Dubai Marathon RR (Read 970 times)

Dubai is a small but very rich Emirate on the Persian Gulf. It has the finest hotel in the world, the tallest building, the biggest hotel (soon), the richest horse race and golf tournament, and a bunch of huge upscale malls (one complete with an indoor ski slope and bobsled run!). Skyscrapers spring up seemingly overnight and they are currently building the world's largest sports venue. Everything in Dubai is the best. So it figured that the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon was the richest marathon ever, with $250,000 to the winners and a $1 million bonus if a runner (male or female) broke the world record. This attracted a number of elites, notably Haile Gebrselassie, the current world record-holder in the marathon. If he could beat his own record of 2:04:26 he would collect $1 million. I registered for the race at the last moment due to recurring problems with my foot. If it were not Dubai I probably not have run, but when would I ever have the chance to run it again, and see Geb? A friend from India had warned that many marathons in Asia cater exclusively to the elites, and slower runners might find themselves without aid station support and arrive at a deserted finish line. This would not be the case in Dubai. Packet pickup was just that--no expo or other booths at all except for the Marathon de Monaco et des Riviera . A marathon in Monaco, France and Italy along the Cote d'Azur? There's another one for my list. We dodged a bullet--the four days before the race Dubai had torrential rain, an almost unheard-of event there in the desert. The day of the race was ideal, 55°F/13°C and a slight breeze. It isn't easy to find a cab at 6 a.m. in Dubai and when it finally arrived it was, like everything else there--new, clean, and comfortable. The driver informed me (in perfect english) that many streets were closed due to the race and he would have to drop me off a short distance away and I could walk to the start. I exited the cab in a dark, deserted area, thinking that there would be a crowd headed for the start. Not so much. Anywhere else, walking through a dark downtown area, I might have felt uneasy, but not here. There was nobody around so I walked in the general direction where I thought the start was, through a hotel lobby, and eventually started seeing others in running clothes. Arriving at the start area I was surprised to see there were just two, count 'em, two portajohns for roughly 600 runners and the bag drop was nowhere to be found. I waited in the slow line and gave my drop bag to a friend who had come along to watch Geb finish. I finally got through the line 5 minutes before the start and off we went. The only fans out in force were Geb's Ethoipian fans, who were quite vocal. Dubai's population is only 20% local, and the other 80% are foreign workers, many of whom are Ethiopian. They were out to cheer on their national hero. After about 1 km one woman runner ran to the side, leapt over a barricade and squatted down to do her business. When you gotta go...good thing those barricades were there! The pack was about 600 for the marathon (many more for the 10k and 4k later), and I heard many languages and accents, and saw a lot of shirts from all over the world. Surprisingly, I did not see any runners who were natives of Dubai, but many foreign contract workers who live and work there. Aussies, Europeans, and Americans mostly. One woman was dressed in full-length black track suit and a head scarf. The course runs toward the Persian Gulf for 5km then along the Jumeirah Road on the coast to the turnaround near the aforementioned finest (and tallest) hotel in the world, the world-famous Burj Al Arab, which is shaped like a sailboat and where rooms run from $2000 to $28,000/night: We passed mosques, palaces, the Dubai Zoo, fine hotels, upscale malls, and "public housing" for citizens that looked more like upscale condos. The Gulf was only occasionally visible due to buildings along the Jumeirah Road, but soon we could see the famous Burj Al-Arab far in the distance. It was quite a nice running tour of the city. At one point the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world and still growing at about a floor per week, eclipsed the sun. All along the way were the Ethiopians cheering. I wanted to run a good, even pace here and limited myself to a steady 8:50 pace, which I felt I could sustain given my lack of training and the foot, which was actually behaving itself. I had a few conversations with some Americans working in Abu Dhabi and a guy from Prague. I had figured that I would cross paths with Geb at roughly 14km (27 km for him) on the out-and-back and could tell he was approaching by watching the TV helicopter. Soon enough he passed, I said goodbye to Prague and paused to take a picture: Soon after that the elite women passed. Lornah Kiplagat, previous world-record holder, was supposed to be running but I did not see her and later learned that she DNF'ed. By 16 km the highlight was over and I just cruised the rest of the way to the turnaround and started back: Turnaround with Burj Al Arab in the background Support was great throughout, with plenty of water and Gatorade all the way, plus orange and banana slices if I wished. Water was passed out in 500ml bottles, which was kind of wasteful-after all, who drinks half a liter of water at an aid station? Most of it was tossed aside. I passed the dreaded 26km marker, which I really hate in a km-marked race (tease!), and despite the usual heart rate creep and slowly increasing headwind, managed to keep a pretty steady pace to the finish. Along the way I passed some of the runners who had left me behind earlier, including Prague, and I knew I was running a tactically good race. At the finish I collected a very nice, big, bronze medal and a banana. There weren't enough volunteers there to collect chips so I had to untie my own, which is no fun at all at that point! I also located the portajohns and bag drop which I couldn't find before the start. I learned that Geb had passed the halfway mark in a too-fast 61:27 and missed his $1 million payday by a mere 30 seconds. Well, even a world champion can go out too fast. I feel better. All in all, it was a memorable race. Now about that Monaco Marathon...

Cool place to run. And a nice report, felt like I was there. Monaco does sound fun, too! Thanks! Post a pic of the medal?

Here it is, almost as big as the San Francisco Medal. I kind of wish it had the Arabic script on it.

Cool report. My BIL was over there for over 6 months last year. I couldn't imagine being there.

Here's hoping that you make it to Monaco, and it's an even more memorable experience. That's hard to imagine though, Dubai was quite the event. Great job taking it all in and enjoying the day, thanks very much for sharing it with us.

Awesome race report Professer!! I've been waiting to hear this one for months!! What an amazing experience and a great race. Loved the pictures. Thanks so much for sharing. Sara

Unfortunately, if I run Monaco it won't be this year, I'm on the 60-day DL. Maybe 2009. I'm glad some RA'ers liked the report, it's why I wrote it. BTW In what other sport could you compete on the same course as the best in the world?

Uh. Wow. Arguably the coolest race report evah. I have a hundred questions, but I'll start with the obvious: how'd you get to do this? Were you in Dubai on business? Okay, the real question: can you take me next time?

Yep, I arranged to be there on company business, which worked out really well, as I only had to pay for the race Airfare and hotel are $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ I don't think gorillas can come with me (although would undoubtedly be less smelly and better behaved than some passengers). Sorry.