Wadi Bih Race Report

This past weekend, we took a trip to Oman for the Wadi Bih run. Well, ok, I went for the run, and Heather came along to sit on the beach and get drinks from the pool bar. We left Doha on Wednesday afternoon for Dubai and planned on staying with Holly that night, sleeping in on Thursday, and leaving for Dibba around noon. When we arrived in Dubai, there were more people heading to passport control than either of us had ever seen during any of our previous trips. The lines at passport control were so long, they ended up sending people with American and European passports through the Fast Track lines to help clear the congestion. What could have been an hour-long wait, and probably was for everyone from Russia, southeast Asia, and other countries whose citizens need paperwork to enter the UAE, took us less than 10 minutes. After a quick stop in duty free (just as packed as the arrivals area) and a not-so-quick wait in the taxi line, we were on our way to Hotel Holly for a dinner of pizza and champagne.

Heading through to the coast

We slept in the next morning and got on the road for Dibba around noon. The directions on the hotel's web site were less than helpful ("Follow the road to Fujairah, then to Dibba. Once in Dibba, follow the road signs to the hotel.") given that there are no signs to Fujairah when leaving Dubai. Apple's Map app wasn't any real help either. It couldn't even find the hotel or the town we were going to. Thankfully, we are loyal users of Google Maps and managed to find our way just fine. The drive was easy and uneventful, taking us across acres of desert and through small villages selling Arabian tents, carpets, and tacky souvenirs. Our only excitement came when a donkey wandering across the road to the median decided to head back to the shoulder. With some nimble steering and braking, Heather managed to not only avoid the donkey but also keep from getting rear-ended by the local in the BMW SUV behind us traveling a bit too fast a bit too close.

There really is a nice beach on the other side of the wall

The hotel itself is really odd. It's in a beautiful location, right on the water at the foot of the mountains, but it blocks the view of the beach with a wall. The rooms are large and very nice, but there's no direct way to get to them from the lobby. The advertised free Internet is really a 5-year-old desktop in a tiny closet that requires a SIM card and adapter from the front desk to use. Oh, and the pool bar isn't open on a regular basis, putting quite a damper on Heather's plans for Friday. In our quest to find a beer to enjoy by the pool, we get turned away from the indoor bar because they're not open until 6. The waiter at the restaurant is happy to take our order, though, and proceeds down the hall to, yes, get our beers from the closed bar. Lots of head-shaking happening all weekend long.

Can't get much closer to the start than this

The race starts on the beach next to the hotel and consists of 12 stages of varying length for 36km up to the top of a mountain and then same stages in reverse order for another 36km on the way back down. Solo runners can start any time after 430am, while the teams are allowed start between 6 and 830. Our team decided to start right at 6. We guessed it would take us 7 hours or so to finish, and we wanted to spend as much time running before it warmed up as we could. Starting early also meant there would be fewer other teams out on the road with us and thus less congestion and dust to have to deal with along the way. Much to our surprise, when we walked up to the line, there was only one other team in line to start. We waited for all of two or three minutes and then were on our way.

Our plan going in wasn't really much of a plan at all. Angie and I were using the run as hill training for Two Oceans, Fleur had this as one of her last long runs before her upcoming marathon, and Erin was coming along for the fun. Holly was supposed to be running with us too, but since her shoulder is taking a long time to heal, she couldn't. She crossed the start line with us and did five miles out and back instead. We set off into the darkness to meet Evelyn and the car at the first checkpoint half a mile down the road. Fleur and Erin volunteered for the next leg, so Angie and I hopped in the car and went to wait for them at flag #2.

Roughly 20 minutes later, Fleur & Erin came into view, passed us the baton (yes, the official runner for each leg had to carry a baton with our number on it the whole time), and waved good-bye as we took off up the road. This leg turned out to be much hillier than we expected, with a good uphill right in the beginning offsetting a long downhill at the end. So much for the relatively flat stage we thought we signed up for. As we made our way up the hill, we got passed by a woman from one of the teams that started in front of us. About halfway down the hill, we saw her in front of us and getting closer. Without saying a word to each other, our pace quickened slightly, and any notions I had about taking it easy disappeared in the dust as we overtook her a quarter-mile before the checkpoint. It was game on for the rest of the race.

Fleur handing off to Erin

Each stage was between 1.4 and 4 kilometers, and we took turns running them. On a few, like the really steep ones near the top, two or three of us ran together for training, but usually there was just one of us on the road. If you weren't running, you were either recovering from a leg or getting ready to run a leg. With only four of us, we didn't have the extra rest that most of the other teams did. Once we settled into our groove, though, the day just flew by. We all got in some running up (slowly but running) and down (flying with a big assist from gravity) the steep sections, the flat sections, and in the dusty ones too. The dust wasn't too bad in the early going, but once we started back down and ran into all the teams and their cars still heading to the top, it got pretty thick. We all had a pretty bad cough by the end, and our hair was a lovely crusty mixture of salt, sweat, and dust.

We finished in 6:20, a whole lot faster than expected. The finish line is at the hotel about 50 feet from the pool bar, which thankfully was open. I grabbed a beer for everyone (fortunately Heather was there with cash since the bar wasn't let anyone charge to their room) and wandered down to the beach to soak my legs in the water. We spent 10 minutes drinking, soaking, and watching a young sea turtle swim around us. A great way to end a really fun race. I can't wait to do it again next year.

Sunrise on the canyon walls

Goat pens built into the cliff walls

This guy came right down to the road to check us out

One of the other teams in the race posted this video showing the highlights of what the run was like. The only real difference between us and them is that we didn't wimp out and change runners during the "and now it gets steep" stage like they did.