I positioned myself to the right and towards the front. Watching the other waves start I noticed it was faster to walk as long as possible instead of swimming early so I did that. Being on the right served one main purpose, I was trying to avoid getting kicked in my right shoulder!
I started swimming and for the first 200m it was just chaos. Lots of kicks from left and right and front and behind but I just simply love this. I was always careful to protect my shoulder and that worked well. I found some feet and drafted right away and tried to keep that up pretty much always. If I lost some feet I tried to find new ones right away. The first turnaround buoy came before I realised it and the next one was so far away you could not really see it but I knew from the swim the day before that I just had to aim for the Etihad Tower buildings and that worked perfectly. As I drafted pretty much the entire time. I did not need to sight as much as usual. Just stay on the feet and then make sure from time to time that the person in front of me was going in the right direction.
Next turnaround buoy came and I felt so comfortable and decided to pick up the pace a bit and find some new feet. This part was straight into the sun so more sighting was needed but we were in such a big crowd it was pretty much just following anyways. At this point I also caught a few from the wave that had started 10minutes before.
Made sure that I peed before the end of the swim as I was determined NOT to pee for the race of the race!
Hit the beach and ran out of the water and up the beach over the timing mat.

Once out of the water we could run through a fresh water shower which was much needed and then a little bit further also waded through some soapy water before hitting the red carpet to run into the changing tent. I finally managed to get my wetsuit off half way before hitting the tent. The female changing tent was quite small compared to the men's and I had my stuff right in the beginning so no problem whatsoever finding stuff.
I just got out of the wetsuit and poured all the stuff from my T1 bag out. Put the wetsuit and other swim stuff in there. Grabbed my helmet, bike gloves and Garmin and put my number before running out. I thought briefly about sun lotion but I was still soaking wet that I decided against it. It would have probably been useless anyways with being so wet. Than we ran out of the tent and through the whole transition. I had shoes on the bike so I just got the bike and kept running. Transition in this competition is endlessly long (~ 400m) and I really don't like barefoot running. At least it is all red carpet and not asphalt which helps a bit.
I could have probably shaved off a few seconds here as I did not rush but I somehow did not see a reason for it...

Started biking and tried to find a rhythm and my goal wattage right away. It was quite hard to hold back at the beginning as the legs were fresh and wanted to work but I kept it steady and used the time to look at my surroundings a bit and there were also quite a few people to overtake during the first part. We left the Corniche soon and were out on the highway and although it was not that warm yet I could feel the sun burning on my arms and I regretted not using any sun lotion in T1. The one and only hill on the course is the big bridge and that came shortly after and I just pedalled easily up trying to keep my watts. After that I could feel the sun even more and I remembered that last time I had a very bad sun burn after the race and I was determined not to let that happen again so I stopped at the first aid station which was on an uphill part and got some sun lotion. I did not stop long but just got some on both arms and then started biking again while trying to rub it in. I felt better after that. Following the aid station came an endlessly pretty much straight road. Highway 5 lanes wide and just sand left and right. Nothing else. Not the most interesting surroundings but I was just happy that I was not freezing for once in a race as it was pretty much the case all last year! We had some wind but not that much but I could not really figure out if it was headwind or not but was hoping so. Mostly crosswind at that point though. I also tried to remember of how long it was until we would hit the F1 track and calculated that it must be around 40km to get there. Then I suddenly saw IKEA in the distance and knew we were close as that is right next to it. I was so exciting of biking on Yas Marina. I did not get to do that in the race last time as the sprint distance does not go all the way out there so I was double excited to finally race there. Getting on the track was combined with a lot of turns and corners but we finally made it and I was just smiling the whole first lap and kept thinking of how awesome this is and how privileged we are to be able to race here! But the biking on the track was also harder than expected as you really had to concentrate the whole time vs. the constant straight and mindless biking from before. Came by the aid station on the track and decided to grab some ate to fill my aero bottle but I forgot that they only had water in the beginning so I missed that one. But good that I tried so I knew exactly where to go on the second lap. We left the track and then biked on the surrounding streets a bit before we hit our turnaround point to go once more over the track!
At that point I started to realise that I actually had to pee and at first I just laughed about it because I am probably the only person in the world who goes to race in a desert and then ends up needing to pee instead of getting dehydrated!
One of the reasons might be that I was hardly sweating during that first half of the bike ride!
So I kept thinking about my options! Here I was at the F1 track once again and had to pee. I had told myself beforehand that if I would have to go during this race that I would pee on the bike as there was no way in hell I would stop, but that was easier said than done!
I decided I could definitely not pee on the bike on the track although that sure would be a cool story to tell so I waited but the urge got bigger. Managed to grab water on the 2nd lap and fill my aero bottle and also put another Nuun tablet in and also took a salt pill at that point.
Once off the track I just decided that I would try although everyone would probably see that I am peeing on the bike as the streets were dry as hell. But I kept telling myself that every real triathlete does it....well I tried....and then I tried some more but it just simply did not work...so I had two options. Stop right there by the road with the million bushes or try to hold it to the next aid station which was 20km away....
Holding was not an option so I stopped and I was not happy about that! But I really had to go which was incredible considering the conditions. And it took three time as long to get my Tri-Pants back on then to pee which annoyed me even more!
But I sure felt better afterwards and could concentrate on biking again!
We were soon back on the highway and the long long straight followed! At that point it had gotten warmer and I started to feel the heat. Focused on drinking water and Nuun and also getting my nutrition in as planned. Lost my last third of my oat king bar on the road though but I had some gel chomps left so I probably got a total of about 500 calories in. Despite drinking enough I started to get a very bad headache about 2:15 into the ride and I think it was mostly due to being aero the whole time. My neck was starting to hurt and get very stiff and thats when the headache usually follows. At exactly 2:28 I was just done being aero and I started to get very uncomfortable. Until this point I was in aero for about 97% of the time! From then on I switched back and forth and tried to find a position which would minimise my headache which did not really work. I drank more and more water as I knew headaches could also come from dehydration but it did not help either. After 88km we hit the turnaround point from the sprint course and suddenly there were a lot more bikers on the road and you had to really concentrate of not drafting. But it was good to see the sprint course competitors as I knew there were only 12km left! After 92km we were finally back in town and on the Corniche and it was pretty much just straight from there. The legs were also gotten a bit tired but nothing compared to my neck and shoulder. I overtook quite some people during that last part which was fun again. Managed to get out of my shoes before the dismount line but could not jump off the bike as there were 5 others in front of me and they all stopped at the line so I had to do the same as I could not pass them.
According to the temperature on the power meter I ended the bike at 38C (100F!). No wonder I was warm!!

