A former special forces soldier turned UK TV star is confident he will be able to shave time off his personal best when he competes in the Qatar T100 Triathlon World Championship Final on Friday.
Which should be manageable, seeing as Ollie Ollerton’s previous experience of triathlon amounts to just a single race, in Dubai last month.
He aced his debut, to the extent that, when he returned home he found an email in his inbox informing him he had qualified in his age group for the season’s final in Doha.
The invitation came as a surprise to the 52-year-old Englishman. He had only entered the race in Dubai after his mates suggested he join them in doing the T100. They all pulled out before the start, leaving him to step into the unknown on his own.
T100 races get their name from the distance covered. They consist of a 2km swim, an 80km bike ride, and an 18km run, adding up to a total of 100kms.
Ollerton had initially planned to do the sport’s ultimate endurance distance, the 226.3km ironman discipline, before settling for a slightly softer introduction.
“I pushed that back and I thought I’d better warm up to it. Some friends in Dubai were like, ‘Do the T100’.
“Funnily enough, the week before, they all pulled out. They left me on my own and straight away my mind went, ‘Just don't do it.’ But then a little voice said I should do it and prove more because they'll all be jealous.”
With no previous experience, he had no expectations for the race, and acknowledged he thought there was a point he would be told to stop.
In fact, he made it to the finish line in under five hours and 30 minutes. It earned him ninth place in his age group, and therefore qualification for the season-ending race in Doha.
“Because I've not done one before, I was starting to think, I wonder how long it is before they tell you to stop, your times are that bad,” Ollerton said.
“I had no expectation. I've never put the three [swim, bike, run] together. I've always done them but had not been on a bike for a long time. That turned out to be my strongest discipline.
“There's a lot I learnt from that first one. Little things like I didn't wear socks for the run. I was hobbling around as the blisters on my feet were just insane.
“Learning all those things and knowing what's in front of me. I just know I'll shave time off.”
Some moody blisters on his feet were never likely to deter him. Ollerton has always been inspired to seek greater challenges throughout his life in response to childhood trauma.
He was mauled by a chimpanzee when he attended a circus as a 10-year-old child, a near death experience which he says has shaped his view of the world.
“That was my first memory of life on this planet where I actually went to a different place, where I realised that we've got so much more potential than we're led to believe,” Ollerton said.
“That helped me get through special forces selection. I had been at a point in my life where I was actually thinking it'd be better if I wasn't here.
“It was that inner voice that said, ‘You've got more, there's more to, that's not the answer.’ As a kid, it was about understanding that we have far more potential than we're led to believe.
“The brain's a wonderful thing, but it's a mechanism that's designed to look after us, to protect us. And if you allow it to do that, it keeps you small.
“It has helped me with everything in life, just knowing we've got more. You've got to appreciate it, accept it, and just say, ‘Look, not yet, there's a bit more.’”
He became a special forces soldier and starred in the UK TV show SAS Who Dares Wins, before becoming a best-selling author.
Now he is taken by triathlon. His first taste of it has given him the bug; now he wants to tackle all of the sport’s biggest challenges, including the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.
“I'm going to do the lot now,” he said. “I did a VO2 max test [of aerobic capacity], and I'm in the top one percent, apparently.
“So I'm thinking I've got something to give. It's almost like it uncovered my true potential through doing that T100, which was amazing. I feel like I have a new lease of life.”
