Tag Archives: running

X multiplied by Y = why

Many runners enjoy running in groups. Running with company can help in terms of safety, and just extra enjoyment to pass the time.

However, everybody runs at different paces.

I recently experienced a situation where runners set off at different times, running at their own speeds, and hoped to meet up at some point on the same route.

It seemed like the classic high school maths question, “If Train #1 leaves the station travelling at 60km/hr and 30 mins later Train #2 leaves the same station travelling on the same train line at 80km/hr, how long before the trains collide?”.

I’m not good at algebra at the best of times. Let me tell you though, while running I found new levels of hopelessness trying to solve the puzzle of where one runner would catchup to others running at different paces.

Let me document the solution now, for posterity – thanks to http://www.algebra.com/.

The translated problem:

If Runner “Tortoise” leaves at 4:30am travelling at 9km/hr, and Runner “Hare” leaves at 5:00am travelling 12km/hr. At what distance will they meet?

T’s lead = 4.5 kilometres (30 mins @ 9km/hr)

Catching up speed is 3 km/hr (H’s speed 12km/hr – T’s speed 9km/hr)

Solution is to divide the 4.5 kilometre lead, by the speed which H can made up, 3.

So the answer is…. 1.5 hours.

Let’s test.

The distance which T covers in 1.5 hours is 13.5 kms, then add the 4.5 km head start from beginning 30 mins earlier would mean they would complete 18 kms.

The distance which H covers in 1.5 hours is 18 kms.

The hare after sleeping-in should meet the tortoise after 18kms.

Another great half marathon – tho not a personal best

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Today I ran my third Dubai Creek Striders half marathon. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and wonderful event, even though I didn’t quite achieve my goal of bettering my personal best time from last year.

Early on it seemed it wasn’t going to be my day.

I started out a little behind where I wanted to be, so I sped up which is usually not a good idea. It wasn’t helped by my shoe lace coming undone. I felt like a rookie, even more so when, unforgivably, it came undone again at the 13km mark.

After the first glitch I did find a bit of a rhythm. I enjoy this time, trying to find the right pace. It’s when my mind starts getting into an even more ridiculous mood. One thought I remember playing with was it’d be funny if the marathon had evolved from something invented as the “half marathon”. Perhaps someone dared to ask, “Hey, why don’t we take this half marathon concept and double it into a full marathon.” Sometimes it’s worrying how my mind spends its time during a run.

After 4-5kms I hit trouble. This is the first time in a running event that I’ve suffered stomach cramps, and that I’ve had to stop during the race for a toilet break. Possibly related, it was the first time I’ve eaten my neighbour’s oily curry the night before a race.

I crashed and burned, or more correctly, I stopped and pooped at the first public toilet I could find.

The toilet happened to be a “squatty” – hole in the ground, however beggars can’t be choosers, so I did what I had to do.

Overall I finished in 1:37:33. Altho the race officials won’t hear a bar of it, if you remove the 22 minutes* I spent trying to manage the awkwardness of the bathroom, I would have had a podium finish, probably finishing 3rd overall. If you also minus tying laces twice, I may have given Cheetah from the Striders a run for his money for 1st place.

After the pitstop I felt physically fine. However I couldn’t really push up the tempo a whole lot. It may have been due to the missed chance to finish close to my best. Or another thought I had was, perhaps I’m rubbish at pushing myself to run fast when there’s no automated voice from my iPhone and the adidas miCoach app telling me to.

My real running goal is for the full Standard Chartered Dubai marathon on January 25, 2013. I’ve been training very well for it. I feel I’m in better shape now than I’ve ever been. When it came to this half marathon though, I didn’t do as well as I’d like. The old adage, ‘Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance’ may help explain why I didn’t get a finishing time to reflect better fitness than where I was last year.

It was lovely to see the Dubai Creek Striders official pacers doing a wonderful job to finish within their respective times. I loved their easily identifiable Pacers shirt with the time they’d finish, with a big “Inshallah” written beneath.

Any disappointment in my own missed goal time was long gone before the homeward stretch up to the Dubai Creek Yacht and Golf Club. This is where I saw my family, and my boys are now at the age where they run beside me to the finish – and I don’t need to slow down very much.

