And we are ready!

Ironman 70.3 Dubai was a blast! Almost 40 athletes from the BR family. And yes! That’s exactly how it felt, that we were part of a big family. We’ve never been cheered so much while “suffering” whether from the sidelines or others also racing… Our home race has never been more fun!

Timing Chip issue aside, it sounded very much that everybody was satisfied with their results and at the end of the day, no matter what an app or webpage says, that is the most important part of it. Here are some reflections from the BR Triathlon Coaches.

We had a varied group of athletes taking part, some first timers and some experienced athletes too. Looking back having some time together as a team to talk through various aspects of the race ahead of the big day was actually beneficial for everyone and a good way to alleviate any pre-race nerves. Going forward for any big competitions we will aim to take the same approach. The opening ceremony was pleasant and many had the chance to carbo-load. But also the mandatory briefing clarified many items that even more expert athletes take for granted, but which change from time to time.

Knowing the specific race requirements about transition bags and bicycle racking, helped everyone formulate a better plan for their transitions which are an important phase of Triathlon, no matter what the distance, and that’s why going forward we will focus on best transition practice on Wednesdays at the Autodrome.

Thursday was the formal swim course practice and we had the chance to talk not only about tactics, strokes and sighting but it was a good chance to just have some fun together before things got a bit more serious! The photos speak for themselves.

If you were expecting a fast race you were right.

New swim course was required due to the works at JBH, and a straight line of tall yellow buoys made our life easier going out,. Flat sea, clear water, no jelly fish! Coming back was at the same time easier with the tall orange buoys, plus a pale sun which was not blinding us, but was in reality a good sighting feature. The new course was considerably more spectator friendly which meant the support of the crowd was loud and got everyone excited. T1 was loud!

On the bike, launching rockets to Al Qudra was easy with a light breeze from the west, and a stronger tail wind from the desert coming back! Few pelotons, few drafters, but hey it’s part of the game when you squeeze 2500 athletes into one or two highway lanes. The level of the athletes gets stronger every year! T2 was even louder!

I would say a warm run with an acceptable traffic of “civilians” on Jumeirah running track was all we had to go through to get to the red carpet. All results were just amazing!

It would take ages to name everybody. Joe was racing to have fun and get to the podium, Joao to test the legs for Oman, Oscar to smash it, Andrea to go sub 5, Shaz to prove himself that he could do it, Mediha to try the bike leg, Melina to build to the next 15 races in her calendar, Sandrine, Wissam and Almarri to do their first, and then Julien, Ahmad Al F., Maya, Julie, Awad, Joyce, Carsten, Amin, Imad, Paola, Abdullah, Sara, Richard, Sabah, Rhonda, Mohamed, Yousef, Hassan, Mohamd Al M., Thais, Simo, Kamali, Abduwahab, Abdala A., Russel, Coach Mohammed (we hope we did not forget anybody).Well done to everyone. As your coaches we couldn’t be more proud to see you out there pushing yourselves, but to also see the support you gave each other.

And to our non-racing BR team-mates, who took time out of their day, their day off work or their training day, to cheer us on, support and take cracking photos… thank you. This was a team effort out there. 

Special thanks go to the guys at BR tent who were there for three days to support anybody who needed a meeting point and Coach Marco, who beat Finisherpix by two days.

Colorful healthy “fuel” was gifted by Simply Dates bars, very well known by some of the athletes.