Go do it, Dev! It’s a good race; great venue, swag, pre-and -post parties, etc. Drafters on bike but supposedly they are going to work harder on that this year. Locals will chime in with more insight, but my experience:
1). It was the perfect temp for a wetsuit...right around 69-70 degrees. Water is really salty. You are a fish so may forgo anyway? Swim course was quite swelly but you got a little push from them on the way in.
2). Logistics aren’t bad. I would stay at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel or something in the immediate vicinity and it’s a piece of cake. I foolishly Hotwired a hotel (it gave me three options in the area and one in the Dubai Marina, which is quite a ways away! Guess which one I got.). From Jumeirah Beach you will be able to walk or bike to everything race related. Cabs are plentiful and cheap if you end up somewhere else. I suppose far away is relative...we were a 20 minute cab ride from transition and I didn’t feel the need for a closer hotel at all.
3). Swim start is the most controlled rolling start I have ever seen! The pens are roped off, then they allow 5 at a time through the gate over the mat. Very civilized. Weather last year could not have been more perfect; awesome temp and no wind. Did talk to a nice man from Perth in transition who had raced the year before, and he said it was hot as the surface of the sun! Be forewarned in that instance there is very little shade on course.
4). Dubai drivers are CRAZY. Do not try to ride in traffic; you may die! Fortunately you don’t have to. There is a huge purpose built cycle track (Al Quadra) that is closed to cars just outside of the city, and there are other closer options in city limits. Here’s a link; google cycling in Dubai and you’ll find info on the others.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/...mirate_of_Dubai.html
For a quick ride you can always go along the run path the race uses.
7). Lots of places to swim and a great guarded practice swim the day before.
8). Yes...most of the run is on a sprung jogging path along the water. It is very nice, but has very little shade.
I’m sure others will chime in but I’d say go do it. It was a lovely race for me. If you FaceBook join TriDubai; it is a great active triathlon club. Locals will answer your questions and you can join any of the training sessions they have while you are there (there is a Wednesday morning sea swim every week, plus bike sessions, etc). I really would say suck it up and pay for the Jumeirah Beach Hotel or one of the others in the Mendinat complex; that will make your life super easy. As far as downsides? For me, lack of trash cans (what the heck?!) and the aid stations started to run out of stuff at the very tail end of things. You are a bit quicker than me, though, so no worries there!
If you have any other q’s feel free to pm.

I can answer a few

- 100% will be wetsuit
- temps won't be hot and barely warm.....prob 20C
- there are lots of good places to ride but not right at race venue before race
- hotel close will cost you. If you have a spot just stay there. Getting around is cheap and not that hard.
- its all dead flat
- there will be tons of drafting
- not sure on waves. Seems to change each year
- you can swim in ocean most places. I'd recommend pools as some places have restrictions
- run is nice. yes on a built track path for most. Its fast

Hey guys, thanks for the inputs....when I was looking at the age group times (in my age group), they were "way too close to pro times" to be real, so I assumed that there are some groups. I am mainly interested in a personal challenge and don't care if I end up 3rd or 30th in my age group, so I suppose if I do this event, I just assume that I won't get the placement that reflects my fitness when packs blow by. At Demi Esprit, I did 31 + 2:26 (for 91km dead flat course) + 1:51 = 4:54. My ideal goal would be to break the Esprit time as I have 3 more months to work on my run (coming off multi year rehab) and my biking is getting stronger and its salt water wetsuit, so I better swim 28 high or 29 low. (I swam 23:34 for 1500m at swimming nationals no wetsuit in a pool which SHOULD translate into a sub 30 fresh water with wetsuit, and faster salt water with wetsuit....but depends on swells.

Swim “could” be rough but it should be ok. It’s some of the most floaty water you will swim in. If conditions are fair it’s a fast swim and the bike will be fast even if you let draft packs go by you’ll get a toe. Some of the worst drafting you will see in tri (think IM Texas) is there. A new level of no shame with racing in that region.

The only thing preventing a fast time there - some days can be very high winds. Not most but you can get a blustery day that time of year on wrong day.

OK so if I do it, I do it for the local cultural experience and time my swim and run and the bike just do my thing and not get involved/frustrated with groups and just do my own effort and sit on my personal watts out of the mess. If we get really blustery day, then drafting become less of an issue and I can worry about placement, although my run is so slow that placement is less relevant anyway (but I suppose most in 55+ are darn slow on the run anyway)

Dev

Sent you a PM. There is a lot of shameless drafting but it is also an extremely fast bike course even if you ride it legally so don't necessarily assume all the "almost pro" times are cheaters. Almost completely flat, nothing technical, very smooth roads, and the wind quite often changes around as the day warms up so that you get a tailwind both out and back. Plus some legal slingshotting past the packs. Amongst friends who I would be 100% confident rode legally, times this year ranged from a 2:24 off 200W to a 2:06 off 300W, and a lot in between with speed/watts that are consistent with those times.

We have TriDubai sea swims on Saturdays and Tuesdays too. Good way to practice a bit where the race swim will be, though with the massive amount of construction going on at Jumeirah Beach, I’m interested to see what they do for the swim course this year.

This "tailwind both out and back" features shall be there more often.
Is Ironman working on it ?
This is customer service :-)

Righty oh, Dev... it’s sold out. Did you pull the trigger or no?

Crap too late. I guess I am staying home in the cold!

I've had this race on my radar and it sounds exciting! The long flight from the US has me holding back and procrastinating. But also I am curious about being a woman there and racing with a normal kit. I know it's a more progressive area, but from what I've read it's best to dress modestly if you're a woman. I wouldn't mind wearing a head scarf before and after the race and I never wear skimpy clothes. So I'm sure I'd be fine. But just wondering about being in the actual race. I like to wear sleeveless jerseys with a good portion of my back exposed. Would that be OK?

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

As a Western woman, race in your normal kit. You don’t need anything else. (I can pm race photos if you are interested.) No one will bother you. Away from the race, you will see Westerners wear just about everything, some of which caused me to raise my eyebrows a bit. Again, no one seems to bother about it. I wore short sleeves and skirts/skorts with no worries. Cover appropriately if you go to a mosque, etc but in public if you use common sense no issues.

Hey my flight from home to Kona is 1.5 hrs to Newark + 11 hrs to Honolulu + 40 min to Kona. To Dubai it is 1 hour to Toronto, 13 hrs to Dubai. Dubai and and Kona are roughly equal distance in time from Eastern seaboard. There is no difference. Its also only 1 stop to Dubai from almost anywhere on the East coast or midwest so the trip is faster than to Kona.

Lived in Dubai for 1.5 years and did this race twice (very very slowly). If you want a cultural experience, come join us for 70.3 Oman two weeks later. 2019 was the first year, but they did an excellent job considering. There were small hiccups, but nothing that really affected the race negatively.
The bike course is decently hilly (708 m according to my garmin), and I can’t recall seeing any drafting (unlike Dubai, which is a draft fest). Run is a two lap out and back along the beach, nice if you’re racing with friends or spectators as you get to see them plenty.
Finally, the awards/rolldown ceremony was excellent. Lots of floor couches and tables, lots of room, pretty good food.

Also, you get to try out a new taper plan on race week since the race is on a Friday due to the weekend in the Gulf being Friday/Saturday.

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Darren
https://www.strava.com/athletes/12385497