If crossing the finish line after 21.1km wasn’t satisfaction enough, there was a spectacular buffet breakfast with all the trimmings. Old runners, new runners, fast runners, slow runners, many of us went on to eat like Kings and Queens. A finisher’s breakfast is well-deserved. And as a result, it tastes amazing!

All in all, I had a wonderful day. I love seeing the beauty of a fit city participating as a single community. Runners come from all walks of life, yet for the few hours of this event we all shared something special which we’ll always have. And for the great majority of people, we’ll probably all do it again.

* may be exaggerated.

Marathon PB at Dubai Marathon, 27 January 2012

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Yesterday at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon I crushed my running goal of 3:30. I crossed the line in a net result of 3:23.32 – which I’m very happy with. The time’s 15 minutes faster than my former best, in 2007; and 35 mins better than my last marathon just over 2 years ago.

I’m not sure why more people don’t run marathons. In the morning for breakfast I ate a whole family block of chocolate, guilt-free. I can justify eating almost anything providing it has high carbs. I guess as my running will now reduce, that diet will be a luxury of the past.

I’ve now run three marathons in three countries. And I’ll deny it if you ever bring it up, but at the starting line of each I’ve shed a tear or two thinking how fortunate I am to be in a position to do this.

My music collection didn’t really help me in such an emotional moment, hearing John Butler singing about having to believe. That was resolved with the next track “Don’t worry be happy” by Bobby McFerrin.

Sadly my iPhone lost its GPS signal for a moment, so my GPS girlfriend was overwhelmingly pleased thinking I was on world record pace. Once the distance is miscalculated there’s no recovery, she’ll tell wrong information every kilometer. This was a bit of a pain, as my phone had become my training partner for the past three months. It was now just a very distracting iPod. The music was at least helpful. Gloria Gaynor singing “I will survive” was timely and encouraging.

On the timing part, I did have the backup of my stop watch, so I could keep an eye on the times of my kilometer splits.

Marathoners generally have an A and B goal, so if things don’t go to plan, there’s still something to aim for. This year a guy ran wearing a 10kg rhinoceros suit to raise awareness for Save The Rhino. So most people also had a C goal in this run to not be beaten by a rhino. I saw him getting assembled at the start line, then thankfully not again for the rest of the day.

The run was fantastic. I ran the majority of training runs required in the three months before the race, so all the hard work was done. In the race I could just relax and enjoy – which I did. Although there weren’t large crowds of spectators throughout, there were still enough people screaming encouragement. Including my family who had come out bearing animal masks, vuvuzellas, and a “Go Daddy Go” sign. Being a Dubai Creek Strider also helped immensely, as wearing the team “vest” got plenty of vocal support from the extended Striders community.

The night before I asked my two sons if they could write some encouragement on my arms, which I could look down and see if I got tired. Myles wrote “Go Ryan” with a smiley, Lewis scribbled all over the other arm, which allegedly said “Go Ryan” also.

It was probably not the most well-executed plan. When I woke up race day at 4am stumbling into the bathroom I laughed out loud when my eyes focused. My face had in permanent pen a mirror image of Go Ryan, where my face must have rested on my arm.
It did come off.

It was tough to stick with the plan of breaking marathon into three parts, running slow, not so slow, then fast. The first 7kms was relatively slow, but then I’d say the rest was a fast medium pace, until the last 4kms when I had to fight to not be too slow. The training prepared me well, but there’s no getting around the fact that 42.2kms is a freaking long way to make the body run. The crowd were cheering the loudest towards the end, which was appreciated. With 3kms to go I caught up with a guy from the club who was struggling more than me. He came back with a bit of a sprint which helped me find an auto drive setting, which pushed me to the finish. On the line I couldn’t help but just stand in a triumphant, relieved, fatigued, blissful, agony. (I hardly even heard my club mate call me a bastard)

My family joined me. Then I hobbled to the Dubai Mall carpark. It seemed like a second marathon – along the way giving an understanding nod to other runners hobbling also.

My mind was a bit of a blur also. As I was walking, I heard a voice behind me say Ryan a few times. All I could register though was, I know that name. It was a colleague who ran the marathon also. I cursed the fact he was walking so comfortably, perhaps the benefits of more experience – this was his fifth marathon in recent years.

