I wanted to write about my first triathlon experience. I am someone that has always been in awe of those people who can not only swim, cycle and run a range of distances but doing it one after the other in the one event, that is some feat. As the pun says, a triathlete is someone who doesn’t understand that one sport is hard enough.
To be truthful, I had never fancied taking part in a triathlon in the UK. The likelihood of it being very very cold did not appeal to me, so with the perfect November weather here in Dubai, I really had no excuse!
After spotting the event advertised on Instagram, I checked out the RaceME events website for further details. The price seemed reasonable, it was a nearby location and the race date allowed for 3 weeks to prepare both mentally and physically (if that were to even be possible). I chose to compete in the Super Sprint category, this comprised of a 375m open water swim, 10km cycle and 2.5km run.
The first stop was Google and time spent trawling through lots of articles and forums, to get a checklist of all the do’s and don’ts for first time triathlon entrants, as the saying goes ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’.
In addition to the UK weather, my overriding reservations to never participating previously in a triathlon has been down to two factors; the transition between the activities and the choice of outfit (basically, how would I change after the swim ready for the cycle and is chaffing a real thing?)
A trip to Adventure HQ went some way in helping with those concerns, a 2XU tri-suit was purchased and some time was spent convincing myself in front of the mirror that ‘surely no one can look good in one of these?’
Not owning a bike meant that I called ahead and reserved a road bike from The Cycle Hub, ready for collection on the afternoon before the race. Following on from this, I aimed to train for the event. In reality, alongside work commitments and everyday tasks, I visited the beach one morning to make sure I had what it takes to swim in the sea, a couple of 3km runs around the block and a 50km cycle at the Al Qudra loop.
Thankfully the organisers had arranged a mandatory (and very useful) race briefing to be held over zoom three days before the event. Here was an opportunity to go through the set-up of the morning, the race route and to answer any questions. There was a mention of a race bib being attached to the race belt…. *immediately searches race belt on Google and subsequently, Amazon.
With a number of local events taking place over that particular weekend due to the Dubai 30×30 challenge, the number of race belts in the region were in very short supply. A visit to trusty Decathlon and some serious persuasive skills enabled me to purchase the last race belt in Dubai from the display model, I was all set.
This just left the bike collection (with invaluable guidance by The Cycle Hub gentleman) and the purchase of some snacks ready for the morning of the event. The bag-pack was packed and ready to go, the Tri-suit and trainers were laid out and all that was left was a sleepless night due to the potential worry of not hearing the alarm, nervousness and pure excitement for the event. The alarm did sound at 4:40, a short car journey and banana later, it was time to rack up the bike and get warmed up.
The atmosphere before, during and after the race was quite simply, brilliant. There were friends and family of the participants and strangers who had come down to cheer others on with their shouts of well wishes and hand- made signs.
Having received a ‘wave’ time to start the race and enter the water, orange swim hats swarmed the beach and were disappearing into the sea. I started the swim off hopeful that I could perform front crawl the entire distance, this was naïve. With each pull of the arms and subsequent breath, I was met with a mouth full of sea water or an elbow from a nearby participant, breaststroke it was for the remaining 300 meters.
Next up was the task of putting socks on with the use of post-swim jelly arms and a very ineffective towel drying action. Onto the bike and the 10km seemed to fly by, even with the speed bumps doing their best to dismount me.
Lastly, the 2.5km run, this was mentally the toughest part as it seemed never ending. I did question whether I had taken a wrong turn or joined the Olympic distance by accident. However, with the crowd encouragement and a last burst of energy, I made it over the line and was absolutely thrilled with myself.
This was one of those moments where I felt an immense sense of achievement and what certainly helped, was that the event itself was without doubt the best organised sporting event that I have participated in here in the UAE.
People had mentioned prior to the event that you get the ‘bug’…. I have just signed up to my second triathlon at the start of March. Who knows, I might even go all out and ‘train’ for this one.
