there was a little rough because there was some construction which was cleaned up for that day but the roads weren’t in the greatest conditions. After that rough patch, it was a lot better, so for about 21 miles we were able to cruise. There wasn’t any major wind, just heat. Then the two short climbs came up towards the end. I’m not a big fun of any of those but got my way up those. The turn around came and those same climbs became downhills, that was fun getting a little push going back to transition. At about mile 40 or so, Felipe came up and the right after him Angela came by. I managed to finish my bike in 3:27, I compare this bike course with Atlantic City 70.3. It has about the same elevation gain. One thing that is true is that I was able to control my power and stay in the zone that Coach Mike and Felipe had told me to stay in. I’m hoping to understand the whole power training a little better but the result of keeping the numbers where I was told made me manage my legs and have some left for the run.
Once I got back to transition the heat was already up there. There was a short shower while we were on the bike so that brought our temps down on the bike. When we were on the run, it just made the walled city a cooking pot. We had no wind, sun was beating down and the humidity was high too. Luckily for us, the beauty of having an aid station every kilometer meant that instead of the usual 13 stations we had 20 instead. All I did on those was pour water on my and drink a little. I had lost my Base Salts vial in transition but was able to get Felipe’s when he was on his way back. Running in the walled city was surreal. The energy of the people from the volunteers, cheering squads (including ours) and the tourists walking the streets. The heat was pretty brutal and at one point it was matter of surviving and not doing anymore damage but needless to say I enjoyed every minute of it. At the end, the run ended with a 2:25, not as fast as others, but considering the heat I take it as a win. At the end, I finished with my usual big smile. Felipe had finished ahead of me and he was already waiting for me at the finish.
Our logistics started with us staying in the City. We made our trip to the city and planned it as a weekend trip. We knew we could do the drive the morning of but we didn’t want to stress over all that on that morning. Our weekend started with our friend and teammate, Jenny, arriving on Friday to the city. We met each other around 3 pm, and we went to pick up our packages at the expo. That went pretty quick, then our adventure started by going to rescue Jenny’s cell which she left in the Uber that took her from the airport to meet us, so a few hours later we were ready to get on our way home. We were pretty tired, Felipe had just come back from Arizona that morning as well so it was a long day for all.
We got back to the hotel by 8 pm, set up our race stuff for the next day, and by 9 pm lights were out. We were so tired, that it was easy to fall asleep. Since it was daylight savings that day, we had an extra hour to sleep so it was great. The wake up alarm went off and we were ready to go. We had a 24-hr bagel place downstairs from our hotel so we got breakfast there and picked up our Uber to go to Whitehall Terminal. Then the fun begun. There were so many people, it was hard not to soak everything in. From there, the ferry takes you from Manhattan to Staten Island, then you get on the buses that take you to the start. We camped at the Staten Island terminal for a little bit before heading to the start 
since we had late starts. We didn’t want to just sit at the park waiting in the cold. Once we waited for a little bit, we then got on the buses which is a good 30-40 min ride to the start, traffic is heavy due to all the buses going back and forth. We got to the start and sat amongst 50,000 of our running friends to wait. Cell reception wasn’t the best as so many people were all killing time on their phones.
g, the Star Spangled Banner performed by one of the runners and then the cannon went off. Those things give me goosebumps just remembering them. We had one goal for our run, we wanted to run a 4:30 marathon. We were able to keep the pace and stay on for 15-16 miles, until we hit Queens and got into Manhattan. The Queensboro bridge was a beast as it was a straight incline into Manhattan. My legs were definitely feeling it at that point. The Manhattan rollers slowed us down and by the time we hit the Bronx we were starting to fall off pace.
Our walking intervals were more often and longer and it was mentally draining. The crowds definitely helped to distract the pain and keep carrying us to the finish line. Once we got into Central Park, the last couple of “hills” which seem mountains at that time, came up and we looked at our watches, by that point our 4:30 goal became the “let’s make it under 5” so we did our best to run through the crowds and forget the pain to come in under 5 … mission accomplished 4:59:59. Such a great feeling to be done, but unlike other races where you get most of your things right at the finish, 26.2 miles became more like 28 miles. Since so many people run the marathon, they have to make room for all who still are coming in. It is another good mile or 2 (or seems like that) before you get your pictures taken, your bag with food, your blanket and your poncho. We didn’t make it out of the park until about 45 minutes after we finished, we were cold, stiff, and tired, but super happy to have been part of this epic marathon. They gave us our well earned and long awaited NYC ponchos, which are amazing. They have a fleece inner lining and it felt great wearing them as we were slow walking through NYC. An Under Armour rep had been standing outside of a building and he was inviting marathoners inside a pop up store where 
they had set-up a stretching area with food for athletes. Since we were waiting for Jenny, we ventured inside to check it out. It sounded great until they told us it was downstairs and we had to maneuver stairs. LOL it was a sight to see as going down stairs wasn’t the prettiest after having done a marathon. We walked into a room with all kinds of goodies including foam rollers, stretch bands, yoga mats, and Normatec boots. The best part of all was a delicious carrot cake they had for us. Needless to say, Felipe and I took advantage of everything. The mere thought of stretching wasn’t the best, but I knew I would quickly get stiff and then it would be even harder to move around. So I made the effort and braved the foam roll
er, which actually didn’t feel too bad especially a high-tech vibrating foam roller. Best thing! 🙂
because he was able to capture an awesome picture of them on his work terrace with the NYC backdrop. Jenny and I had went for brunch and enjoyed some mimosas and delish breakfast. We walked back towards the hotel and went to do some shopping. You can’t be in NYC and not get some retail therapy in with a good friend. It was a great cap to an awesome weekend and I can’t say enough how I love this city and all it offers.
