Racing Qatar – Urban Ultra Desert Stinker

          This is a story about how it looks like if everything works out perfectly and how it should and has to look like if you want to have a good race and succeed!

           As always I had to go to UAE to arrange something and as always I planned also a race in the same time to fill the weekend and make spending 1000 riyals for visa and flight more worth it. This time it was Desert Strinker 20+20 trail and desert running race. I took a comfortable 8am Friday morning flight, rented a car, did some shopping and mostly because everything was closed I drove early the race location. It was around 50km outside Dubai in a piece of desert I have never been, despite living in Dubai for a year and half! And I missed a really beautiful place. Small yellow dunes, covered with many bushes a grassy spots contrasting with flat and empty salt plains between. Everything clean, colorful, silent and peaceful. Great place for running J

          I was first competitor on site, so I without any stress picked one of the free tents and took a nice hour and half power nap! When I woke up many other racers were setting up their camps around, but this rush went around me. In lazy tempo I prepared everything for the night 20k run around the salt flat and with still plenty of time I went for a short warm up jog. “Wow…I feel so light and quick!!” nice feeling flooded my body. I was ready to rumble!!

          What do you need for a good and strong race? Everyone would immediately say that training, fitness, power, equipment…these are all true. You need them, but that’s just 50% of the success! I would bet that the most of us doesn’t even think about the other half, which is rest, recovery, motivation and mental comfort and strength! And on that day I had everything J

          Doing a lot of racing started to pay off as training, but I was nicely recovered since my last activity four days ago, including that lazy Friday. I was quite motivated and looking forward to this race, because I like trail running and 20k in the desert would be exactly where I knew I’d be strong. I had good shoes, good headlamp, sand gaiters. I was comfortable and confident with my hydration, nutrition and race strategy. And I was calm and in good mood ready to enjoy the race and eager to fight for a good place J

          BANG!! The race started and I went off as per my plan, to go 4:30 min/km and see what happens. My plant shattered into pieces in a second, because one African guy shot forward like he was doing only 1k. “No chance to follow him! He’s too fast” and I pushed him out of my mind. He didn’t have a strong headlamp so he disappeared in the night anyway. But who I couldn’t ignore were two other guys running at around 4 min/km. I had to try to keep up with them.

          Good equipment came into my advantage after two kilometers, where the African and one other runner missed a marker and went a wrong way. My headlamp could shine 100m far, so was easily spotting the markers and showed them the way. I let them catch me, overtake me and show me the way forward, just following and checking. Obviously they got lost soon again and the whole scenario repeated J “Stupid markers! You can’t see them” the African guy was complaining and getting desperate. “It’s not the markers man! It’s the headlamp J” I commented making him probably even more angry and out of focus.

          They god lost once more, but at that time I ran wrong way with them. Fortunately I looked back soon enough to see the trail making a wide u-turn and without warning them I took advantage of the situation. I turned back and before they realized where the trail was going, I was 200m ahead and leading the race.

           From there the race was a pure joy. Running fast across small dunes and dirt roads in a bright night under shining moon. Running between bushes, seeing herds of oryxes crossing your way. Breathing fresh desert air and seeing the lights of the other runners slowly disappear behind you. I was running often without the light on to confuse the others so this wonderful experience was even stronger!

          I was running 100% with heart rate at 180, but the place and environment consumed me so I was not feeling tired and even speed up for the last 5k! 1:25:21 is a decent time for a trail 20k and it was better than I expected. I gained 4 minutes advantage to the second stage and I was looking so happy in the finish that people were joking “You look like you could run another 20 now” They were not far from truth J

          In a good mood we made a barbecue with Jaro, who joined me for the event from Abu Dhabi so we had couple of beers before heading to sleep among the last ones! Real champs J

          The next morning? What can I say! Beautiful clear day with yellow dunes with few green trees among them and fresh crispy air was just screaming for you go running…and that’s what we did J This time I knew who is running only 10k so could control the race better and could let the African dude to kill himself in the soft sand!

          We started all more or less together and as a bunch were struggling to find the markers blown from the top of the dunes by the wind. But after around 3k we changed direction and everything was clear. I was running the desert pace, making short steps, using footprints of others and following everybody comfortably from behind just keeping them at sight. Even with this easy and seemingly effortless pace I was closing on the leaders and passing some others and when the two 10k leaders spit from the 20k course I was second, just 100 meters behind the first one and with no one in sight behind me.

