Dubai’s very own ‘World’s Most Beautiful Half Marathon’

IT IS NOT easy to find tickets for Johnson Arabia Dubai Creek Striders Half Marathon. Generally, every year the tickets get sold out very quickly.
“We have just over 2000 entrants for the race on December 8. The race sold out in 47 days. Due to the high demand, an additional 100 places were released on November 7 and they sold out in under 1 minute. We could easily fill another 1000 places but the nature of the route, which includes some narrow areas, means we do need to carefully limit numbers for the safety of all runners,” said Neil Goulsbra, Chairman of Dubai Creek Striders while talking to City Times.
The club was formed in 1995 when founder Malcolm Murphy and a friend started running together on Friday mornings.  They began to pick up other runners each time they were out and the club was born.  “We have since grown to around 1000 signed up members, with over 300 actively running at any one time. The Half Marathon was created to provide new and developing runners a long-distance goal to aim for and to act as a training run for those runners preparing to run the Dubai Marathon,” said Neil.
The club runs thrice a week. Every Friday, there is a long run, Monday is for a speed session and Wednesday for tempo runs. All the sessions are free for all. All you have to do is show up and run.
Every year, many elite runners from the club choose to volunteer or become pacers during the Half Marathon race to give back selflessly to this group which means so much to them. We all know that everyone has a busy schedule in Dubai, but the runners and their family members also come out in large numbers to prepare goodie bags for the participants of the Half Marathon. It’s no wonder then that sports is known for creating a sense of community. Apart from the goodies, there’s of course the finishing medal that you get once you finish the race. Honestly, there are some races where all you get is a medal, which is alright, but who doesn’t love a big fat goodie bag, right?
So, what makes this club so endearing and why is this race called ‘The world’s most beautiful half marathon’?
“Well, we actually more modestly say, ‘Probably the world’s most beautiful half marathon.’ But the claim originally came up in feedback from our race participants. Our club, and the race, are very multinational and runners have participated in races the world over, but the route of this event, through the souk and the old town, under, over and along the creek shows a side of Dubai that many runners do not usually see, and in that lies the beauty,” explained Neil.
It is not easy to run a half marathon. Runners feed off a lot of energy from the crowd cheering. So, get out there on the street and support the runners who are giving their best to achieve something that very few even attempt to do. Stand on the streets with some candies, fruits or water. Blast off some music on your speakers. The act of giving is much more special than the act of receiving.
arti@khaleejtimes.com
 
 

Surge in the number of new runners
Neil Goulsbra, Chairman, Dubai Creek Striders: There has always been a strong sporting community in Dubai, but in recent years there has been an increase in the number of new runners joining the club and indeed other running clubs in Dubai.  This is also evident from the numbers of Dubai runners participating in major marathons around the world.  This year Dubai Creek Striders has had runners competing in all six of the World Marathon Majors and 15 club members participated in the gruelling 87-km Comrades Ultra Marathon in South Africa. The government’s aim to encourage wellbeing and a healthier lifestyle have definitely helped to drive this positive trend. 
 
The route map
The race will start from the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club then head to Garhoud Bridge and Creek Park. From Maktoum bridge it will head towards Dhow Wharfages along the Deira side of the Creek then it will run past the Heritage Village, Ruler’s Court and British Embassy before heading back to the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club to complete 21.1 km.
 
Three tips for first-time runners at the half marathon on Friday
1) Do not start off too fast!  Your adrenaline will be pumping, but trust your training.  You should know your target time from your training, so if you average 6½ minutes per km in training you will run the race in about 2 hours 17 minutes.  You will not run it in 1 hour 30 minutes so don’t try.  A perfect race is where you start at your chosen pace and keep to it throughout.  The rest of the field will pull away from you - let them go, they are starting too fast.  After a few km, you will realize that no one is now going past you. Then, in the last 5km, you will be overtaking all the runners who went off too fast at the start.  Think of it as the tide going out, then the tide coming back in.

2) Never try anything new on race day, especially running shoes, use the running shoes that you have trained in, a brand new pair of shoes look nice on the start line but it is a long way if you get a blister after the first 5km.

3) Enjoy that last 100m down the hill to the finish line. There is nothing like crossing the finish line of a race you have spent six months training for.