Running with my tribe doing the Dubai Marathon

Dubai is one of my favorite cities that I have been to so far. I love the mix of East and West, I love the whole bigger than life sleek skyscrapers and I like that it’s still slow-paced, unlike Shanghai and other modern cities.

I admit that it is expensive there for eating and drinking out, but that’s how it is in Vegas and other tourist-based cities. And compared to Switzerland and the high prices there, the dining out costs are a deal.

I’ve already been to Dubai of number of times, but this time I had a special reason for going. I was going to run the Dubai 2016 Marathon. I have run numerous half marathons in the last 3 years, but I’ve never run the full 26.2 miles.

I figured if I was going to be pain after, then I should do it in someplace beautiful that has luxurious spas and a great view. Another reason for doing it was that I knew the route would be flat and at sea level. This was a big deal because I would be training in Switzerland during the cold and rainy season – which meant that I was barely training. I needed to do an “easy” marathon if I was going to do one at all.

But even knowing this, I still debated and it took three things to finally say, “Let’s do this!” Number 1, was I was asked to give a three-day communications workshop at KAUST in Saudi Arabia. They agreed to fly me home from Dubai as part of my speaking arrangement. I still had to fly from Jeddah to Dubai, but $200 ticket is much cheaper than a $700 ticket.

Number 2 was that I had read a study that runners and cyclists who wanted to compete in mountain sports could use heat training as an equivalent to attitude training. I was training in altitude, but running someplace where it was going to be considerably hotter. I was hoping the reverse was also true.

And Number 3, was that I convinced another girlfriend to run it as well and I knew her training was going as badly as mine. Misery loves company! We decided to run our hearts out and then celebrate with sparkling wine –even if we couldn’t walk afterwards.

Having her join also helped me financially as I wanted a hotel room walking distance from the finish line as I knew getting a cab would be impossible with the roads closed. Of course, this being Dubai and me waiting until the last minute, the cheapest rooms were $600 a night. Might more tolerable knowing it would be split between the two of us.

The race was fantastic. We started running at 6:30 am as the sun was just rising and I was done in 4:29. The route was flat and smooth, and with the view of the Dubai skyline in one direction and the famous Burg when getting close to the finish line. I also loved the runners. Half marathons are always so crowded and I can’t seem to get my pace until mile 7 or 8 as I’m dodging people or slowing down until there is space to go around them.

The marathon was different. No one was racing out of the gate and by mile 4 or 5, people had found their long-distance pace and just kind of stayed in it. Plus, even though I was slowing down from mile 18 onwards, I was motivated to keep going because everyone around me was also hitting the wall – or had already hit it and were limping slowly forward. I was with my tribe of fellow non-Olympians who just like to run and it felt good.