          Here I got into a running spree! I felt like flowing stream between the dunes changing directions, reading the terrain, finding and following the best trail of harder sand to run smoothly and easily in that endless dune field. I think I was making the leader desperate, because he just couldn’t shave me off and when he missed one obvious marker and got a bit off the track, he gave up and I passed him leaving his complains behind J

          Another great and fun run continued in my solitude, but that how I like it anyway and in the race when you are the leader you really don’t mind to be alone J I got finally a bit tired at the last 3k, but it was too close to the finish and everyone was too far behind that slowing down a little made no difference! So I won both stages and won the whole event. And not only that, I enjoyed so much it the whole time.

          I wish all races would be like this, but I think I found the recipe how you can make it. Just pick a race you really like and get prepared not compromising any of the things required for a successful race. Unforgettable experience guaranteed!

Racing Qatar – Fun in Aspire

          Since last two years the Aspire Sports Academy organizes a series of five short aquathlon races. 500m swim in the pool and 5k run always has been that nice quick morning race which just wakes you up and kick starts your weekend. This year was no difference, so the day after Dukhan triathlon I was ready with around 200 of other sport lovers to enjoy 30 minutes of morning exercise J

          Start is staggered with two swimmers starting every 30 second in one lane and progressing by switching lanes every lap to the other side of the pool 10 lengths away. I did this race around 5 times previously and because it is always the same, I knew exactly what to do to get ready.

          3-2-1-GO! I started swimming as fast as I could, paddling hard with the hands again. I got tired obviously after few laps and had to slow down. Slowly overtaking few other swimmers and complicated lane changing was always putting me off my rhythm, so with all this together I was same slow as always once out of the pool!

          I ran out, put my shoes and t-shirt while running and sprinted towards the 5k circle around Aspire. Usually I get a stomach cramp or pain after swim, but this time nothing was stopping me from running a decent 3:50 min/km pace recovering some time I lost on the swim.

          It was working well all the way and I still finished in 30:15 total time putting me on 7^th place overall and which was 15 second short of my eternal goal to finish below half an hour! But I felt strong and if my inner sole doesn’t get stuck when putting on my shoes, if I don’t have to put any shirt on, if I learn more efficient turn in the pool and swim a bit faster…I feel that I can shave off those few seconds and make it next time J

          This as on Saturday and after Friday off the next weekend I was at the same place for Tri Club Doha Super Sprint triathlon! This new group organized a similar race as the aquathlon only with a bike leg included. And distances 250 swim, 10k bike and 3k run were promising another quick race.

I read somewhere that swimming warm up is very important, so I swam 3 laps before, which might have been too much, because even on 5 pool swim I couldn’t go full speed all the way. But maybe not! I’m probably just a weak swimmer and I’m wasting energy on my bad technique J

          This time I bought a trisuit so I didn’t have to waste time changing, but I still had to waste time putting my shoes on! Anyway once I got onto the bike track I tried to go 100%, but it was difficult, because it was not an ordinary bike leg! I was around some parking lots and on interlocking pavement, which was pretty bumpy! So going 2 loops making many sharp corners, roundabouts and rattling on the bricks like on Paris-Roubaix was not very pleasant and fast triathlon ride. But I did fourth fastest time with around 34km/h average and started moving up the field!

          On the run I wanted to climb even more and started almost sprinting with 3:30 min/km. And it was surprisingly possible almost all the way. I only got short of breath for the last 500 meters and that was probably why I didn’t sprint to the finish line. That missed sprint cost me third place overall, because with the fastest run time 10:40 and 34:43 total time I was fourth overall  only 5 seconds behind the third! I was first man in my 30-39 age category, but the overall standings are what I usually look at. So I have to be two minutes faster next time to claim number one…probably not, but from the second place was not that far J We’ll see…

Racing Qatar – Dukhan Sprint triathlon

          Racing season went on right the next weekend with the Sprint triathlon in Dukhan. Last year I finished around sixth place, also because I forgot to put my helmet into the transition zone and had to go and collect it from the car! This year I had more experience and probably even more power, so I had hopes to follow my second place from 2011! But just small ones, because the main objective was to race hard and enjoy! This is my attitude for this year J

          It was a beautiful Friday morning. After camping in the desert nearby we didn’t have to spend one hour driving from Doha, so we could come to the venue just around 7:30am and with no rush prepared everything for the race. It was so nice that the race was starting at 9am. I’m not an early bird and every extra hour in the morning mobilizes more of my strength!

