Meet our Equitrans Operations Manager, Victoria Johnson who recently successfully competed in Dubai’s impressive Iron Man 70.3 competition.

Victoria participated in the relay race together with two friends. Her mission was to swim the one-loop 1.9km (1.2 mile) swim course, set to the backdrop of the gorgeous Burj Al Arab hotel. Athletes had to start their swim next to the Jumeirah Beach Hotel and finish at Jumeirah Public Beach…

Tell us about your team? There were three of us and we were called ‘The Ramadans.’ We came 27 out of 35 teams.

What on earth made you decide to do the Iron Man? Ha ha ha… I was asked to do it two weeks ago and had nothing else to do that day…

Can you tell us about your training? As I only had two weeks’ notice, I’ve not done much. Just a couple of long swims to make sure could do it within the cut off time of one hour 10 mins, and I had been doing weekly swimming with some fabulous ladies already. 

How did it go? The swim went well, I did get some cramping towards the end of the swim so had to stop kicking and was just hoping it didn’t get any worse. There were many novice swimmers who couldn’t swim straight, so parts of it were a bit of a scrum… I ended up accidently kicking a few people who tried to swim over me! I just kept my stroke rate even and steady and by the end felt great, just a bit hungry!

How did you feel the following day/s? Really good, just a bit of a sore leg from the cramp but otherwise no issues.

Would you do it again? Yes!

Any advice for other people thinking of doing this? Give yourself enough time to prepare and train and enjoy it!