Race video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOXO9BM9EME
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The race was held around Safa Park and required the runners to go around the boundary walls of the park 3 times to complete the 10K. I picked up the race number the night before the race. It was an unusual bib…. totally made in house and the number was embroided on the cloth. They use these numbers year after year, so I had to return it back after the race to get the finishers mug. Nadia, Zara & Mekaal accompanied me to the race and cheered me on through out the course. I had a bad race marred by shin splints. I thought it would go away after the first few miles, but it persisted until I finished the race. After the finish, we drove to the sailing club for a hearty breakfast. I had about 3 or 4 helpings while Nadia and kids stayed back in the car waiting for me. Rightly so, Nadia wasn’t too impressed. I made it up by taking them for a nice lunch afterwards !!!! 
This was the start of the new season on running in Dubai and this race served as an ideal warm up for the NYC Marathon in 2 weeks. Throughout the summer I was training indoors and was in a much better shape than when I ran this race a few months back. However, a couple of weeks before the race I was struck with a bout of flu and was bed ridden over the Eid break. That set my training back but I was determined to run. By that time, I had moved to JLT which was a 5 minute drive to Mina Seyahi. I got to the race start about 5 minutes before the start and barely had time to stick on the bib before the race started. I wanted to make sure that I run along with Chris and so I did but only up to the first 3K’s. As I was on my 2nd round, I saw a runner collapse due to exhaustion but later it was confirmed that he was fine and recovering. The latter part of the race was fine as I ran at my own pace and finished it about 2-3 minutes faster than my earlier time The medal was the same as last time and again I did not win anything in the prize draw. 
This was my first race in Dubai. May is never really a good time to run in this part of the world, and understandably it was the last race of the season. Chris and I decided to take part at the last moment. He picked me up from my hotel in Deira and we drove to Jumeriah for the start. The race was quite nice, set at the back of Mina Seyahi resort. It was 3K track covering Mina Seyahi & Westin Hotel and we had to run around a little more than 3 times to complete the race. I was pretty unfit for the race, had reached 200 lbs before arriving in Dubai. The one mistake I did before the race was to eat a full shawarma early in the morning. During the first 5K’s, all that meat and naan restricted my movement and felt pain while running. Afterwards, the pain subsided and I was able to gather some pace and momentum. Also, 39 degree Celsius at 7am didn’t help either. However, I did manage to complete the race in a little over an hour. The medal was quite ordinary but the all in all, it was a fun race and I enjoyed my debut run in UAE. 
A 10K that I was not supposed to run ! Nadia, Kiren, Lala & myself decided to drive to Montreal from Kingston on race day. I was registered for the half and the other 3 for 10K. However, Lala got us late in the morning and when we got into Montreal, we took a wrong turn and got late for the race. So since the only race left was the 10K I decided to run with them. In the end it turned out to be quite a fun affair. Most of the race we just walked throwing water on each other and chatting away. No wonder we were the last four people to finish the race. After the race we went to China Town for lunch and then drove back to Kingston. All in all, a fun trip. It was nice running with family for a change! 
This is the start of my marathon career. Yasser, Nadia and I traveled all the way to Quebec City for the race. I had originally registered for the half, but chickened out at the expo. The motel we had booked was horrible, so we decided to explore the area in search of another one. Little did we know that the whole of Quebec City was booked in advance. So, we ended up finding a place about an hour’s drive from the city. At around midnight, Yasser asked for the shorts that he told me to bring for him from Toronto. However, I totally forgot to put it in my bag. Since all shops were closed at that time, the only way for him to run the 10K was in his jeans ( and he did just that!). The race was fun…along the river and pretty flat. The 10K distance seemed really long after about 2 kms. I went thru shin splints and breathlessness, but still managed to finish the race in over an hour. Yasser, with absolutely no training finished about 5 minutes after me. We received our finisher’s medal and proudly wore it all over the city. On the long journey back to Kingston & Toronto, we decided that this hobby is there to stay !!! 
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AuthorZiyad Rahim is an adventure-runner from Pakistan. He currently holds 10 Guinness World Records in long-distance running, ranging from marathons to ultra-marathons. Race Reports
July 2018
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