I decided to run the Dubai Marathon in order to get a qualifying time for Comrades Marathon on 31st May in South Africa. This was one of a relatively small number of marathons at this time of year.
I have run this race a few years ago but since then the route has been altered to keep it out of the centre of the city. It now starts near the Mall of the Emirates and goes along Jumairah Beach Road, doubles back past the start / finish, continues along the seafront until The Palm before looping back to the start / finish. All very flat and only 4 bends to negotiate!
I stayed at the Holiday Inn, next to the Mall of the Emirates and did the 30min walk to the 7am start. There was a few thousand people doing the race but its not as popular as a western city marathon. In general, few Emiratis participate and most folks appeared to be ex-pats living in, or around, Dubai or foreigners like myself. Dubai puts up a lot of prize money so the elite field is as good as it gets, especially with Ethiopians who sent a plane load of their best athletes.
I was a bit nervous about the cold / flu I was just getting over as well as a problem I had with my stomach / adductors muscles. The cold / flu was getting better and I didn’t have any fever, but I did still have quite a bit of phlegm. The muscle problems had come on over the preceding week and whilst I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when the issue had started it was painful enough for me to curtail running during the week before.
Note to organisers at the start (and during the race): not enough porta-loos!
At 7am we got started. I was mid pack.
It became apparent in the first couple of miles that the cold / flu wasn’t going to be a big problem but my stomach / groin was quite painful. I had decided to try and maintain a steady heart rate around 150bpm for the first half and see how I felt after that. This equated to 8min/miles for the first half.
I was disappointed with the pace but didn’t want to push anymore at this point so continued with it. As the road doubled back, we got a good view of the leaders coming past. Looked very much like an Ethiopian training run as a huge group zoomed past. I later learnt that the Kenenisa Bekele pulled out at about 30km with hamstring problems.
My nutrition strategy was a Cliff Shot Blok or date every 15min and a gel every 45 mins. Water stations were every 5km and I just had water at these. Overall the nutrition strategy worked pretty well and I would use it again. I did carry a Cliff Bar but did not eat it.
After halfway, I was getting more bothered by my groin problems. My heart rate dropped a little to 145bpm and my pace to 9min/miles and then to 10min/miles from mile 22 – 25. Whilst my heart rate indicates I could have gone faster, on the day I don’t think I could have. It was a clear day and the temperature was rising into the 20s which I think also would have been a factor in the last hour.
My finishing time was 3 hours 49 mins 50 seconds for 430th man.
After the race, I had a chat with an Eritrean who had come 13th. He seemed pretty pleased with himself (2:10 so he should have been). After that I walked back across Sheikh Zayed Road to the hotel.
Overall, this is quite a good race to do. Its flat and not too crowded. It does get hot after 9 to 10am so for folks finishing then be aware that it will be warm. The race is reasonably well organised but there isn’t much support from the locals (who don’t have a history of running).
John's Running Adventures 