This weekend saw the continuation of my Return to Distance Running/Know Your Obscure Emirates World Tour with a trip to Ras Al Khaimah for the RAK Half-Marathon. How's that for killing two birds with one stone? I had actually passed through RAK once before (a boozy afternoon on the beach of its one 5-star hotel, en route to Oman) but needless to say, running 13.1 miles there gave me a better sense of the lay of the land. It's a beautiful emirate (mountains + mangroves... wait, there's natural scenery in the UAE?!) and has a quaint, almost small-town feel to it... actually nice enough that it was worth the pain of leaving DXB by 5:30 AM to make it there for the 7:30 start.
The race itself was fine - I finished in 1:50, slightly more respectable than my recent marathon time - but true to form took it out way too fast and was hurting by the end. Hurting so much, in fact, that I proceeded to lose my breakfast in the last quarter-mile, projectile-vomiting not once, not twice, but eight times in the final stretch. The most fabulous part was that at least two of these occurrences were right in front of the Emirati bagpipe band that was marching along the course for entertainment... and blissfully within lens-shot of the official race photographer. If there is any justice in this world, there will be some hilarious photos to be shared once the race pics go up online (made more hilarious by the fact that I chose this race as the debut for my American flag running shorts).
[UPDATE: photos have just been posted online and tragically, there are none of me yakking on the Emirati bagpipers.]
In other news, things are getting better on the home front with the impending Wednesday move-out - after 5 torturous, tortuous weeks - of Roommate Javs' flat-ironing, MAC lipgloss-applying, Jordin Sparks-playing, bedazzled top-wearing, LV briefcase-carrying, "I can't use the elliptical at the gym because my legs are too long for it!"-commenting girlfriend, Fire. (Okay, I love Jordin Sparks too. But in a self-deprecating way that invites people to mock me for it. That's the whole point.) Jazz hands!
