Race Coverage

Invasion of the Bottle Slappers....

Friday, 17 March 2017 23:10

By Heather Lendway (heatherlendway.com)

Dubai 70.3 Race Report - After checking out the initial start list and ticket prices for Dubai I figured it could be a great start to the season.  Unfortunately, everyone had the same idea and the pro list exploded.  The weather in Dubai is actually quite ideal for racing in January, mid 70’s and basically no humidity.  With mostly base winter miles behind me I knew it was going to be a tough race against a very talented field.  Here are my thoughts on the race.

1. I feel like a broken record saying this as it seems to be the norm now in 70.3 racing, but the swim start was very aggressive. It was a beach start with a sharp right turn after about 50 meters so I was sandwiched in the middle of the pack with multiple bodies on top of me....

After we made the turn, I was in the middle of two girls with a five meter gap to three women.  I didn’t want to swim arm and arm with one woman on either side so I kicked it up a gear and was able to make the gap up to the lead women.   One woman had made another gap and I tried to go around but she had gapped us by too much so I settled in with the group.

2. I was thankful to have a non-wetsuit swim to break up the group a bit more. We came out of the water a minute or so behind the lead girl.  I had a fast transition and left T1 ahead of Daniela Ryf and Ellie Salthouse.  READ MORE