“Once you stop it’s over”

Before Marina Wille goes into the office, she has usually already spent two to three hours exercising and walking her dog.

Marina has been living in Dubai for eleven years. She has held the position of HR Director for the Middle East & South Asia Region at Hellmann since 2020.

Born in Lübeck, in northern Germany, she has always wanted to travel and work internationally. Dubai is the perfect hub for this. But her vacations are not spent lazily on the beach, instead she is very active. Among others, she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and got her scuba diving license a few years ago.

"Scuba diving and mountain climbing are wonderful ways to switch off and think, to perceive the world around you without distractions. It's a perfect balance for Dubai, where it's always loud and busy, and for my tightly scheduled daily job routine."

Another balance for her is sports. For two years, she practiced boxing and took part in competitions, later she discovered dragon boat rowing for herself. Apparently, the two sports weren’t challenging enough for Marina and so she tackled the Mina Desert Run in 2021 and came out on top in her category. She joined the local triathlon scene and has been training almost daily ever since. A coach puts together the training plan for her. One needs to be well prepared to run a triathlon, otherwise injuries can quickly occur.

Even her days off and hang outs with friends must be carefully planned. Twice a week she swims and rides her bike with a fellow training group. Training together is just more fun and within the group everyone pushes each other to peak performance. Sharing about experiences is also very important to Marina and her like-minded friends. In the summer, training starts at 4 a.m., otherwise the blazing sun would be unbearable.

Marina also finds time for her other passion: dogs. There are many stray dogs in Dubai and the animal shelters are overcrowded. There are several reasons for this, on the one hand, dogs are not considered pets in the Arab world, and, on the other hand, breeds like huskies are a symbol of status. However, the owners are then often overwhelmed and give the dogs to shelters or simply abandon them. Even expats who leave the emirate cannot and do not always want to take their four-legged friends with them.

Marina has been an active helper at the Stray Dogs Center, which has been financed entirely by donations for eight years. She herself has taken in a German shepherd mix, as well as a Saluki mix. To stay flexible despite having a dog, she has hired a dog walker, and when she travels she uses one of the great dog hotels.

She finds it very convenient that Dubai has just about every service you can imagine. For example, one company delivers her daily meals to her home with the calories she needs for her workouts. "My day is so jam-packed that I cannot cook on top of that," she happily admits.

This spring, she finally participated in her first Half Ironman in Dubai, which means swimming 2 km (1.2 miles), biking 90 km (55.9 miles) and running 21 km (13 miles). After 6 hours and 40 minutes, she did it! A few months later, she even improved that time to 5 hours and 50 minutes in another Half-Ironman in the Netherlands.

Her secret: "Just don't stop. Once you stop, it's over. You always have to set small milestones. Just reach the crossroads, now to the palm trees and so on. The right mindset is so important!"

True to her motto "Don't think, just keep going!" she has already signed up for the next, full Ironman in Mexico, this time with twice the course length in all three disciplines.

Marina's determination has also helped her in her job. When she took over the HR department at Dubai Head Office two and a half years ago, there was a lot to do. To avoid overwhelming both herself and her team, she set small, achievable goals and created a project plan that they implemented together and could all regularly reflect on. Like a triathlon, small successes are celebrated.