Race Report – Al Jazira Triathlon Race 2

The Al Jazira triathlon series in Ghantoot, as I said, forms the bread and butter of our racing season here in the UAE. Now held more or less monthly, this weekend saw the second race of the winter series. It was a special one for me as it marked almost exactly a year since my first ever triathlon.

I did my first over this course (750m swim, 26k cycle, 6k run) in January last year and have done four with the weekend being my fifth. My time has come down each time – 1.34 first time out, then 1.30 and 1.26 last season. The first race of this season, I hoped I'd knock a few minutes off as I'd trained hard and well over the summer...the week before the race, however, was somewhat interrupted – a press trip to Oktoberfest in Munich, a couple of overnight flights and a tight deadline in work meant I'd trained little, slept very little and felt pretty dehydrated. I posted a 2 minute PB with a 1.24 but, with a far better lead-up, I felt that I had another couple of minutes in me this time around and was excited to get going.

The swim start - all images by Probike.ae

It was a perfect morning for racing – bright and sunny with a cooling breeze but nowhere near as windy as it can get. The swim course is in a channel leading to the sea that curves around the Golden Tulip Al Jazira Hotel. I'm always nervous about the swim as it's by far my strongest discipline and I know I have to give a good showing. Fortunately, one of the top guys from the local Tri2Aspire team went out really hard and I was able to draft him the whole way – usually it's me leading, so I was surprised by how much better this felt. I was able to sight less and concentrate on keeping my breathing easy and fluid. Coming out the swim, climbing up the steps (killers!), past the pool and into the transition area, I felt as good as I have at this point.

Transition was smooth and, although I was a little slow and awkward getting my shoes on on the bike, I settled into a good cycle position and speed fairly quickly. Then the strangest thing happened – it felt good, really good, and fast.

As a strong swimmer and very novice cyclist, I'm used to seeing an endless procession of speedy racers flashing past me, but just a couple were trickling past. And, while travelling a lot faster, they weren't exactly tearing off into the distance – I was almost keeping up. By the halfway point on the ride, there were still a number of guys who I know as being top-level racers who hadn't yet passed me. Although I started to fidget and feel a little sore in the last quarter, the realisation of a really quick (for me) bike split kept me going.

I got into transition and, despite dropping my bike while trying to rack it, I didn't panic and felt OK hitting the run. Which was almost a carbon copy of the bike leg. If I were mid-pack, I'd be a decent enough runner, but up near the front I'm still found wanting. Being so much further forward than I usually am at this point, I expected a wildebeest stampede of runners to fly past – a few muscled past, one or two did leave me for dead but, by and large, I felt good, strong and fast.

The last few metres, heading down to the finish line, I was almost giddy...1.17...I was on for a 1.17!!!

1.17.13, it turned out...and I was blown away. 11^th in the men's 16-39 category.

I realise, in retrospect, that this was the result of a summer's good training – in the last race, it was a miracle I'd even finished given the week before it I'd had...with a good lead-in, this time I saw all the benefits.

There's three weeks till the next race – though that'll purely serve as a brick workout ready for the Global 11 International (olympic distance) race a couple of weeks later. But I'm ready and raring to go. Just hope I can prove that this week's race wasn't a complete fluke!

Triathlon: from this...

...to this, in almost exactly one year.