Once home I cracked open a beer, had a lovely hot shower to wash off the litre of dried sweat, then had a very relaxing bath. My bath may have been 15 minutes, or 5 hours – I have no idea.

That night we had a bunch of friends over for a belated Aussie Day BBQ. I proudly wore my finisher’s medal, which got some mocking. The kids though were very impressed. They spotted on the medal the number 2 of the year, 2012 and assumed I finished in second place. I went with it. So Ayele Abshero Biza won the marathon in a course record of 2:04.23, then I came in next, 80 minutes later. 🙂

One of the 10 year old girls put it nicely, and said it looked like I just got out of bed. Quite different to all the women who just told me I looked like [expletive].

Realistically, I have no future running goals at this stage. I guess somewhere there is a desire to run the next marathon, and I wonder if I can achieve the next PB, sub 3:20. Pain in my legs and one foot is doing a fine job to mask such desires for the moment.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and well wishes. To state something beyond obvious, I couldn’t have run the marathon without the support of many people.

Old London Town

London, what a magical city.

It’s almost indescribable, but there is a buzz to this place which I’ve not really experienced elsewhere.

Monday evening I woke up at 3:30am to Skype my family back in Dubai. Quite unexpectedly, when I came down to the ground floor wifi at this ungodly hour, there were a dozen glamorous people partying in the hotel bar near reception. And the party-goers were not stopping any time soon.

We first arrived Sunday afternoon by train, then caught a couple different tubes in the underground to get close to our Hotel Russell accommodation. Actually, calling it an underground is a bit of an understatement. More like middle earth. Where we got off at Russell Square, there was a 175 stair climb back to the surface. It was no surprise everyone took the lift.

My free time around the conference was limited. I was able to maximize this though, through going for a morning run. Running through a large unfamiliar city I focus almost extreme levels of attention taking mental notes of my surroundings. It worked, I didn’t get lost. I was so happy to run along the Thames and see the Millennium Dome, Big Ben, Old Parliament House. In fact everywhere you look there’s historical things of interest. My boss, and tour guide, was describing a building as being “not that old”, it was built in 1901 – 110 years ago.

After my run I had time to check out a local newspaper. Well two local papers actually. The Times so I could read the local news, and The Sun so I could see some boobs. To be honest I felt like a bit of a prude seeing journalism mixed with nudity. Having said that, I probably couldn’t write on here the name of some of the adult magazines which the news stand stocked on the shelf above.

To be honest I was a bit disappointed by the quality of journalism overall. On the TV news the first story was about impending political elections, followed by an interview by a hopeful participant of the X-factor.

The news coverage of football went beyond impressive. I now believe people when they say that the UK sees football like religion, only more important.

Once again I was spoilt by fantastic weather, OR people lie about the UK raining 90% of the time and it’s bloody awful the rest of the time. The chirpy weather girl shared that it’s been London’s warmest end to September since 1985. Quite likely some Dubai weather went across with me. You’re welcome, my British friends.

A load of 2011 updates

Dubai touch footy

These shoes are made for running

In my 33 years on this planet I’ve run two marathons. My first was at Gold Coast in 2007, my second was in Berlin, Germany last year. This has led some of my colleagues to be misinformed into thinking I’m a marathon-er.

A marathon-er runs constantly through the year, running marathons whenever it takes their fancy. They are always in marathon shape, and at any time can prove they can run 42.2km. This person is not me. I have not run seriously for nearly a year. I have had episodes on the treadmill where I run til I’m bored, and I always walk away thinking I could go a lot further if I wanted. Truth be told, I have huge lapses in my running where my fitness is shot. I found this morning that I’m really not that fit, or that good a runner, I think my ability to continue to run distances is just on account of being stubborn.

I could probably count on one hand the number of outdoor runs I’ve had in the last year. The most recent was while on holidays in Tasmania I managed a pleasant 10 kilometre run along their newly created walking path. Today I managed another with the Dubai Creek Striders, but it was a definite struggle. It was the same distance as my Tassie run a few weeks ago, however even with three drink stops the temperature and humidity made if feel honestly like twice the distance. NB: although it’s currently Ramadan, we do have drink along the way, we just make sure we’re discrete.

