spartans53

Your not the first to say that.

In Wadi Bih on 11th Feb, only 72.6k but a real killer with the climb up and down

maudawia

hhhh it is too hard

commander

You doing the whole race or part of a team??

If solo, then I doff my cap...but your mad!!

spartans53

The mad bit is I did it last year and am in again.

The winner last year Daryl said it is harder than Comrades?

Not sure but I bonked at about 68k and took about 90min to do the last 4k.

Its like childbirth time is great healer, just after you say never again and a month later you say whens the next one.

scrubbedexpat141

one of the lads here has done the MDS twice, I don't think I could drive 250km over desert in 5 days. Let alone run it.

moomkin

Got an Email to tell me to take a taxi to a nearby hotel and walk the rest of the way. WTF! Special Metro, NO. Park and ride, NO, which are both advertised on the STANDARD CHARTERED sponsored website.Are they having a laugh? Think the registration was of the order of $130 and they tell me not to tell everyone or there will be traffic jams. Might be better to try and doss it out in Dubai Mall the night before! Keep running!

spartans53

Get there early and you will be fine. If you land late you will get caught up in the all the 10k first timers who think they can rock up at the last min and run. Bit like what they do for everything in Dubai " Habibi, why can i not arrive at the start time and park next to the start line?"

Arrive at 6am wear a tee shirt you dont like over your stuff if its cold. Have some water or a coffee, take it off five mins before the start and chuck it away. Job Done.

mandm65

still no sign of the promised final e-mail confirmation with final instructions and reference to your run number for the race you have entered.

Please Note. YOUR RUN NUMBER WILL BE ALLOCATED AND E-MAILED TO YOU IN THE SECOND WEEK OF JANUARY!!

Contrast to above when registered for the RAK 1/2, got the confirmation via email and text immediately!

moomkin

Usually ditch the t-shirt from the last race at the start of the next one but I'm still assuming the 'bag-drop' mentioned for the marathon has not also evaporated.

actalis

I'm not surprised about the poor organization and the lack of communication...
The organizers are clueless and don't draw any lessons from their past events.

Already last year, getting to the start was a huge mess and yet access was easy and there was plenty of parking space, but having the 12000+ participants in the 10K starting only 15mns after the Marathon was just poor judgement... As if they couldn't stagger the 2 events by more than 15mns... and yet they're doing it again this year.

With most of the access roads closed around Dubai Mall, getting to the start line other than by foot is going to be extremely difficult, even Tom Cruise would not pull this off... I plan on parking somewhere close by around 5.30 and do a light 2km jog to the start as warm up...

moomkin

Yeh, what's that all about. I thought that since Standard Chartered had their name above the door then it would a well organised event.

The lack of communication is terrible. I hope they have the race registration sorted out. I'd hate to think of what a 'queue' of 12,000 people would look like in Dubai Mall on the Thursday!

mandm65

Guys
Any of you running this mara?

actalis

Just checked the web sites and while there's still nothing new on the logistics of the event, I've noticed they've now revised the Marathon route which now extends 1km further North towards the Dry docks...

I can only wish they revert back to the old route on Beach road, boring yet straight and flat and better suited for the start/finish logistics.

I'm amazed the Dubai Marathon managed to get accreditation from the IAAF with all the amateurism at play leaving all runners without any updates on the race and changing the route 10 days before the event...

commander

Sounds like a fair amount of HTFU is required

moomkin

Number and confirmation arrived today.Now for the bunfight at registration!