Tag: rak

Another RAK half marathon – 2017

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Yesterday the RAK half marathon impressively lived up to being the world’s fastest half marathon. Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya set a new world record for the women’s half marathon, in 65:06. I heard she was hunched over after the finish looking like she was about to vomit. No history books will mention that.

The weather conditions were absolutely perfect for running. Even before the race the announcer said there are no excuses for not running a personal best time today. I objected to the people around me, “This guy clearly doesn’t know me!”

I started the day with a thought that 1:40 would be a decent finish time, given the training I’ve done. In the end, I finished in a fair 1:39:59 .. And this time was with one toilet stop. If it wasn’t for that huge wee, I may have also finished the run in around 1hr and 5 minutes.

Soon after the start I was alongside one of Dubai Creek Striders’s most charismatic characters, and wellness gurus.  A lot of his recent social media posts have been relating the ill-effects of sugar on us. I facetiously told him to “Leave my sugar alone” .. then nervously overtook him – with an immediate worry that he’s probably right, and my diet will be my demise in this race and he and the rest of the group would overtake me with much cheer.

A single glimpse of something can lead me to think about it for huge stretches of time. Along the way I passed a guy wearing an Iron Man body suit. I pondered, at what point in a race would I deploy the jets. I don’t know how many kilometres I had completed at that point, but I was pretty sure I’d put on the jets right there and then.

That was a more enjoyable thought than when I passed a shirt slogan, “There is no finish line”.  I know their marketing folks are inspiring an ongoing lifestyle, and promoting a continuing journey of fitness. I know that now. At the time, I just muttered “Bugger”.

One distance milestone I do remember was passing the 12km marker. I remember this because the lady next to me said out loud “Single figures”. She didn’t seem to be running with anybody else. So maybe she was talking to us. I thought about it, then thought about it some more. It could have been 5 seconds later I figured it out, and apologetically verified back to her “Ah, [single figures] kilometres remaining!”

I wore the race shirt they provided us. Lots do. Why not, it’s the newest in my wardrobe. At one point I noticed a guy to my right was wearing not only the shirt, but also the same Nike “look-at-me” running shorts I had. He may have seen me looking him up and down, so I shared that we could be twins. He thankfully laughed. Then we both decided to split up before the camera people just ahead could take a cute picture of us together.

It was funny to hear Kat, the default voice of the Runkeeper app, coming from someone else’s smart phone. The guy was getting a comprehensive update on his time, distance, average pace, and I was curious if bladder levels would one day become part of the story. I told the guy I thought the Runkeeper lady only talked to me. But he was quick to explain. That app is important company he has during his away-time running.  It gets him through the many times he’s in the bad books for being anti-social, having to go to bed early & run in the mornings. Then he put up his hands and shrugged, “What else can we do when we love such a crazy pastime as running?” I agreed and wished him a lovely run.

In the final 4-5kms I maintained a pace between slouching off and feeling like I was about to vomit. After giving High 5s to my family (who was leaning inappropriately out over the fence) with 200 metres remaining, I sprinted to cross the finish line – with one second to spare.

I look forward to doing it again next year.

2016 goals smashed – just. Kind of.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

In 2016 I again tried to make continual progress over 12 months in a couple of personal areas I find important:

  • Running 1200kms, and
  • Reading 12 books.

Both of these numbers neatly ensure each and every month I keep running and reading. Or, so I hoped.

In reality, it’s never that simple for me.

My 2015 goals became a real challenge when the priority shifted from running to looking for new job opportunities.
And this past year, after beginning a new role opening an ambitious new attraction I struggled to find the time & head-space to read for pleasure.

Unable to find time is such a cop out. The obvious truth is, if you find something important enough, you make time. But we’ll get to that shortly ..

 

Run 1200 kilometres in a calendar year (supposedly 100km per month)

As it turned out, my running goal was quite straight-forward to complete this year.

In fact, I ran 1374km in all (exceeding even the cliched 110% effort).  This was mostly on account of running a second marathon in the year during my Australian holiday. It really wasn’t planned like this.
My parents coincidentally booked my boys and I into a wonderful resort on the Gold Coast on the same weekend in July as Australia’s premier road race, the Gold Coast Marathon. The marathon course passed two streets away from where we were staying on Surfer’s Paradise. And it happened to be where I ran my first marathon back in 2007. So I saw no alternative but crank up the training in the month before we left Dubai, and run the popular event.

It really boosted my kilometres. Usually my running tally flattens right out in July during Dubai’s summer.

 

Read 12 books in a calendar year (supposedly 1 book per month)

My reading goal on the other hand, it really came down to the wire.

I made almost no progress in the first half of the year. A couple of times I wasn’t sure I’d make it. November became such a stressful ascent, and December’s four books seemed almost insurmountable.

But I kept reading when I could, especially on my commute to and from work.

Right until the final afternoon of 31st of December, I was literally reading while running .. well, listening to an audio book on my final long runs.

Then after my exhausted return from 32.5kms I had to finish reading a final 40-50 pages.   But I managed.  I completed the final 12th book and my reading challenge.

S-U-C-C-E-S-S

It’s a good feeling to again complete these two resolutions, particularly after it seemed that one goal became near impossible.

Maybe it’s a strength to adapt to life and fit in such a variety of things, not focusing on a singular goal.

