The weather for the race was quite nice for this time of year, with temps in the high 70s, no humidity, and a slight breeze some of the time. Mary wanted me to start out at an 8:40 pace and hold it as long as I could. Holly said that was fine with her but not to expect her to keep that up the whole way. I didn't think I'd maintain that pace for the entire race either, so we kind of expected one of us to fall of the rails around mile 9 or 10.
The course was a nice tour around Yas Island and all the major attractions it has to offer. We ran up to the entrances of many of the hotels, did a nice out-and-back along the marina, cruised past the F1 track and Ferrari World, and then looped around back to the start/finish at Waterworld. A much better course than the Qtel one in Doha (4 laps of the Corniche) or Dubai Creek Striders (multiple bridge climbs, running on pavement, dirt, grass, and cobblestones).
We set off from the start in the middle of a crowd, and after reaching the main road, the course opened up and we were able to settle into a nice rhythm and pace.
Mile 1 - 8:46
Mile 2 - 8:36
Mile 3 - a slight ramp up to the entrance of the Crown Plaza hotel, where the employees were kindly handing out bottles of water. 8:39
Mile 4 - nice run along the water and the marina. I was surprised not to see any timing mats in places where it would've been easy to skip portions of the course. Holly told me I'd been living in Doha too long and that they trust runners over there. 8:39
Mile 5 - 8:41
Mile 6 - not a big fan of the climb up to the marina hotel, as small as it was. I definitely need lots and lots of hill work before Comrades. 8:38
Mile 7 - this is where the pace started to get hard. I could feel my legs starting to ache and found I had to focus more on keeping the pace up and not as much on talking and looking around at the scenery. 8:39
Mile 8 - a dull stretch of road outside Ferrari World. Not much talking going on. A few minutes of a lapse in concentration led to a slow mile. 8:47
Mile 9 - this is where I thought I was going to bonk. I was starting to get hot, the water stops seemed farther apart, and I could see a big bridge up ahead that I just knew we'd have to climb to get back to where we started. 8:47
Mile 10 - this is where I knew I was going to make it. I kept telling myself there was only 3 miles and 25 minutes left to go. I felt like speeding up slightly, but I wasn't sure if Holly would be able to keep up, so I just kept steady. As it turns out, she felt she could go faster too, but wasn't sure how I was feeling. Note to self: we need to talk more during Dubai. This is also where we noticed that the course markers seemed to be a bit short of where they should be. The 16km sign came well before we had 3 miles left to go. 8:41
Mile 11 - a nice shady run along the empty lot behind Ferrari World. 8:40
Mile 12 - we could hear the finish line as we got closer to Waterworld. The 10k runners merged into the road with us at this point. Nothing like having to dodge people walking three or four abreast as you're trying to conserve what little energy you have left. 8:40
Mile 13 - not quite a mile, actually, more like 0.9. The course was definitely short. We crossed the line, picked up our medals and towels, and walked around in the shade to cool down before heading into the park for breakfast.
I ran a 1:51, which was much better than I expected given my training or lack thereof. Now it's time to drop a few pounds, make all my workouts, and get through Dubai with a sub-4 qualifying time for Comrades.
