“From 2008 when I stopped riding horses until 2011, I wasn’t dedicated to a certain sport. I only ran occasionally. It was when I broke my leg that the athlete inside me was further unleashed,” Amin explains. The only thing she could do after her cast was removed was cycling, so she started attending spinning classes then took a course to be a spinning instructor.
“I have always wanted to ride a bike on the street, so I joined Cairo Cyclists Club; a cycling community whose members are mainly expats, and they are extremely fit and professional. The first time I rode with them, I was far behind and I couldn’t keep up with them,” Amin says. She started going with them on their weekly Friday rides where they cycle an average of 90 to 100 kilometers per ride. They were supportive and she learned quite a lot from them.
Amin’s first encounter with the triathlon came through her cycling training partner James Engel. Amin says, “I accompanied James to Abu Dhabi where he participated in a triathlon in March 2012. It was an amazing event. I saw different types of participants; there were overweight people, handicapped, competitors in their 70s, and others with prosthetics. Their determination and willpower were inspirational. They were a living example proving that nothing is impossible. That day I told James that I would swim, bike and run.”
As soon as Amin returned from Abu Dhabi, she started triathlon training. “This was the first time for me to swim since I was 10 years old,” Amin points out. Back then, she adds, running eight kilometers or swimming 50 meters was an achievement.
“Tristar Madrid 33.3 in October 2012 was my first attempt at a triathlon,” Amin says. It was a short race with a 300-meter swim, 30-kilometer bike ride and three-kilometer run, and she placed second in her age group. Several other races and achievements followed. In February 2013 in Dubai, she placed fourth in an Olympic-distance triathlon, completing a 1.5-kilometer swim, 40-kilometer bike ride and 10-kilometer run. June 2013 saw her in Texas for a 40-kilometer cycling race, where she placed sixth. She also ran the Beirut marathon last year.
Amin’s last race before the Mallorca Ironman was the triathlon in Abu Dhabi last March, where she placed seventh in her age group after swimming 1.5 kilometers, biking 100 kilometers and running 10 kilometers. “That one was special because it was the race I attended with James two and a half years ago and [the one that] triggered it all,” she recalls. “I felt I was emotionally connected to it.”
Even with all the other races under her belt, Ironman was an intimidating goal. Amin says it took her three months to make the final decision and register for the Mallorca competition. “I registered in February 2014 and I got down to serious training in April.”
To prepare, Amin trained for an average of 17 to 20 hours a week, with some weeks pushing 27 hours. “By doing longer distances and more hours, I aimed at boosting my endurance and building an aerobic base. It wasn’t important how long each training session lasted; it was more about how often I trained during the week,” Amin explains.
Every three weeks, the triathlete went to El Gouna for strength, conditioning, mobility and flexibility training with Nirvana Zaher; founder of The Fitness Playground, and considers these sessions very important to her race success. “Nirvana is the best in her field. She has both the knowledge and the experience. She studied Kinesiology in California State University, Sacramento; has a Master’s degree in Sports and Exercise Science from Loughborough University in the UK and has been working in the fitness domain for ten years,” Amin adds.
Not only did Amin need to prepare her body for the big race, she also had to train her mind. “In the period prior to the race, I thought of and imagined nothing except the moment of crossing the finish line. I even wrote quotes on a white board in my room, so I would see them every day and motivate myself,” she says. “I wrote: ‘I am a great swimmer, cyclist and runner, and I will always keep improving’, ‘The mind controls the body, and the mind is unlimited’, and ‘I can and I will cross the finish line unless something out of my control happens’.”
On the day of the race, she recalls, “I thought of the swim as a warm up. I didn’t want to get exhausted quickly. Fortunately, the swim was smooth. I kept calm and stayed cool. The bike route was rolling hills, so that was a little bit difficult, especially the part when we had to climb a mountain with a 6% incline. I was enjoying everything; the weather, the view and the atmosphere. It was so nice, even better than expected.”
It was the marathon that started to take its toll on her, and Amin recalls how touched she was seeing the Egyptian flag, which Martin had mounted on the bike he used to keep up with her so that she could see it waving in the crowds.
Even with the last grueling 10 kilometers of the marathon, Amin finished the race well within the 17-hour time limit. Her swim time was one hour, 21 minutes; cycling time 7 hours, 34 minutes and marathon time 4 hours, 55 minutes. She came in ninth in her division and 1788 out of 2554 athletes.
Based on her own research, Amin is convinced she is indeed Egypt’s first female Ironman athlete. The Egyptian Triathlon Federation told her they have no record of a woman competing under their auspices.
Silvia Hernández Alonso, Ironman coordinator for Athlete Services in Spain, confirmed Amin’s achievement: “She is the first woman from Egypt who finished an Ironman full distance. We have other women from Egypt who finished a 70.3 Ironman, but that´s the half distance. In the full distance (3.8 km swim, 180 km bike, 42.1 km run) she is the first one.”
Ironman has events in more than 20 countries, but only one in Africa and none in the Middle East.
Her first Ironman out of the way, the triathlete is already looking forward. Amin is currently training for Challenge Bahrain, a triathlon about half the distance of Ironman, in December. And her next goal is to qualify for the Ironman World Championship held in Hawaii each October.
Locally, Amin hopes that sports become more accessible to the underprivileged social classes. “My idea is to have something like non-profit sports organizations,” she explains. “It will be much better for young Egyptians to grow up and become athletes instead of being attracted to drugs for instance.”
That said, she admits that the lack of sponsorship for individual Egyptian athletes is a big hurdle. “There might be a lot of Egyptian sports talent drainage. This is the reason behind the absence of Egypt in global competitions.”
When not working out, Amin runs a small business designing and selling dri-fit sports T-shirts under her brand K-Fit. She competes as an amateur and must cover the costs of her training, equipment and race fees herself.
She also hopes more Egyptians learn about triathlons in general and more take the Ironman challenge. Ultimately, she says, “I want people to truly believe that nothing is impossible.”
Be Social
Comments
Leave a Comment