Kuwait City's Gulf Bank 642 (half) Marathon (Read 38 times)

Last weekend I ran the Gulf Bank 642 half marathon in Kuwait City. It was ... interesting.

Either a planning fail, or a cultural taboo, there were no portapotties staged at the starting area nor along the course. At some city parks there are toilet buildings, and I found one about two miles in, but otherwise there was a total lack of portapotties. Adjacent to the start was a mall that had a small bathroom on the second floor.

Also, the course had an odd turn-around scheme such that we 8:00-pace half/full marathon types were bobbing and weaving through crowds of 5K and 10K walkers for a few miles. It was no fun.

And, for the first time that I can remember, my Garmin distance was shorter than the race distance by just over .1 mile. I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen.

Otherwise, good water points, great views at the start of Kuwait City's downtown, nice energy in the crowd and at the starting line, and a wonderful run through an old souk/market. I wouldn't recommend this as a destination race, but if you're already in the area - say, for a deployment or business - it could be interesting to jump in just for fun.

I was coming off a hamgstring injury and was overall pleased with my effort.

Sounds like it was an experience. I've seen gps measurements short distances by taking tangents on curves/turns and shorting turnarounds. City buildings can confound measurements as well. Even in ideal geographic and weather conditions it would be unwise to consider your gps measurements to be very accurate. Long or short