Ran with the bike as fast as I could and then racked the bike and kept running towards the changing tent. Had to walk the last bit as something under my foot really started to hurt probably due to the barefeet running and I did not want to make it worse.
Got my T2 bag and once again poured everything on the ground. Put on socks as it is really uncomfortable to run in my shoes with custom made inserts and then running shoes. During that a volunteer put more sun lotion on me which was definitely needed! Grabbed my visor and off I was.

The run started really good and the legs were fine. Found a good rhythm right away and kept that for about 2km. Saw Torben during my first km who was just about to finish his race. Then the first aid station came and I had some water and some pepsi and poured another cup of water over my head.
Kept running at a pretty decent pace but it got warmer and warmer and I felt like my head was getting hotter by the second. Second aid station. I wanted to grab some sponges as well to take them with me but they did not have any so once again I had a sip of water and poured the rest over me which made my shoes soaking wet. Kind of felt like running in the rain in wet socks and shoes.
Then we were out at the flagpole road and it was a constant back and forth running there. They separate the lanes with cones and it was kind of like a long waiting line and you could see during each of the four lanes where you would be running in a little while. That was pretty tough mentally. My pace got slower again but although my legs were fine and willing to run faster my body and my HR just said no. Also knew that if I would push it now that I would probably end up walking in the end snd I really wanted to run this through! There was an aid station in the middle of that road so we passed it three times while zickzacking there which was nice as I could pour water over me each time which helped. Temps had reached 31C in the shade but there was no shade there whatsoever and by then the sun was burning high in the sky as it was past noon. Brutal!
I finally made it to the 4th lane and was on my way back to the beach. Had another sip of coke at the next aid station and a sip of water and I also had some gel chomps but other than that no nutrition which was fine.
At the 2nd last aid station they had some ice cubes and I put them in my tritop which was really nice and cooled me down a bit.
It would have been good to have a hat to out the ice under but I only wore a visor so that was not an option. Kept running at a slow but steady pace and there was no way I could increase the speed. Lots and lots of people were walking at that point and I overtook quite a few!
Last aid station with 2km to go finally had some sponges and I took two to use a bit later. But at that point it was just plain focus on getting over that finish line and into the cooling tent.
Tried to increase the pace a bit when someone kept running by me and and said 'Come on we can do it in sub 5 hrs' but there was not much there. Legs still fine but body and head said No.
And finally there was the final turn onto the red carpet and I just kept plugging along and smiling as I knew it was over soon. Ran over the finish line and was just so happy to be done!

Torben found me soon after I finished and made me go in the cooling tent which was nice. My face was so red and hot I thought it would explode!
Got some ice for the hip which was not that bad but I knew icing would help for it to not get worse. Also had some coke and some more water. And I also got a pain killer for the headache that hit me as soon as I was done.
After that we went to get something to eat and I also had a Red Bull which sure helped with the energy level. It was nice to be in the sun without doing anything and we just sat around, had some food (hamburgers, pizza, pasta you name it) and talked to other athletes.
It was just a really good feeling to be done and to know that from now on this vacation can be enjoyed without any race anxiety.


My weight. And I swore to myself already during the run that I will not attempt this distance or a HIM at my current weight ever again! It's just too hard on the body!