AS regular readers will know, this weekend was looking pretty busy and pretty full, as well as fraught with possible pain and misery – well, sitting here at 2pm on Saturday (which is nearly the end of the weekend for some of us !), it hasn’t turned out too bad so far !

Thursday meant leaving the desert and driving to Dubai (with my house guest as well), which meant leaving the office early, which meant closing everything off that needed to be closed off, which meant actually doing some work on a Thursday for a change.  Most of this went as it should have, Dubai traffic making a mockery of the timings and best laid plans etc. but eventually everything worked out splendidly with Residency papers signed, car swapped for a service (and a hatchback delivered in its place – which means that I don’t have to have a bike rack to move my new bike around, this saving aed 600, which is nice !), I got to my friend’s apartment at a reasonable time, but sufficiently late to not want to go out with her (which turned out to be a real blessing as she got in at 2 am and didn’t wake me !).

The reason for staying where I did was because of all the road closures around the route of the 10k/ marathon.  Life would have been hard enough with the race, without worrying about where to park and how to get to the start.  Staying where I did was so simple – it took me 10 mins to walk to the start (my race went off at 0715hrs so even staying where I did I was still paranoid enough to get up at 5.45 so as to have time to do everything !).  To cut a very long story short, I raced, and bearing in mind I hadn’t much except some training runs to guide me because I don’t do much of this running lark, and I finished.

The slightly longer story is that I timed myself from line to line (rather than when the gun went off to when I finished – because with thousands of people there it can take a while just to get across the line) and when I got my breath back and looked at my watch I’d done 46 mins & 58 seconds.  I was very excited as I’d been hoping to go under 50 mins (my previous best time for a 10k training run was 51.15 so it was always a challenge).  Psycho’s response to my time was “I must have been fannying around before then !” – bless her………. I’ve taken it as a complement, along with her questioning the integrity of my circuit training last week……… She’s probably going to send me an invoice for her “motivational coaching” – I shall look forward to that !

I wait with interest to see what the official time was (at the time of going to press the official results had not been published) as there was a debate as to whether your time was line to line (we were all wearing a microchip thingy) or gun to line – either way, I know what my best actual 10k distance time is now.  For those that are interested, I spent the first 500m wading through people that frankly shouldn’t have been allowed at the front of any race – if you have to walk after 400m then go to the back before you start !  I then speeded up way to much but the first 3 – 4k went very quickly.  I then realised that I was going way to quickly but it was too late by then, so latched on to a black bloke running slightly faster than I wanted to go without sweating (I decided that he must know what he was doing……..) and tracked him for a couple of K before he ground to a halt and I had to leave him behind.  After that I just tried to run with people going slightly faster than I felt comfortable with, or just behind women with nice arses……. Anything to take my mind off the pain that was starting to remind me that I’m clearly mad.  It then go a bit like being on a treadmill in the gym, as I was counting down (or up) strides, metres, anything frankly, to get me to the end.  Psycho used to say that she could tell when I was struggling cause I’d be staring at the ground in studious concentration, and wouldn’t say anything (quite how anyone has the energy to talk at this point is beyond me, but still !). 

Crossing the line couldn’t come quickly enough for me – it was nice when there were spectators clapping and shouting, but it was the fear of looking like a fat old bloke in front of these people that drove me on, not their cheering – and long may it continue !

I met my big boss just after the line (which might be career limiting as it appears I had a better time than him……….) so I did at least see someone I knew at the whole thing, but it was nice just to drift off when I’d finished although I think it would have been nice to have had someone to share the experience with (my hostess did at least drag her hangover out of bead and make me a coffee whilst I had a shower).

I have a medal and a plastic bag to show for my efforts (I should have a tee-shirt but they had run out on Thursday when I went to collect my number – I wait, with expectations suitably managed, for the promised e-mail………).  I’m not aware of any photographic evidence of my participation, although I’m supposed to be able to download a certificate for printing, which may or may not have my official time on ?  I’ll search the internet for photographic evidence and you will be the first to know if I find any !

Then I went to meet friends for coffee, which turned into lunch at Barasti, where we were joined by another friend who has just moved out here, and is settling in nicely by the look of it, and then off for the big event of the day –

Meet Psycho II (I have had a short debate with a couple of people and of the choices offered up, the name was a unanimous agreement).

I wasn’t sure whether I’d get a chance to ride her today, or not, as I was supposed to be going to Abu Dhabi for some Triathlon Training organized in conjunction with the Abu Dhabi International triathlon that I’ve entered next month.  However, when I got up this morning (at 0545hrs for the second time this weekend !) and went to get in the car, it was thick fog – which can be quite common at certain times of the year here.  I set off but when I realised that I could barely see the traffic lights on the way out of town until I was at them, I decided that prudence was the better part of valour and went back to bed.  A two hour drive, mostly in the dark, in thick fog, sharing a road with some of the other nutters out here, didn’t seem very sensible !

When I woke up though, the sun was out and the fog had gone (it was nearly 1000hrs after all…….) and perfect for a nice little bike ride.  It was a bit breezy but nothing to get excited about, and 36k flew by.  I wasn’t sure how far I was going to go but the road I was on didn’t really offer much choice as there are only a few turning spots on this quiet duel-carriageway.  So at least I know that the second spot gives me that distance – next time I’ll try for the 3^rd turn (the big one is the first roundabout, which is about 50k away – it’s a challenge for sooner rather than later as we have always talked about doing it and never got around to it)

Right, you’re all up to date with my weekend (apart from collecting my laundry earlier and having lasagna for tea……..) so I’m off to do something less productive !