When you’re out of shape and running there are voices in your head doubting your ability, telling you to quit. They’re difficult to ignore, but perhaps you should not. It is these same voices that can lead you to even better results when you’re on top of your game. Telling you to stop and that you’re no good can be fantastic motivators.

For today’s run I arrived at the meeting point earlier than normal, and there were already a dozen or so cars there but no runners. This is a tell-tale sign that a large part of the squad are putting in some big kilometres preparing for a marathon. I was in a little bit of a panic when I saw this. I wondered to myself were all these people already doing the more than 20km training runs in preparation for Dubai marathon in January – the same Dubai marathon in January I’ve come out of storage to complete? Oh, bugger, my first thoughts were I must be way behind on my training – I assumed four months (if I start today and stick to it) would be adequate.

Later I learned off someone that a large number of the group are training for the Athens marathon which is in October, which was a big relief. The Athens marathon has a lot of interest this year, as it’s the 2,500th anniversary of the original 42km run which all of us nutters now replicate to challenge ourselves in the alleged name of fun and fitness. For those who don’t know the story, a messenger called Pheidippides was sent from a battlefield in Marathon to send word back to Athens that the Greek army had an unlikely victory over the Persians. He made the 26 mile journey to deliver the message with one word Niki! (victory) before dying. A lot of runners have some romanticism about the concept, and even that original course he followed. Maybe one day we’ll find on snopes.com it was just an email hoax we lapped up. Having said that it is a run I’d like to do it one day.

In a word, the run today was tough. We had one hard stretch where we had to run toward Dubai’s extremely large flag pole, which was a little offputting to think we weren’t getting any closer as its height was not changing – but again it was just my mind playing tricks on me. The pole and flag were once the tallest/largest in the world – but each new request for a taller flag pole makes this a fast-changing record.

I drove home after the running feeling a little dehydrafted. If only there was a way to process the weight of sweat I was carrying in my clothes. I didn’t risk taking a drink. On the drive back along Sheikh Zayed Road, only southbound traffic (my direction) was moving. I saw the cause for the delays, the entire six lanes were blocked by Police, and out in front there was a movie or a commercial being filmed. Seemed like maybe a car chase video, as there were big boom cameras fitted on top of a Range Rover following maybe a sports car. The traffic was banked up at least 3-4 kilometres. Although after coming from my harrowing run, maybe my perspective was skewed – it could have been 200-300metres. There’s never much sympathy for other people being stuck in traffic, it’s just so great that it’s not yourself.

Soon after I got back home I soothed my muscles with a nice relaxing swim. So I only have a bicycle leg to finish to complete a triathlon today. But instead I have decided to lie on the couch and read.

Germany and the Berlin marathon – Sept 2009

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Late last month Elle and I took advantage of my parents coming to Dubai and jetted off to Germany for a long weekend on our own. Despite appearences, it wasn’t just for a dirty weekend, there was actually some purpose to the trip. I’ve set a goal to complete the “Big 5” marathons of the world, and decided that Berlin would be a good place to start.

The trip started off on a sour note, when we got bumped from our scheduled flight due to the extremely busy Eid long weekend rus of passengers. For the uninitiated (like we were), the break of Ramadan means public holidays so a lot of people make the most of it and travel.

We managed to get on a flight later in the day, but had to change our plans as we missed our connecting flight from Munich to Berlin. We ended up arriving in Munich at around 9:00pm and then had to find a hotel for the night. We got completely confused by the train ticketing machine completely in German, so we decided our best bet would be to get a taxi to Munich to find a hotel. we probably should have done more research, as we discovered once we were in the taxi and on the road, that Munich city is actually quite a distance from the aiport and hotels are scattered all over the place.

The taxi driver tried to discourage us from trying the nearby hotels saying they would be fully booked due to the Oktoberfest. His suggestion was that he drive us 55 Euros away, and then take us back to the airport in the morning – after another 55 Euros later. But we insisted he stop at the Sheraton so I could see if they had room. The lady at reception looked at me strangely and said, of course we have vacancies.

