Jebel Ali Beach Resort Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Thankfully they did waves according to categories: Sprint, Female, Veteran Male & Teams then Male. Being in the 2nd wave with the teams was okay. Start wasnt to bad. Not too much kicking, water was freezing. Had someone draft, kick slap and follow me for much of the course. very annoying. luckily i had my sister who has done at least two of these before to draft and follow! hah! got out of the water and took my time to transition. seeing as this was my first one i didnt want to push too hard. everyone thought the race looked longer than the previous year. it felt long to me!


train more for the swim involving technique. I only had 5 weeks to train for this event and one i was out sick.

slow jog up to transition area trying to get hr down. okay, as I hadnt really prepped myself on a road bike either, i was worried about the transition after receiving a lecture from the bike shop owner the afternoon before. i hired a bike for 100dirhams about $30USD and the bike was worth about $3500USD. so i did not want to drop it and or come off it. so i gently ran it out after doing a swift transition into running shoes from the swim. hopped on easily. felt slippery from the swim so took it gently out the hotel drive.

well obviously train on a road bike, but i'll get one soon enough. was happy with my transition. shouldve had a carbo gel then. forgot to and have to have some water. i was too scared to get the bottle of the bike clip in case i crashed!

Unfortunately the surrounding area had loads of construction going on and once you hit the main road there were potholes (after the turn - my sister was in a pack going round the corner and hit it I managed to graze it) and road debris. To be fair the race organisers had warned us about it and to use caution which i think everyone did. However i had forgotten my sunglasses and my eyes would fill with sand or silt when i was passed. There was one severe speed bump we had to go over on the back of the course. It also came up out of nowhere for me as i had to contend with road traffic, workers and sand & mud so i hit it pretty fast but thankfully was okay. I really enjoyed the ride and was envious of people with aerobars and hydration packs. the turn around consisted of plywood over the grass median strip so that was pretty adventurous too! I ended up about 3 minutes in front of my sister and felt comfortable on the bike even though it was my first time.

Spend more time on a road bike. do bricks! hydrate!

Was not prepared for losing my legs.

Brick training. Take WATER at the transition area.

Could not get my legs going. was severely dehydrated. just kept plugging away. hoped that they had water at the turn around point. drank a cup and some out of a bottle and pured the rest on me to cool down. around kilometer 4 i found my legs again. my sister had passed me by this stage i tried to keep up with her but just couldnt move.

drink water, train better for the transition of bike to run. bricks bricks bricks.

stretched, dranks water, jogged a bit


dehydration, lack of training.


unfortunately there isnt the technology to do split times on these races so i just estimated of my hr monitor. aside from this the race was great. really well organised. Julie does a fantastic job with it and the brunch after was superb. highly recommended for your first race as this was mine and i had a great time. people are friendly and supportive. the location was great aside from the condition of the road, which was unavoidable. all in all a great day!