Dubai marathon, January 2013

 

Since coming to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates to teach for a couple of years, I have been keeping active playing rugby and doing a spot of running. In September I took the plunge of entering the Dubai marathon, thinking it would be rude not to while I’m in this neck of the woods! Rugby disrupted my training somewhat as my now fragile runner’s body took a pounding. Two days before the Abu Dhabi half marathon I twisted my ankle badly and had to pull out. A week before the Dubai Creek half marathon I sprained a ligament in my shoulder playing at the Dubai rugby sevens! Thankfully it recovered sufficiently to do that race in 1h 27m 12s, coming 37th out of 1555, taking photos along the way and giving my Vibran Five Finger footwear their race debut! 

One week later I was in Muscat, the capital of Oman, when my host mentioned in passing about the Muscat Road Runners club half marathon early the next morning. Why not, I thought! So my Vibran FFF got another outing as I surprised the locals by winning it in 1h 24m 18s! Though there were only 50 runners and no prizes, it was a nice unexpected addition to my wee trip to Oman. 

I would not recommend the lack of training I did for this marathon, as it was minimal and sporadic! It usually involved a couple of rugby training sessions and a couple of longish runs per week, if I had time. I only did one long run of 2 ½ hours a fortnight before race day! So I knew I would struggle in the latter part of the race with the lack of mileage in my legs, but I didn’t have the pressure of a sub-3 hour target and could enjoy the race. 

The marathon started at 7am in excellent dark cool conditions, with fog partly shrouding many skyscrapers, giving an atmospheric feel to the first few kilometres. I ran at a delightfully consistent pace for the first two thirds of the race, mostly overtaking runners and benefitting from some drafting behind a group of three runners going at a perfect pace during the middle third. I passed through 14km in 1h 1m and 28km in 2h 2m. As the fog lifted and the sun began to shine, I started to flag and let my little group of three drift ahead. My kilometres splits went from 4m 15s to close to 6 minutes! The last third was damage limitation and operation get-to-the-finish-line! I had enough in the tank to put on a spurt in the last couple of kilometres to sneak under 3h 20m and complete the 42.2km in 3h 19m 50s, and 156th out of 1851! Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa won the USD 200,000 prize money is 2h 4m 45s! 

A post-race massage revitalised my tired legs, followed by a dip in the refreshingly cool Arabia Sea in the afternoon, and a hot bath in the evening. My legs have never felt so good the day after a marathon! I have no more races planned for the coming months and I’ll enjoy a well-earned rest from marathons for at least a couple of years!