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International Road Race #1

Throughout the summer holidays, I became more interested in the topic of running. I read some books, I attended some workshops, I joined a run club and I did lots of research on the web. In particular, after reading a book called Run the World, by Beckie Wade, I became very interested in the idea of running races internationally. So, I decided to sign up for my very first international road race in Salalah, Oman, a place I had been told was definitely worth visiting. Luckily, I was able to convince a running buddy of mine to join me on this crazy adventure.

After travelling for approximately 24 hours from Canada to Dubai, I had less than another 24 hours before I needed to catch the flight to Salalah. Of course I was tired, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from enjoying my first international race.

When we arrived in Salalah, it was quite late; we checked into our hotel and headed straight to bed to get some rest. The next morning, we had breakfast and made our way to the start line where we needed to register and pick up our race packs prior to the late afternoon race. Knowing we had little time to spend in Salalah, after registering, we kindly asked our cab driver if he could show us around a bit. He brought us up a mountain, by the palace and to the beach. It was a great little treat! After our short tour, we headed back to the hotel to fit in a short nap.
The time had come for us to return to the start line and to wait for the race to begin. It was a very long wait and as we started seeing other racers appear, we, well I, began getting a tad nervous. The weather was quite warm and humid, there was a bit of a drizzle off and on, I didn’t feel like I had eaten or drank adequately throughout the day, the late start felt odd to me, I wasn’t going to be racing with my watch, I had no idea of the route, my ankle was still bothering me and well, geeze…some of these runners looked good!


I had an idea of what time I wanted to finish in, but unfortunately, considering the conditions I was running under, I knew I would probably need to rethink everything. My first 5 kms went really well, but were probably too fast. My body began overheating and I was incredibly thirsty, but I knew I couldn’t drink too much water as I was running. After about 15 kms, I felt like my mind and my body wanted to give up. That was very uncharacteristic for me - I'm not one who gives up easily. For the first time in a very long time, I had to allow myself to walk every so often over the last 5 kms. As I followed the girl just ahead of me, I mimicked her walk-run-walk-run pattern. I felt a little defeated I must admit, but I also felt I just needed to listen to my body. Fortunately, I was still able to finish strong with a sprint to the finish line.
My time wasn’t great (actually, for me it was quite terrible - 2:12:35), but I was most proud of myself for finishing what I would call a pretty tough race for which I was not fully prepared. I had forgotten how long 21 kms was! Maybe starting off the run season with a half marathon was a little too ambitious, but hey… I guess now it can only get better!

Onwards and upwards!   :) 



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