AeroFit Triathlon – Race 5

This was my third AeroFit triathlon, a sprint distance (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run) that takes place at Golden Tulip Al Jazira Hotel and Resort in Ghantoot, a 30 minutes drive from Dubai Marina.

This time I had a special guest with me, my cousin Nuno who came from Portugal to race with me in Abu Dhabi and Singapore. This was his first triathlon, so it was an excitement for both of us.

At the end, the feeling of satisfaction was amazing, but throughout the race many thoughts came to my mind.

The swim was awful because I’ve not paced myself (was going too fast for my fitness level), I had my new wetsuit which I haven’t tried before, and there was people all over the place.

At half way in the first lap, I thought I was going to quit. I was feeling exhausted, no strength, everybody was coming over me, and it was not going well at all. When I got out of the water to go for the second loop, I walked to recover my breath. Second loop was a little bit better. I paced myself, tried to relax and do an easy swim. At the end, the goal is to enjoy it and have fun. Of course that we always want to improve our time and get a personal best, but if you don’t enjoy it, what’s the point?

Then there was the transition, where I was aspiring to save a couple of minutes. I’ve mentally rehearsed this in my mind several times, and even did a couple of times the night before. Basically, no socks, gloves, anything. Just me, the bike, helmet, shoes and race bib. I even tried to close the shoes strap in the bike, which ended up being a mistake. Soon I’ll get my triathlon bike shoes, and that should improve a lot. Nevertheless, I managed to reduce around 3 minutes in the 2 transitions.

Next came the bike, and the run, and in both I’ve managed to reduce significant time compared to the first and second race. Here’s my progress since first race:

1. Sep 30 – Race 1: 1:21:35
2. Nov 18 – Race 3: 1:22:38 (improved times, but changes in swim course make it longer)
3. Feb 24 – Race 5: 1:15:43

At the end, I’ve done a great progress and I feel very happy with my new PB, due to a great improvement on fitness level, and also on the transition times. I do feel that I need/can/should improve a lot on my swimming performance. Need to find a swimming coach that can take me to the next level (from basic to basic+ ) so that I can get out of the water much ahead than I’m currently getting.

My cousin … he was flying (though he need to improve on the swim like me, and he finished so ahead of me that he had time to take breakfast, pick the camera from the transition area and take a picture of me crossing the finish line .

At the end of the day, I’m not expecting to get any podiums, and I just want to have fun and exceed myself, and I’m doing that. Next stop is Abu Dhabi International Triathlon with the “short” distance race (1.5k, 100km, 10km) and then Aviva Ironman 70.3 in Singapore (1.9k swim, 90km bike, 21km run). Goals for the next two races? Have fun, learn, and get to the finish line.