Something else surprised me at reception. In Dubai pornography – anything close to it – is strictly illegal so you just don’t see it at all. However, when I was standing at the hotel’s front desk, staring right at me was the cover model for Playboy completely topless! I don’t think I’ve been overly interested in such images since I was 17, but having this strange sight was extremely distracting. Quite a Europe welcome. A similar thing greeted us in the rooms, where the TV had 1 movie channel and 4 adult channels.

The next morning we caught a flight to Berlin and managed to hit some random buttons on the ticket machine which spat out a ticket enabling us to catch a bus into the city. After asking a friendly policeman for directions, we eventually located our hotel. We stayed in the Mercure de Charite. With the terrible currency conversion between the UAE Dirham and the Euro it was disappointing to find that Charite didn’t mean we were staying in a shelter for the poor and destitute. Actually we found the hotel through the marathon’s web site according to the distance to the start line – which was just perfect.

I had a few worries going into the marathon. Most of my training has been through the summer period with frequent and mandatory water stops, so I wasn’t sure I had done sufficient distance training. My concerns became reality at around the 25km mark when my legs started cramping terribly. I was on track for a reasonable time until this point. But with all the stops I saw all my goal times pass me by. In the end I realised 4hrs was at risk so I really had to knuckle down. Towards the end I felt terrible agony. Everything was telling me to stop, except for the million+ spectators. In short it was an amazing experience.

Folllowing the race I was hobbling quite a bit. I met up with Elle on the steps of the Reichstag where I had to sit for some time. The Corona helped a little. The walk from the finish line back to the hotel probably took 10 times longer than it did that morning. I slept extremely well that night.

We missed a day in Berlin before the race due to the missed flight, so we decided to change our plans a little and try to see a few of the sights the next day then hit Munich and the Oktoberfest later in the day and night. We did the Reichstag Dome tour, a look around Brandenburg. Then we left the big smoke for the largest palace in Berlin at Charlottenburg. The whole area was beautiful, and something definitely worth seeing.

We caught the underground back to the airport and made our way to Munich. By this stage we were seasoned veterans at buying tickets in Germany, but we didn’t need to. A very friendly German guy gave us a tip that the tickets were priced so they were cheaper as a group of 3 or more – which he had the ticket for already. We got out of it for free, although we gave him 10 Euros anyway. He was a lovely guy and kept us entertained the whole way. We knew we were onto a good thing when he mentioned he works at the airport in IT and “it’s shit”.

Unfortunately my limping got worse, so we found our hotel and crashed. Any thoughts of hitting Oktoberfest that evening were dashed by the allure of a nice warm bath.

We had plenty of time at the airport so I trialled all the local beers on display to try and compensate for missing Oktoberfest the night before.

The w’end flew by, and we arrived safe and sound in Dubai late on Tuesday night.

Terry Fox Run – 2009

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Some of my pix from the Terry Fox Run & Abu Dhabi – click for more.

This morning I decided to participate in the 14^th Annual Terry Fox Run in Abu Dhabi. To get to Abu Dhabi around 8am for registration meant I had to catch a 6:20am bus from Bur Dubai. Some people warned me against catching buses, but although it was quite smelly and cramped, it got me there in time. I think the main problem with my seat was that I was one of the last to board the bus, so the only seats left were the dodgy ones above the back wheel. Just like I found on the abras, they don’t leave until it’s full. Luckily it never takes long on either to get packed. To get to Abu Dhabi was around 2 hours each way. And to go there and back cost a mere 35 AEDs – about $14 AUD. You can’t complain at those sort of prices. Although taxis are relatively cheap here, I’m scared to think how much they’d charge to cross an emirate, and go the same distance.

I wasn’t able to find an Abu Dhabi map the night before when I hatched the plan. So as I didn’t know where the Sheraton was from the bus station, I hailed a taxi. I have previously written how much better things in Abu Dhabi are. An exception to this, are their taxis. The majority of the fleet are either the Nissan Sunny – which in Australia we know as a Pulsar – or a Toyota Corolla. Another concern I had with my taxi was that there were no seat belts. Fortunately the driver seemed to drive much safer than his Dubai counterparts.

They didn’t have the facilities I’ve come to expect at this kind of event, such as portaloos. And as I went there on my own, I had a bag with a few things and there was no where to leave your belongings. Unfortunately the nearby Sheraton said they don’t have these kind of facilities, but I slipped the guy at the desk a 50 and he happily looked after it in one of his cupboards. As long as I didn’t tell anyone.