Perhaps my subconscious enjoys the drama of bringing things back from the seemingly impossible.

If so, perhaps I’d like to retire this part of my subconscious in 2017.

Making some regular progress each and every week would be wonderful to avoid getting into stressful situations with little time remaining.

Let’s see what 2017 brings.

But there was actually something I didn’t complete this year as planned ..

 

Publish 12 blogs in a calendar year (supposedly 1 blog per month)

When I renewed my 1200kms and 12 books challenges, I also thought to myself that I’d like to blog 12 times.  Again, at the start of the year this is a number which seems so easy.

In January an obvious blog for me is to write about the Dubai Marathon that I tend to run. And it seemed like a particularly good story this year as I had trained hard, and even employed a new training regime with an expert online coach. What an uplifting blog to write, in my 9th year of running to return to my best form. Though for a couple of reasons, I didn’t finish close to my goal time and I felt quite disappointed for many weeks.

I thought I’d get over it, and still share my thoughts from the day.  But this disappointing blot kept me from writing for a month. And it kept me from writing in the month after that when we had a nice trip to Ras Al Khaimer, a repeat of the trip we take each year – which I wrote about in 2015 (“Another RAK half weekend – 13-14 February 2015”).

Even in July when I holidayed in Australia I didn’t document my usual notes from our adventures. The fact that I had a resolution to write 12, demotivated me to recover the blog situation. I wasn’t getting back onto the horse.

Finally in December, I enjoyed the Striders half marathon too much and had to pen a few notes from the event, (“Yet another Striders half – 09 Dec 2016”).  And perhaps it was decidedly restarting the practice for the fresh running season and the coming year.

So the final score card has just one blog out of 12, for the 12 months.

Interestingly, when I was reflecting on my 2016 goals and I remembered the blog idea, it almost didn’t seem like a resolution. I gave up on it so early and so easily, I suppose wasn’t really serious about this one this past year.

2017?

I’ll take off the pressure for 2017, and blog as much as I feel – with no reference to any arbitrary numbers.

But I’ll definitely read 12 books & run 1200kms.
I’ve got two years experience that no matter how challenging it seems they are to achieve, I always have them COMPLETELY under control.

*Sigh*


Another RAK half weekend – 13-14 February 2015

Reading Time: 3 minutes

For the second year in a row I ran in the world’s fastest half marathon. The “in” is important here. The RAK half marathon claims this title I think based on the top ten finishing times being faster than any other.

Dennis Kimetto – the holder of the world record for the marathon, started the event after saying something in Swahili. The adjudicator had a bit of a pause and shared that he probably said best of luck to everyone. Truth be told, he could have said just about anything. I had a wry smile thinking he might have said “running’s for losers, get a life.”

I happily started out slow. After around a kilometre I heard the loud barking of a dog coming from somewhere behind me. I figured one of the spectators must have brought their dog and thought little of it. A little later I heard the loud barking again quite close to me, is there a dog running the RAK half? I turned around and it was a runner, cupping his hands over his mouth, and letting out this loud woof. A few minutes later, “woof woof woof!” Ah, I figured it out. He barks at every kilometre marker. My neighbors had a bit of a giggle and probably ran a little more comfortably, knowing there wasn’t a big dog to worry about chasing us. Although getting chased by an actual dog could probably help with posting a great time.

I always run with my iPhone on my arm. It allows me track my progress and record my pace, not to mention receive the odd random call at an inopportune time. It also allows me to listen to music, when it decides to work. I admit having a device on my arm is a slight inconvenience. I won’t complain again though after seeing the guy I passed with what looked like the Samsung equivalent of an iPad mini strapped to his arm. I even thought it looked like he was running slightly lopsided. But if you do want to stop to read a book or watch a movie, he’d have the last laugh.

And I saw the perfect running shirt. It was a standard-looking t-shirt with a picture of Captain America’s shield on the back – set at the height as if he had it stowed there – ready for action – like Steve Rogers himself.

Once again it was a perfectly planned and executed running event. I’m talking about the organisers, not my running. At least I took things relatively easy and was able to enjoy it to the end.

We stayed up at RAK again this year. It gives us a head start in the morning and allows us to enjoy the evening in a different scene and climate – the northern emirates are renowned for being cooler. My brother and his family had come over to stay with us, so it was doubly good reason to stay. We loved the place we stayed at last year so I quickly searched booking.com for Al Hamra, golf, beach which was in the title and made the booking. It was only when we went to check in that I realised I’d stuffed up. There are two or more different hotels with similar names. We had stayed at the (Hilton) Al Hamra Beach & Golf Resort. I now had a booking for two rooms at the Al Hamra Village & Golf Resort. Close enough wasn’t close enough, but it was quite nearby – and clearly a common mistake. Our actual place was nice enough with lovely views over the golf course. But when we looked outside there was a cat sitting on our patio furniture. I wondered if I had made another error, I had thought I had asked for a “cot”.

The hotel had a buffet breakfast that we just made it home in time for. And there was a pool. And in the evening we ate in the bar and the boys – especially the youngest ones – loved dancing to the band. So all in all, it ticked all the boxes.

The next day we had the obligatory expat stop in Barracuda to restock our adult beverages. Then we left onwards to home, til 12 February 2016 when we look forward to doing it all again. The hotel we need, “Hilton Al Hamra Beach & Golf Resort”.