From Business to Triathlons
Mahir Ahmed is one of those rare people who runs a business and finishes triathlons. By day, he’s an executive running supply chains across continents. By early morning and late evening, he’s out on the roads, in the pool, or on his bike, training like a professional athlete.
As director of Apex Holdings Limited, he manages sourcing, logistics, and procurement for Bangladesh’s apparel and food industries. He oversees the group’s textile portfolio, including Apex Spinning & Knitting Mills Ltd and Apex Fashion Wear Ltd. Add to that new ventures like Nawabi ready-to-eat foods and sustainable textiles. Sounds exhausting already, right?
But it gets even more interesting. Outside of the boardroom, Mahir thrives as an endurance athlete. He’s the kind of guy who thought football was fun as a kid but went looking for something he could play for life. In 2018, during overseas trips, he spotted 70-year-olds finishing Ironman races. That lit a spark in him.
Picture: Mahir Ahmed.
From MTB Rides to Ironman
The start wasn’t smooth. He began with random cycling on a mountain bike, no clue about nutrition, no real plan. From 2018 to 2020, it was trial and error–figuring out what to eat, when to train, and how to perform better. By 2021, things clicked. He raced his first Olympic-distance triathlon in Dubai. That gave him the push to go bigger.
Since then, the race list has grown long. Three Olympic triathlons. Ironman 70.3 Barcelona–twice. Ironman 70.3 Thailand in 2024. Switzerland in 2025. Add to that the London Marathon in 2018, plus the Dubai marathons in 2024 and 2025. It’s a resume that would impress any athlete, let alone someone running multinational businesses.
Of course, he had to overcome a lot. Open-water swimming scared him. The cold, the waves, the endless water–it was terrifying. Training time was another nightmare. With Dhaka’s traffic and his demanding job, making enough time for training meant sacrificing social life.
Picture: Mahir Ahmed.
Endurance Beyond Sport and Business
Still, Mahir didn’t back down. Today, he trains about 12 hours a week, splitting time between swimming, cycling, running, and strength work. His methods are long endurance sessions and carefully planned nutrition. Discipline is his secret weapon.
Mahir has his sights set on a full Ironman Langkawi, a brutal test of body and mind. He sees endurance sports as more than races. For him, they’re about mental toughness, planning, and execution–the same traits that make him successful in business.
Picture: Mahir Ahmed.
Support plays a big role, too. His father, wife, brother, and close friends push him forward. Fellow triathlete Arafat Bhai adds extra motivation. And Mahir is thinking bigger than just medals. He wants cycling paths in Dhaka. He wants to change how people here think about fitness.
In the end, Mahir’s story is about more than balancing business and triathlons. It’s about proving that discipline and passion can rewrite limits. He’s showing Bangladesh–and himself that endurance is not just about sport. It’s about how you live, how you lead, and how you inspire others to believe they can go further, too.