After I registered, there was still plenty of time before the 10am start. So I searched out a small supermarket which was hidden away, and bought a local newspaper, and a make-shift breakfast of a chocolate donut, a can of Red Bull, and a water bottle. Nearby there was a tall building being constructed, where they were trying to lift in and install a massive generator. So I plonked myself down in a chair there where I could view the activity. The shopkeeper came out to join me. It seems he was surprised to see an out-of-towner. He asked where I was from, what Australia was like, where I was living over here, and what I was doing here. He we such a nice, friendly and genuine guy I gave him one of the Terry Fox shirts I bought. I only had a big denomination note with me when I registered, so I felt bad clearing out their change so I bought two shirts which made it slightly easier for them. It wasn’t until that night when I saw my reflection in the lift that I realised it says 2008. I’m not sure if I bought some old stock they were clearing out – or was the run meant to have happened last year.

After I finished the paper, two guys wearing overalls came up to me and started talking Arabic. I had no idea what they were trying to say, and they didn’t understand any English. But going by their dodgy charades I think it was their job to wash the cars in the parking lot. I thought that maybe they thought I was impinging on their turf by sitting where I was. Not sure, but they seemed friendly enough at the end, after initially looking a little perplexed.

Anyway, when I went back to the race area there was around half an hour to go. By this time, the place was buzzing with people. I had a chat with some people from Aussies Abroad – Abu Dhabi in matching yellow shirts that grabbed your attention. Although they don’t have a chapter in Dubai, they suggested keeping in touch and keeping an eye on the events on their web site. They’re certainly a well-organised group.

One of the crown princes was also in attendance as a dignatory. He walked extremely close-by, and it looked to me like he was not a big fan of all the attention. The attention was a bit like a pop star, or movie star. I have Googled for him, but have found no information. His name was Chakram, or something similar, and he was one of the sons of the Abu Dhabi ruler.

There were some really stirring speeches before the run from people who had survived cancer, including Canadian paralympian, Jeffrey Adams. The Canadian Ambassador in the UAE gave a nice history of the Terry Fox legend, and explained how much the event meant to Canadians, and how encouraging it was to see so many people out to support the work of one of their national heroes.

Of all the places where the Terry Fox Run occurs around the world, Abu Dhabi is the second largest. The only bigger one is in Terry’s home country of Canada.

To get a full description of the event, and learn about Terry Fox you should go to the official site, but I’ll just say it was very emotional to hear the accounts, and to be part of an event to support his legacy.

took the camera with me on the run, and stopped to take pictures whenever I spotted an interesting site. I haven’t been running properly for over six months now. Thankfully there were many things to take pictures of to punctuate the run. It wasn’t until around the half way mark – when I had snapped most of the land marks – that I started to break a sweat.

It was a picture perfect day in terms of weather. One of the buildings had a temperature display where I saw that it was a pleasant 22 degrees. Everyone keeps telling me it’s just going to get hotter from now on, which is a bit of a worry. Particularly since I forecast my long training runs for my next marathon will fall in the middle of Summer. Depending on who you talk to, and which web sites you read, it either doesn’t get below 25, 30, 35, or 45 in the hottest months. I’m hoping it’s the 25 – but I don’t think so. On the impartiality of the media, I have heard there’s an edict that when the temperature is recorded as being over 50 on any given day, people don’t need to go to work. However, the newspapers have never actually reported it being over 50, despite most thinking it certainly has been.

When I finished the run, I visited my new mate at the Sheraton who told me I made his day, which was a nice end to the event. I found my way back to the bus station by following the general direction I remembered from the taxi ride, and looking out for a street numbered 4 which made things simple. It doesn’t make it easy at other times, when there are several streets with the same number.

I took a few pictures on the way back to the bus station. Including one picture of a random stranger. I was snapping a mosque between two high rise buildings that caught my eye, when he was set to pass me. But instead, he stopped and stood in front of me, and motioned for me to take the picture where he beamed a nice large smile.

