The 36-year-old’s last-ever race was in Dubai at the Grand Final of the inaugural T100 World Tour, a professional series heralding a new era for swim, bike and run.
McNamee, the first British man to win a medal at the Ironman World Championship, feels he could not have left the sport in a better place in any sense of the phrase.
“I couldn’t have thought of a better ending, to be honest,” said McNamee.
“Standing on the finish line with the Burj Khalifa in the background, at the end of the first T100 season, I don’t think there’s any more scenic place that I could have thought about ending my career.
“I couldn’t visualise a better ending if I kept it going for the next couple of years. That was ultimately what sealed the decision, getting to finish my last race at the highest level.”
Born in Ayrshire, McNamee has launched his assault on the summit of triathlon from his base in the Catalonian city of Girona.
Initially a swimmer who liked going out for a run, he moved up to long distance racing ten years ago, disinclined to pursue a place at the Olympics given the dominance of the Brownlee brothers.
McNamee broke through in 2015, winning his first Ironman 70.3 medal in Mallorca and being crowned UK champion for the first time.
His date with destiny came two years later when he captured a historic World Championship bronze in Kona and the Scot did the same in 2018, making him the most successful British man in the history of the Ironman showpiece.
Explaining his decision to retire, McNamee said: “I went back and forth this entire year, whether to retire or not. As much as I love the sport, I think I’ve just lost that extra little bit of drive that you need to be the very best in the world, and my body’s also starting to show its wear and tear.
“I’m still here competing – maybe not at the front – but against the best athletes in the world, and I want to go out and retire whilst I’m still able to be here competing. And I think if I kept pushing it and pushing it, I think I wouldn’t be able to maintain this level.
“Since being a kid I’ve always wanted to race against the best in the world and here I am. I’m not on the podium, but I can still fight it out with them, so it’s a great way to finish.”
McNamee plans to keep running but his last act in competitive triathlon saw him finish in 12th place in Dubai.
“I tried to not really think about it until I passed someone with about a kilometre to go and they shouted ‘this is the last ever kilometre you’ll do in your life’” he recalled.
“That kind of shook me but I knew Jason was chasing me hard, so it wasn’t really until the final 100 metres when I knew I’d end up finishing 12th that I really relaxed and took it all in.
“That’s when it sort of hits you that it’s the last time you’ll ever get that feeling of crossing a finish line, absolutely exhausted.”
