The awaited post about my run

I had had a very poor nights sleep the night before the event and
tried my very very best to push through mentally and physically and
not allow the fear and mindtalk of "How will I manage....all my
training will go down the drain due to my poor nights sleep!"

I got to the staff bus stop at 04:50am for the 5am departure to the
event and the roadside was buzzing with eager runners. Thankfully I
found my SA buddy Alida and we kept each other company till the start.
(Alida is the lady on the left in the pic). We were at the start two
hours before the start!!!!Guess this couldn't be avoided due to road
closures and getting 900 odd staff members to the race. It was
freezing and behind where we stationed ourselves for the long wait was
this inviting looking tent which housed organizers in their smart
attire all having breakfast peering out at us freezing souls!!!
Despite the cold I loved being in the atmosphere of this event. You
know these type of events ignite my fire.

All sorts of people arrived and I was entertained by observing the
different types of interesting running kits,photo taking mania and I
was in hysterics at a man attempting to ask us for safety pins through
hand signals due to a lack of being able to speak English. I soon
labelled him a "Drill-Sargent" as this guy was rallying up his guys,
making them do warm up drills and chanting things in a foreign
language. He was a fun "Drill-Sargent" and yes this guy mirrored what
I think Aroon would have been doing if he was there with "Team
Jellies."

Eventually the sun started to rise and the orange tinge in the sky
against the Dubai skyscrapers made that wait worth it. Shortly after
the race began I had an all round boost of adrenalin gushing through
me just at the sheer thought that I was doing the event and that I was
representing Team Jellies and wanted to make them proud. This kept me
on an absolute high.

I kept a good stride through the event and was able to keep a track of
my progress on my pink sports watch (thanks Adhil).

It was a great route through the area around "Dubai mall down to
Business Bay and back" (I overheard a gent saying to his partner "No
running to the mall now...stay on the route).

All in all a great atmosphere... with people along the roadside
cheering us on however I did miss the masses we would have back home
supporting these type of events.

I managed to exceed my goal of 60-75 minutes and finished in 57:40 minutes.
I really surprised myself and as you can imagine I was smiling inside
all the way home. In fact I'm still smiling about it!!!!