For after the run, I actually packed a towel, change of clothes, and a can of deodorant (shower in a can). But I decided to not use any of these to get some revenge on the other bus passengers for the odours I had to endure on the trip to Abu Dhabi. I don’t think I made any impact though. I think it all just blended in. At least I had a more spacious seat. I read my book until I fell asleep, just like on the first trip. I made sure I fell asleep with a tight grasp on my bag which contained my valuables. Just in case.

After I got off the bus back to the Bur Dubai bus station, I caught an abra for the first time. These are the motorised boats that cross the creek. It’s an interesting experience. Everyone who comes to Dubai should try. I expected a normal boat ride, with the sounds of the sea. There were plenty of seagulls flying about. But nope. Just like their roads, there were horns going off every which way. And the drivers of the boats, pointing and motioning with their hands in quite a violent manner to each other.

That got me within 10 – 15 minutes from my apartment. So I walked back, to have a quick shower, a skype with the wife and kids, then head off to a friend’s place for a lamb roast dinner with other expats. It was absolutely beautiful! Plus I got a doggie bag.

It was quite a wonderful day. I look forward to doing the Terry Fox Run again next year. Although, I may drive there next time.

My worst half marathon yet

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Last year I ran the Gold Coast full Marathon. It didn’t go great, but I did OK.

Unfortunately my training this year has been abridged due to more than a few injuries. That’s why I decided to focus on just the half marathon this year. I say “just” because 21.1km still seems like a decent distance unless you’re in a taxi stuck in traffic.

But the half marathon was definitely my worst yet. I painfully came home in a disappining – even embarassing – time of 1:53:23. >20 minutes beyond my best. 13 minutes beyond anything I’d consider average for myself. 3 minutes beyond some of the 50 year old ladies in my running club.

Not happy Jan.

I should say though, the event was great, and the buzz of the Gold Coast is always worth it.

The first three kms I ran with a couple of guys from my club. We were stuck in a fair bit of traffic so we were reduced to 5min+ km, then we started to find some space and got to just over 4:30min/km pace which was closer to our target.

But I fell off this bus at the four km mark as my legs felt like there were filled to the brim with concrete. My legs just didn’t want to move. Each movement was quite painful, particularly anything quicker than a jog, so I deduced from this I should slow things down if I’m going to go any further.

It’s a depressing feeling when you’re in a world of hurt, and there’s still more than 17 km to go. Thoughts of stopping there flashed into my mind, but I couldn’t live with a DNF (Did Not Finish) next to my name. And I thought considering the cost of this exercise, and the trouble I went through to get to GC it would be even more disappointing. So I continued in a modified running style – one that was less painful.

At around the seven km mark I lost sensation in my left foot. This is a condition I’ve had on and off for way too long now. It happened to me at the Brisbane Marathon Festival half marathon also – my last disappointing race. There I decided to sit down and stretch it out, then I was able to run for a while and the numbness subsided. So I figured I could just run through this again, and all would be OK. Four km later, my foot is still annoyingly numb. But the numbness is starting to be exchanged with a stabbing pain. Again I considered if I should stop or not – it was really starting to suck.

I continue on, but it’s very noticeable that I’m getting passed by 100s of people, and I’m not passing anyone.

The final half a dozen kilometres were worse still. My speed was reduced to 6mins/km, otherwise my legs felt like they would seize up. And new feelings of being sick come on the scene to add to the experience.

With a kilometre to go, and then 100m to go I assumed I was going to finish, but I was not overly confident about anything.

I have the ability during any run to break into an impressive sprint when I know I’ll finish soon. I think I could have sped up a little at this tragic event also, but there was little point and hypocritical to finish fast. Instead I just maintain my dilapidated canter and stop dead over the finish line. One of the first-aid ladies take a look at me and ask if I’m alright. Not a good sign.

Very disappoining end to a disappointing run. But I guess there are two positives to take from the event. One is I finished despite the adversity, and two is at least I beat the Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh.

ADDENDUM:
I was still not well more than a week after the run. In fact I was worse. I chose to go against my usual tendencies, and this time actually visit a doctor. He diagnosed my issue as an infected windpipe. He was suitably unimpressed that I had attempted a half marathon in that condition.

Antio-biotics and an asthma puffer have eased things.

Ryan.Brinkworth.id.au

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