Now, getting to the woods and no devices kind of freaked me out. It was one of those that I wanted to have a safety blanket that I could track back with my Garmin back to the trailhead, particularly since probably our run was going to be a brand new place to us. So No. 1 above wasn’t really a good option if we wanted to explore No. 2. So we started then looking at trails. To our surprise, we have a ton of trails around us. We kind of knew about them but didn’t really explore them because it was one of those things I was always afraid of. What if I tripped? Where are the trails? How hard are they? Do I need new shoes? all those questions of entering into the unknown. Well… Felipe one day after going to the pool and finding out it was closed said, “let’s go to 
do it here on the trail, it will suck” so he proceeded to get the address on the GPS and off we went. We knew more or less the area, since we had done a few rides that take us around that area of New Paltz, so we knew it wasn’t that far. I was just a bit nervous since I didn’t know what it was going to be. We get there about 30 min after leaving the pool, and we enter the park (note it is $10 to enter the park). Then we asked the guy at the booth what would be the best thing to do, he said to go to the top to the Lake and then take it from there. We followed his direction and headed to Lake Minnewaska. Once there we headed to the trail, into the woods. We clearly didn’t know what we were doing, we looked briefly at the map 
we got at the entrance, but luckily there were markers and maps along the way. We used those and kept going. While it has been one of the hardest runs I’ve done, and we didn’t get nearly as close to the miles we would’ve done at our trail back home, it was priceless to be out there. The views were incredible and we know we hardly scratched the surface of the trails out there. We headed back to the car and while we pretty much were done with a mile to go, legs pretty much toast, we took it all in and we sort of crawled back to the car. Needless to say, trail running exceeded my expectations and I’ve bee
n hooked since. We did another sort of long run at another trail near us, the 
By us being a bit apart from the busy center it forced us to be more focused on staying near the house or simply being at the house resting. We did some swimming in the ocean since it was conveniently our backyard but we kept things low key. Everyone in the house was on the same boat and that helped. Not having anyone pressuring or even getting mad because we didn’t want to do anything. Being in an ironman destination you might be tempted to go crazy, walk a lot, not rest, eat crappy, not hydrate, we have done all those. This time we had focused on not doing any of that. Did our team dinner on Friday. Saturday we got to drop our bikes off and then do all the bag stuff. By 2 pm we were home legs up with bottles of hydration in our hands at all times. It was going to be a hot race so we didn’t want to risk it.
e the locals partying still while we were driving through town. We got to the hotel and of course transition wasn’t open. We just sat there and us girls braided our hairs.
I came right where Felipe told me I was going to come out at. I was out in 1:19 which was a 1:52’/100 yds. It is what I was doing during training and also a 9:04′ PR for my swim. I couldn’t be happier.
Came back to town and I knew I was done. Just wanted to get my run going, my transition time was faster too 5:55 compared to 6:31 from IMAZ. As fast as my 70.3 transition times (Felipe says that I take too long) I think I’ve paid attention to envisioning transitions prior to the race. It helps making the process smoother. Also helps to have a girl who has her undivided attention for you. She was awesome :).
How about getting #epic2016 going, I have struggled a little with the usual winter motivation and in a sense the post ironman blues lack of motivation. Then you add the holidays and having family for 2.5 weeks in town and then any workout goes out the window. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t complained about having about 1.5 months off where I had a 
My main motivation this year is that I was accepted to be part of Team Betty. Late last year I got word that I was being invited to be part of Team Betty.
Every woman should know how bad ass and beautiful she is and despite facing life challenges, a badass keeps her head up and keeps striving to become the most awesome and strongest version of herself. As a Betty, I enjoy motivating and showing others that they can be powerful and strong, look good in badass Betty colors, and still keep a healthy and active lifestyle… wow.. I think I said #badass enough times there, but you get the idea. You can also check out my 
rflies and pink… what else can you ask for?
We arrived in Miami and we were able to meet a couple of friends, had dinner and it was a pretty uneventful night, as much as Miami night life was starting to go near our hotel, I guess that’s not our thing anymore. Felipe was able to score a pretty good hotel for the night. I guess all those hotel points come in handy on these occasions, even got our room upgraded, too bad we only enjoyed it for one night.
Latina and Tri-ing 
