Another Striders half – 4 Dec 2015

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Yesterday I enjoyed my sixth straight Johnson Arabia Dubai Creek Striders Half Marathon. It’s always enjoyable, so much so that many describe it as the most beautiful in the world. 

I love seeing so many examples of wonderful human achievement. And that’s just afterwards with people piling their breakfast plates with mountains of pork and bacon, seemingly beyond the physical limit.

On the running side of awesomeness, Cheetah won again, breaking the course record with a not too shabby, 1.07. 

People outside of Dubai often assume it’s hot here all the time. We actually enjoyed perfect conditions with temperatures around 19-25. 

So the timing is perfect weather-wise, as well as fine preparation 8 weeks before the Standard Chartered (full) Dubai Marathon. I suspect, a few cunning runners if they miss their half marathon goal, may relegate the activity to a training run. Or just a means to earn the wonderful breakfast at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club.

This year I was in reasonable shape from having a couple of months of good marathon training under my belt. Though things still got tough in the second half.  I assumed I was beaming an appreciative smile to the lovely volunteers handing out water. In actual fact (I thought later) I could well have been looking like a zombie extra from The Walking Dead. 

Truth be told I visited the physio earlier in the week.  The prognosis was a strained TFL. Nothing ibuprofen couldn’t mask. It led me to using the post-race masseurs for the first time. Poor planning by me was to visit the same Dr/physio I had seen earlier in the week, with his thumbs made of rock, and sick affliction with others’ pain.  What was funnier than me visiting him, was him telling me to relax while my body was practically entering into convulsions.

This didn’t detract from the run. The Striders put on a brilliant event as usual, I thoroughly enjoyed it as I do each year. And Inshallah I’ll join another one next year. 

The only other slight blip on the morning was the annoying sensation that my toe was wearing a hole in my sock, and was beginning to peak through. It’s an annoying feeling that just gets worse as time goes on. Once home I removed my shoe, and my sock was intact. Uh oh. It was my toe that was the problem, with a blood blister. In an attempt to make it look less gross, I superimposed a couple of props. Enjoy!