The Two Muscateers...

The start of my 2019 running year carried on where 2018 had finished, with a reasonably heavy schedule.  The “winter” mornings in Dubai are cool (around 15 degrees) and dark (until around 7am), the former being great for running, the latter presenting a bit of a challenge to get out of bed.  However, by the time the Muscat Marathon was on the horizon I had managed to haul myself out of bed every day (the early bird may not catch the worm, but does catch some nice views of Dubai - see below) and was averaging just over 10 kilometers a day for the year – 179 kilometers in the 17 days of 2019 – and feeling relatively confident about my third running of the event. 

Overseas’ events have become a lot easier and less chaotic with Gill’s organizational skills and flights, visas and hotels were all sorted well in advance of the marathon weekend.  The slight dampener on travel arrangements was that we were flying with Fly Dubai, rather than Emirates, which meant departing from the somewhat less salubrious Terminal 2 at Dubai Airport and no Business Class Lounge pre-boarding.  I decided to drown my sorrows in calorific McDonalds’ indulgence before we boarded the short flight to Muscat, Oman.  One dramatic change from previous visits to Muscat was the airport, as we arrived at the shiny brand new airport which was worlds away from the tired old airport it had replaced.  Sadly, the processing at arrivals did not match the modernity of the airport and we joined a long, very slow moving queue of tourists at around 10:15pm.  By 11pm, we were still a long way from the counter and Gill – displaying a very non-British aversion to queuing – took matters into her own hands and paid for us to head to the Priority Desk, with the result being that we were out of the Airport within 10 minutes.  Well played Ms. Flannighan…

 

Our hotel for the first night was the Mysk at Al Mouj, which was very helpfully situated a five minute walk from the Marathon Race Village and start line.  By the time we had checked in and reached our room it was midnight so sleep was a priority, given a 6:30am marathon start, before which I needed to collect my race pack.

I felt like I had barely been asleep by the time the alarm clock sounded at 5:15am and I clattered around the room for a while before managing to put on my kit and head down to collect my running number and t-shirt.  On returning to the room a few minutes later with the kit safely collected, it transpired that in removing the key card from its slot near the door, I had rendered the room without power but somehow activated very loud, cold air conditioning.  Gill was quite pleased about this...

 

By 6:15am I had made the short walk to the start line of the marathon, which was busy with the usual immediate pre-race sights, pacers with their target times on their backs, the elite runners stood under the start line and an Irish MC, desperately trying to find 30 minutes of interesting material to say about marathons (he was actually very good).  As an added bonus, the race was to be started by Paula Radcliffe, still the women’s marathon world record holder with a time set in 2013.  After some words of encouragement from Paula, some repetition by the MC, a random march through by a small band and a slight delay to proceedings, we were underway at around 6:35am, with the sun just starting to poke its head into the darkness.  It was cool and windless and I set off at a rapid pace through the housing complex and then golf course, completing the first five kilometres in a little over 20 minutes.  However, all was not entirely well and I had a nagging sense that this was not going to be a good day at the office.  By the time the sun had fully risen, I had slowed down markedly and was taking a walk at each of the refreshment stations, which were every five kilometers of the run.  Despite this approach, I reached the halfway point - which was on a long beautiful stretch of the run along the sea front, where fishermen were preparing themselves for a day at sea – in under 1 hour 40 minutes.  Sadly, I felt that there was not much left in the tank at this point and almost immediately slowed my pace down significantly.  I was also sweating profusely by this point and not looking forward to the next two hours or so, although my spirits were lifted significantly by a group playing local music with infectious enthusiasm.  It was just after this pleasant encounter that the course veered inland to a stretch not covered in the previous two runnings of the marathon.  The variety in the route was very welcome, but the heat was not and I was now reduced to walking long stretches and pausing under any shade I could find.  I was keeping Gill updated via text and pleased to hear that she had positioned herself near the finish line as I moved (slowly into the last two kilometers), which were familiar from the 2017 and 2018 races.  The time had long ceased to be of interest but I did manage to stir myself into a steady pace for the final kilometer and the very welcome sight of Gill in the finishing straight and eventually finished in 3 hours 45 minutes and 22 seconds.  Not the best day at the office, but always nice to get another marathon under the belt…

 

After some mostly sugar based food and drink, a shower and a quick lay down at the hotel, we checked out and headed for our second hotel of the weekend – the spectacular Al Bustan Palace, which was around a 30 minute drive across Muscat.  Whilst the exterior of the hotel was quite a formidable fort-like structure which looked like it could withstand a direct hit from a missile, or house any number of Bond villains, the inside was absolutely jaw droppingly stunning.  We entered – me hobbling – into a glittering lobby which was dripping with gold and crystals, with a ceiling which would not have been out of place in a cathedral.  The welcome was fantastic and better was to follow as our delightful room, with a view of the mountains and impressive white marble of the imposing courthouse, had been decorated with a banner and images congratulating me on completing my 115^th marathon.  I was truly blown away by this surprise which was the icing on the cake of a truly awesome weekend in lovely Oman.  Sadly, there is limited time to dwell on that as marathon 116 (in Dubai) is only a few days away…