Wadi Bih and other stuff!

Well.

A year in Saudi Arabia and I haven’t written aboutanything I have done.

It has gone pretty fast really.
The year started last September with my ankle operation.I timed it so I could recuperate whilst in Saudi. I had some bony spurs and a ganglion removed and chrondroplasty. This is apparently where they drill holesinto the bone which causes it to bleed and form its own micro-cartilage. I think this is where most of my pain hascome from. The surgeon was great but was worried that I would do too much toosoon.
Of course I promised not to.

In Saudi I found I could use the gym in the Qasr Al Sharq hotel next door and I started gently with the cycle machine and the cross trainer.

In November I got adventurous and decided to go hashing in the desert so I could meet some people.

I met lovely Lona and Kristina at the November 5^thhash, but just walking along in the dark I twisted my ankle on a rock and gave myself awful pain.

I rested it a bit but then in December I did theMarcothon (3 miles every day) and in January I had to start to train for the London marathon.

All of my training was done on the treadmill apart from a 10k with the Jeddah Road Runners Club out at Obhur.

Slowly I built up my distance but never really gained anyspeed. The highlight of my training was running 2.5 hours on the treadmill! Good job it has a TV!

In February Jon came over to Abu Dhabi and I happened tofind a race for us to do whilst he was in the Middle East. We went up to Dibba,which is in the north of Oman and did the 72k Wadi Bih run which most people do as a team of 5. There were only a handful of us running it as solos. This is where my promise to the surgeon was forgotten or at least ignored!

We camped on the beach the night before the race andshared a bbq with the other competitors.

The night on the beach was great but the people who wererunning in teams didn’t have to be up so early as us and spent most of thenight drinking and chatting so we didn’t get the best night’s rest!.

We set off whilst it was still dark and ran through theoutskirts of the town before making our way up the Wadi Khab Shamsi. I soon found myself near the back but gotchatting to various folk, including Maui Anne who was good company.

Going up the steepest part of the wadi, I met with Jonwho was making his way back down.

I carried on to the turn around point, complete with donkey and then went back down the steepvalley.

Even when alone, the support was superb because once daylight came, so did the 4x4s who were supporting the team runners. The encouragement from them was wonderful, especially when returning down the wadi when the heat became almost unbearable and one kind person gave me a sports drink which just about saved me!

The run really was mind over matter – I had only done 10kin the previous few months and it was so hot! Finally I reached the flat of thefinish stretch and I made it over the finish line before allowing myself the luxury of a few tears as I received my medal.

It had been a tremendous event but the 7 hour drive backto Abu Dhabi was not quite so good – a dearth of petrol stations along theEmirates road made for a tense time! However, the couple of days by the pool afterwards gave us a lovely rest.