Do-do-do-Doo-bai Marathon...

There was only minimal time to muse on the travails of the Muscat Marathon before attention shifted to my fourth running of the Dubai Marathon.  Thanks to the Marathon being sponsored by my employer’s parent company – Dubai Holding – I would not be required to pay the race entrance fee, nor go and collect my runner’s pack (which would instead be delivered to my desk by a colleague).  Both of which were significant plus points.
 
I managed to get back into my usual training regime on the Sunday morning, two days after finishing the Muscat Marathon, and excitement started to build with a vengeance on Monday afternoon when I headed over to The Al Jalila Foundation in Dubai Healthcare City to film a promotional video about my 116th marathon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0OyrEILds0), which I was running for The Al Jalila Foundation (https://www.hopasports.com/en/nicholas.turner).  I am far from a natural in front of the camera but, after one false start, managed to fall into the kind of banal clichés that annoy me when delivered by nearly all sportsmen in interviews.  I gradually loosened up as the session continued and just hoped that I had provided at least a few seconds of useable content, even if that was only when putting on the Foundation’s t-shirt in slow motion and not talking…

The proximity of the Dubai Marathon to the Muscat Marathon also encouraged me to apply a couple of learning points from the previous week’s experience – (1) I had over done the running in the build up to Muscat, running before and after work twice during the week, so decided to reduce the workload in the days leading up to Dubai; (2) whilst the airport McDonald’s the night before the Muscat Marathon had been delicious, when combined with only fruit on race morning, it had resulted in the fuel tank being not full on race day and loaded with the wrong sort of fuel resulting in a conk out around the halfway point.  Gill solved these issues with a superb sausage/pasta casserole the night before Dubai Marathon, and a veritable side full of treats, including coffee, bagel and banana, on the morning of the race.  The [Ferrari] Skoda had been appropriately fueled and arrived at the start line (via a taxi) in plenty of time before the 7am start.

As with the 2018 race, conditions at the start were perfect.  It was cool and windless as I set off running, initially next to a gentleman ambitiously running in full American Football kit (including helmet and shoulder pads).  As we headed down Umm Suqueim Road towards the Marina, I was tracking at just over 4 minute kilometer pace but feeling very comfortable.  I had been in similar situations on many occasions and, not being my first rodeo, I was firmly anticipating this early race pace resulting in a very miserable second half of the run.  I did my best to push this negativity out of my mind and trotted on, reaching the 12 kilometer point – following which we would run two 15 kilometer loops – in around 50 minutes, still feeling decent.  It was not until the halfway point (which I reached in less than 1 hour 30 minutes) that I took my first breather, strolling as I took on board some water and energy drinks.  The heat which had started to climb by this point in the previous three runnings of the event was still yet to materialize however and I soon fell back into my steady trot, not yet letting my mind think about the finish.

 

 
 

I was providing Gill with regular updates on progress, and was having to revise down the anticipated finish time due to my surprisingly solid performance.  This was met with a mixed reaction, primarily as I discovered later as she had washed her hair and now had a race against the clock to dry it and make it before I finished the race.  As things transpired, for once everything worked like clockwork and around 5 minutes before I arrived on the home straight, Gill announced she was seated in the grandstand awaiting my arrival.  I obliged with a sprint finish, finger point and blown kiss and was very pleased to see a finishing time of 3 hours 14 minutes and 43 seconds, 15 minutes better than my time in either of the previous two years (mainly thanks to the near perfect conditions).  The day’s excitement was not over as I headed to the Media Center and completed a short follow up video with Marathon TV, again churning out predictable soundbites about the event.  I still felt mysteriously full of life and annoyed Gill sufficiently on the taxi ride home with my blabbering that she vowed not to help me to prepare so well in the future…
 
 
 

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