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Published: March 5th 2011
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I know, I know, I’ve not been keeping on top of things. I'm going to take you back to January now, and after a good holiday, the new school term begins. The weather is slightly colder in the morning, maybe 18-19 degrees, but I'm manning up and working through it. Teaching is going well and a lot of students are now my friends on the playstation network, so it gives them great pleasure to rub it in my face the next day how they have powned me on Call of Duty. I really enjoy talking to the students after lesson or during a break, and I have a good laugh with some of them. Salem is a prime example, we talk about everything and he always tells me you want anything, you ask me and I will get it. I’ve yet to test him on it, but he assures me he can get me a Ferrari, we will see.
Moving on, as some will know I entered the Dubai marathon on Jan 21st and as you can see from the pictures, it was a breeze....... After prepping all my kit the night before and doing some quality ‘carb loading’
in the form of Ben and Jerry’s, it was time for an early night. After a relatively easy drive to the race, I was on the start line ready for the 7am kick-off. What can I say, it was 26.2 miles of running and getting lost in the specially prepared playlist on my Ipod. All was going well until mile 22, 4 to go, and it all fell apart. My legs felt like lead and I couldn’t keep up the pace. So the last 4 miles turned into a mental battle and all I kept thinking, if this country sold Original Lucozade, I wouldn’t be having this problem! Nahi was just thinking of getting to the finish. I eventually got there, and collapsed into a conveniently placed patio chair, watching in envy at other finishers getting massages. I didn’t want to wait, mainly due to the line required me to stand, so I got my gear and made my way back to the car thus ending the pain of walking/standing/living, or so I thought.....
My car was at the start, the finish was nowhere near, so I hobbled along the pavements without any clue of where I was going, getting
the odd look of sympathy from spectators. It took me 30 minutes to get to my car, including walking down a street that was a dead end, it turned into a mental battle........ this time to not just get my towel out and lie down where I was. I didn’t, so it was over, until the next one.
Fast forward a few weeks to Feb 18th and I’m at the start line for the Ras Al Khaimah half marathon, this race goes much better, probably has something to do with being half the distance. I finish on the time I want and finish strong, another medal and t-shirt in the bag. Rak itself, is a far cry from the dizzy sky scrapers of Dubai, its still very much a small town rather than a city. The Manar mall is the focal point which would fit into the Dubai mall many, many times over. It says it all about RAK when I'm driving along, and the car in front has a trailer attached with 1x lone brown goat who seemed at home in his surroundings. Despite all this, the roads were a nightmare and of course it was nice
and warm..... My hotel was nice and cosy and I explores everything worth looking at in about an hour. They have some amazing views of the mountain ranges in the distance and a sort of lake in the middle. It was another Emirate off the list, 3 down 4 to go. The drive to and from RAK is what I enjoyed the most, a nice tarmac road with open desert either side, lined with the odd campsite and people putting quad bikes through their paces. There was one random cluster of multicoloured houses, about 4 in total with a large dome like building next to them, it reminded me of something out of the film Toys. The roads were quiet and it was a pleasure to drive and this comes from someone who hates driving.
So here we are now and it’s coming to the end of the drill competition my school are in, but I’ll save that for a new post. As for March, I have live MMA event ADFC round 3 to look forward to, my PADI scuba diving course and maybe some sea fishing thrown in there.
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