UAE Portrait of a Nation: The Emirati striving to be Ironman and family man

Emirati Abdulrahman Alhosani is the first Emirati to qualify for the half-Ironman world championship, a gruelling 1.9km swim, 90km bike ride and 21.1km run.

Abdulrahman Al Hosani hopes to represent the UAE in the Olympics. Courtesy Abdulrahman Al Hosani

ABU DHABI // Although Abdulrahman Alhosani is the first Emirati to qualify for the half-Ironman world championship, he believes races aren’t always about winning – sometimes they are about family.

In September next year, he will join 3,000 other elite athletes who have qualified for the Ironman 70.3 race – a gruelling 1.9-kilometre swim, 90km bike ride and 21.1km run that will take place in Tennessee.

But next week, the athlete will also take part with three generations of his family in the 10km Pink Run at Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi. He plans to cross the finish line with his parents, his wife, his daughters Nouf, 9, and Almayasa, 5, and his 18-month-old son Saud, who will ride in a stroller.

Mr Alhosani helped inspire his 57-year-old father, a retired military officer, who weighed more than 100 kilograms two years ago but shed 35kg, following his son’s example of regular exercise.

“He’s proud of me and he is motivated too. This is the first time my mother and father have entered a race, so we are looking forward to it,” said Mr Alhosani, a 31-year-old aircraft engineer.

“We’re all healthy and we all love sports. Even Saud already likes football – he’s already kicking everything.”

Mr Al Hosani was a promising footballer in high school and college, playing goalie for Al Jazira Club. But getting a broken ankle and torn knee ligament led him to quit the beautiful game in 2008.

After stopping sports for six months to heal, he started running instead, which led him to try triathlons.

“Unlike running marathons, you’re not putting too much pressure on any particular muscles with triathlons,” he said.

As he got into cycling relatively late in life, Mr Alhosani says it is the triathlon sport he finds the most arduous. But he is pleased to see how many fellow Emiratis are embracing the sport.

“A lot of locals have started cycling in the last three or four years,” he said.

He had hoped to represent the UAE in the Olympic Games this summer as a triathlete, and performed well in qualifying races in Japan and Australia. But the Abu Dhabi Sports Council could not gather a federation for the triathlon, he said.

“I don’t know if I will be too old by the time of the next Olympics, but I will try,” said Mr Alhosani.

He thinks his stamina, an essential ingredient for any Ironman, can make up for what he might lack in youthful vigour.

“Ironman is good for older people who are mentally stronger, because to keep racing for eight hours at a time, you need strong willpower.”

Mr Alhosani has a rigorous fitness routine to maintain his peak performance, waking up at 3.30am to do a 90-minute cycle or run, and then having another 90-minute sesson after work.

There is no break at the weekends, when he squeezes in four hours of fitness training per day.

He admitted that the toughest thing about Ironman training is trying to fit in time with his family.

But his family are still supportive. His wife and children flew to the Philippines last month to watch him in the Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship, during which he placed 10th in the 30-34 age group – enough to qualify him for the world event.

“They came to support me, which was nice,” he says. “I trained really hard and some training sessions, they came to watch too.”

Mr Alhosani says he never imagined as a child that he would end up becoming an Ironman.

“Even when I started doing triathlons, I couldn’t imagine it. I’ve really surprised myself,” he said.

“Training only counts for 30 to 40 per cent and the rest is motivation. Our bodies can do such amazing things.

“The power is all in your mind. Tell our minds that we can do it, and we can do anything.”