Abu Dhabi Race Report

Now that the euphoria is gone, it is time to look back.

It was an amazing day for me. I set myself the targets I’ve been setting for my “big” events: 1) Stay Healthy 2) Have Fun 3) Learn Something 4) Reach to the End 5) If possible in less than x time.

In this case, I wasn’t sure if I was going to reach to the end. A deep cut on my right heel on the race the weekend before, had made me limp when walking (I could cycle and run without any problem, but not walk). This changed my biomechanics and caused enough stress in the calf and Achilles to provoke an acute pain after 1-2kms in 2 training run sessions a few days after.

After visiting the physio on Thursday, on top of having a very painful and needed massage, I’ve found out that there wasn’t a major injury in the Achilles, was just that both the Achilles and calf were very tight, and there were some lumps. I’ve decided that I was going to do the race anyway, but not take any risks: if I would feel any pain during the run I would stop, as an injury in the Achilles would mean somewhere between 2 to 6 months of recovery. And 2 weeks after Abu Dhabi, there’s the half-ironman in Singapore, which is my current main goal.

So the day before the race, I went to Abu Dhabi early morning with the goal of doing the swimming practice between 7 and 9am. Soon I realized that my plan of driving there on the race day was a bad idea. We didn’t reach on time for the swimming practice, even though we left around 6:30am. We went to the hotel where the registration was taking place, and we had breakfast there. It was great to see some of the stars, their bikes, and all the atmosphere of an event like this. My cousin Nuno even took a picture with Faris Al Sultan . We bumped into Andy Veall, a fellow beginner triathlete that I’ve met at Dubai Masters, and the weekend before we chatted in Ghantoot triathlon. We ended up hanging out with him the rest of the weekend, which was great. And of course, there were so many familiar faces from other triathlons in Dubai, or Dubai Masters. I ended up getting to know a few more people, which is something I love about sports events: the social environment.

Change of plans: finding a room in Abu Dhabi, driving back to Dubai to get our stuff and drive back to attend the race briefing, that in the meantime had been changed from 1pm to 6:30pm. We did the bike check-in, and than we started the driving saga. I think I’ve drove about 6-7 hours just on Friday, including the driving around in Abu Dhabi. Nevertheless, it was a wise choice to stay there the night before.

Race day, all set, everything prepared the night before, and here we go. It seemed like everything was perfect. I didn’t forget anything (so I thought), we could see the stars taking off, and it was a nice day, without wind, unlike the night before. When the race started, it felt good. There was still some “traffic” on the swim, but it was enjoyable. I had fun swimming, and I could feel myself gliding and being faster. When I got off the water, I was tired and it seemed that the wetsuit was too tight, but I wasn’t really worried. I was convinced that I was not going to be able to reach to the end (at least running), so no need to rush. I ended up taking almost 7 minutes on T1, which is a lot. Most of the people took between 3:30 to 5 minutes.

A few things that I could have done better: 1) use the compression sleeves and socks under the wetsuit 2) leave the helmet and sunglasses in the transition area 3) put the bike shoes on transition area (I don’t have tri shoes and I haven’t practiced putting them on while on the bike).

Throughout the bike ride (3 hours), I had lots of food , chatted with a lot of people, and had a lot of time to think. One of the things I was thinking was on the money I’ve spent buying bike gadgets, bottle holders behind the seat so that it reduces attrition, smaller toolset and bag so that it reduces the weight, etc., etc. The night before Andy said that he was thinking of not spending any money till he would lose 5kgs. How much impact would that have on his performance? What about on mine, if I would get below 80kgs (lose 3 kilos)? Probably a lot more than buying a new expensive set of wheels or a bike computer. Ok, so here we go, I’m not going to spend money on improving the bike until I’ve done 80 or 90% of what I can do on the rider. It will be cheaper and healthier for sure .

So, after the 4 GU gels, 2 energy bars, 2 half bananas, 2 energy drinks and about 2-3 litters of water, I’ve reached to the bike end after 3:04 and an average of 31.5km/h. Not bad, and I was feeling good, and having fun.

Transition 2 was fast enough, I just took the shoes and the helmet off, put on the running shoes and off I went. Started too fast (when you get off the bike it seems you’re not going that fast), so after the 1st kilometre I started slowing down. At that point in time, I decided that I was going to complete the triathlon, even if I had to walk. I didn’t want to hurt myself, but I wanted to reach to the end of the race. So I slowed down, and kept running. Along the way I’ve met Bronwen, who’s also doing Singapore 70.3, so we chatted a little bit, and when I noticed I had done 4 kilometres and no pain.

I kept chatting with other athletes, from Russia, from Argentina, from everywhere, and thanking the people that were cheering along the way. It feels great to have people cheering, and I like to thank them.

When I noticed, there was 2kms to go, I was almost there, though feeling a bit tired. But it was almost done. I remember that when I was reaching the finish line there was classical music playing, and I was striding to the sound of the music and waving my arms.

I’ve reached to the end and I felt euphoric. Not because I didn’t think I could do the distance, but because of the calf/Achilles condition. At the end, I’ve achieved all my goals, even more I’ve done 4:33, while I thought I could do around 5 hours. I couldn’t believe it.

I’ve celebrated. Not by going out, because training isn’t over, body was tired, and used to go to bed at 10pm and wake up at 5am, but by watching over and over the pictures, and publishing every new one on Facebook. Looking back, I think I’ve over done it . But who cares, I was/am happy, and I wanted to share with the world.

Post Race Analysis

Now that the race is over, some things to think of. First, don’t forget to put sun cream !!!!! That was the only thing that didn’t went so well during the race, though I only really felt it when I got home.

The second thing is that I don’t need to share that much pictures. Think it is good to share with friends and celebrate, but not that much.

The third thing is that stretching – before and specially after - is extremely important. The calf/Achilles could have had less impact if I would be more disciplined on the stretching. For the past 2 days I have been having a very strong headache and dizziness that, possibly comes from the “closed” position that I’ve spent on the bike on the last few weeks, with multiple rides of 3-4 fours. Not stretching properly, not opening the body (even when swimming you only open your body when doing backstroke) might cause locking and nerve compression. Learned this the hard way, and hopefully I’ll be recovered soon and back on track to Singapore.

At the end of the day, I’ve stayed healthy during the race, I had huge amounts of fun, I learned several things, and I’ve reached to the end in 4 hours and 33 minutes. What an amazing day.