12 May 2017
Dukhan triathlon is always popular and the one that can't be missed by any triathletes in Qatar. The venue is amazing and always well organised. I was so looking forward for this race because it will be my first race with my new club MAD Triathlon. The race 3 of the series was originally scheduled in March. However it had to be postponed due to the crazy weather to May. It was very windy and the organiser did not want to take any risk on the health and safety of the participants which is fair to me. The problem now is the heat in May.
Swim
I have worked on my swim quite a bit with coach Isora for several months now and I am starting to see some improvements. Being the last race of the season, there were about 200 athletes lining up the beach at the start of the swim. Big for an event in Qatar. I positioned myself on the second row straight opposite the buoy. It was a normal chaos at the start but I somehow did not panic which is new. I saw my MAD Triathlon's buddy, Aaron and swam on his hip for a draft. I can't believe that I could draft for most of the 750m swim. My pace was 2:03/100m not as fast as I had hoped, maybe because I was too relaxed while drafting and wasn't trying hard enough to latch on faster feet.
Time: 0:16:02 (28th)
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| Eager to see my swim pace (Picture courtesy of beFitness Photography) |
Bike
The bike course was a flat two laps out and back but there's one problem, the wind. We had a tailwind on the out which was nice but suffer on the way back with the strong head wind. I was playing catch up with Aaron the whole way. I would overtake him only to find him overtaking me a minute later. It was entertaining as we exchanged banter. We entered the Transition together but Aaron did not respond as we left T2 for the run. Too bad mate, you got to work on your run.
Time: 0:34:49 (14th)
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| Leaving T1. Lets get the race started (Picture courtesy of beFitness Photography) |
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| Been playing catch up all with Aaron (Picture courtesy of beFitness Photography) |
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| Rushing through the T2 (Picture courtesy of beFitness Photography) |
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| All smile as I left T2. Happy to finally start running (Picture courtesy of beFitness Photography) |
Run
It was really hot and my body just went into a meltdown. My legs weren't responding and I was running slower than my normal half marathon pace for the 5 km run at the top of my zone 5 heart rate. I even thought this was harder than my last IM 70.3 run in Bahrain last December. Thank God it was just 5km. I cant imagine doing a half ironman in this weather. The support near the finish line was great. MAD Triathlon family was very visible and the loudest on the day. It was awesome to be part of this club. It makes you feel like you belong to a family. A fun, loving and caring family. Thank you MAD Triathlon.
Time: 0:25:29 (18th)
Total Time 1:19:34 (14th)
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| Almost there (Picture courtesy of beFitness Photography) |
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| My smile turned to frown, believe me it was hard (Picture courtesy of beFitness Photography) |
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| A little bit more (Picture courtesy of beFitness Photography) |
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| MAD Triathlon cheer squad (Picture courtesy of beFitness Photography) |
Dukhan triathlon has once again delivered an amazing race and I am already looking forward to the 2017/18 series. Thank you to the volunteers and hard working people at Dukhan Watersports and Triclub Doha for the fantastic work. I also would like to thank my friend Vitsiv from beFitness for the beautiful photos he took. Mate you should really consider a career in sports photography.
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| MAD Triathlon family the Madistas |
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