Ayoub

Ouaantar

I was born and raised in Casablanca. Life was simple, but far from easy. No luxury, no hobbies. Just school, work, and a constant drive to figure things out. That's how it was. That's how I grew up.

In 2019, my brother asked for help with his logistics company. E-commerce was booming in Morocco, but the delivery experience was still rough. We used the Uber driver model: no fancy PDA devices, just basic smartphones. So we built around what drivers already had: camera scanning, a clean UI, and a system that just worked. Nothing fancy. Just useful. It scaled. It made a difference.

In August 2020, at the height of COVID, I moved to Munich. New language, new culture, new systems. It felt like a different world. I had to adapt fast. I did.

By 2023, the pain was still there. But I was done making excuses. So I set a ridiculous goal: swim 1500 meters by December. With metal in my arm. With limited mobility. With zero swimming experience. Just because I was tired of waiting for things to be perfect.

It was brutal. Every stroke was awkward. Progress was slow. But I kept going. In December, I did it. It wasn't fast or pretty, but it was done.

In 2024, I started with the Olympic-distance triathlon in Landshut with triathlon.de. First race, first finish. Then took on my first Half-Ironman in Erkner. Screws still in my arm. First 70.3 in the books.

In 2025, I doubled down. A second Half-Ironman in Poznan. Another Olympic-distance in Landshut. And my first half marathon in Munich. No more first-timer luck. Just showing up, year after year.

Then December 2025 hit: nausea, low energy, weeks of feeling off. Blood tests, stool tests. Nothing. Months of looking. Eventually a colonoscopy and endoscopy with biopsies caught it: H. pylori. I'm finishing antibiotic treatment now and seeing how the body responds. Marathon des Sables is still the dream, but I'm taking it one small goal at a time. Still consulting on tech. Still have screws in my arm.