A tough day in Mexico (28.11.2011)

From the first view the race course at Ironman Cozumel is not a tough one but the athletes experienced something different. High temperatures, strong wind and rain made it a hard race.

Swen Sundberg could not reach his goal as expected. Though everything worked well leading up to race day. He had not health problems any more, the preparation in Abu Dhabi went perfectly and Swen acclimatized well to the conditions in Mexico. He felt strong and self-confidant. But on race everything looked different. Swen had a good swim and on the bike he could overtake athletes. On the half way point of thy cycling some problems with his stomach started. At this time he was not really worried about that. He had to slow down a bit but he still did not loose a lot of time compared to the leader. So he changed to the run on the 5^th position. After some muscular problems he found his rhythm and at the half marathon point he was already 4^th. It looked like that he could overtake some more athletes at the guys in front of him struggled. But suddenly he got circulatory problems and 10 km prior to the finish line he had to drop out.

In the night after the race Swen had to get some fluid via infusions as his body still was dehydrated. “During the race I had indeed some problems with my stomach but the drop out came pretty surprisingly. At an aid station I got almost a circulatory collapse. After sitting there I recovered and I thought I could continue but my body did not want to. I am pretty disappointed. I had the feeling that I did everything in the right way before the race,” Swen said after the Ironman.