          The distances were a bit shorter than last year and 400m swim passed really quickly. I tried to work with my arms hard and increase the stroke rate. It felt like I was going faster, but when I got back to shore and saw many people around, I knew that I was same fast as always! But in the race concentration there was no time to think about or be disappointed about such things. The race was not over yet!

          I hopped shirtless onto the bike and started pedaling as hard as I could the 16k bike section. I didn’t have the proper tri clothes yet, so I decided not to waste time with putting a shirt on! I saw Lance Armstrong doing a triathlon half naked and where else than in Qatar’s 30 degree mornings you should try it too J I started quickly passing a lot of people and because the two loop course was short I didn’t have any idea what my position could be. So I kept going around 37 km/h average, just focusing forward.

          Just at the beginning two guys I passed started drafting behind me! In triathlon this is not allowed, but here it was, so it was not a problem. Well it was not a problem from the rules point of view, but I had a big problem with it! I wanted to complete the race as proper triathlon on my own, and therefore I wanted everyone else to do it on their own also J I didn’t have any benefit from drafting anyway, because as soon as I was not in front we were slowing down and I didn’t just want to drag them to the finish! So on the slight downhill, where I’m somehow usually faster than others, on a roundabout, I sprinted forward from the back and was flying down 50 km/h easily leaving them behind J

          During the second loop I saw Iain on the other side of the road, who I knew is faster on bike than me and basically the only fast person I knew. “Wow…if he is behind me, it is a good sign” a though blazed through my mind, but with your heart racing at 180bpm, the brain is focused on other things than thinking about some positions! So I just kept going…

          I dropped the bike, changes shoes and headed for the last 4k run. I saw two ladies and one Filipino, around 100 meters in front of me and thought “This cannot be the front of the race!! I have to still be somewhere behind!” and mindlessly kept running and focusing on another problem. My stomach was cramped and I couldn’t catch enough breath!

          It happened probably from swallowing too much water in the sea, or air when drinking, or just because I was pushing too much. I didn’t know, but the only thing I knew was, that I couldn’t run properly. Properly means fast and fast on 4k distance means less than 4 min/km. I was not running that slow with 4:20 min/km, it was painful and I was slowing down even more.

          After around 1k I overtook that Filipino and saw the rest of the run route in the distance. To my surprise there were really only those two ladies left in front and not that far ahead! But I couldn’t do anything to chase them. I was stuck, gasping for air, burping and slowing down instead. Obviously the other runners started closing on me from behind. Slowly, but steadily! 

          And at 1k to the finish Joe finally caught me. He passed me and tried to find his revenge for me letting him behind on the bike ;) But to his bad luck in that moment I finally burped out enough air and set my lungs free. There was still enough strength in my legs from not running at my full potential, so I rather easily leveled his pace, followed him for a while and around 200m from the finish I sprinted from the back and left him behind once again J

          Third place overall then, but the fastest man! Those two ladies were just too good! I won a big box with a home theater system and with Ondrej and my lovely race photographer Jitka we went for a pizza and towards the day on the beach! I just love these short morning races. They just power your day J

Racing Qatar – Duhail 3h MTB endurance race

          Finally the Qatar’s local racing season started! And looking at my calendar, it will be a super busy one, with races practically every Friday and sometimes also on Saturday! There will be plenty of MTB or road races and time trials organized by western expat Qatar Chain Reaction and Filipino Padyak Qatar.

           There will be a few triathlons organized by newly established Tri Club Doha or Dukhan Triathlon. There will be a series of five Aquathlons organized by Aspire, couple of 10k runs, 15k run or the inaugural Doha marathon!! And I’m not mentioning many other fun and charity events. Just too many events to do and one will have to start being picky J And if somehow there is a blank weekend, there will be always something in UAE…like a 20+20 Desert Stinker trail run.

          But the first one of them, QCR 3h MTB endurance race, was a no brainer, because it was first and MTB is on the top of my priority list, although triathlon is getting a lot of my attention lately!

          Duhail off road 5k track full of technical perks, climbs, descends, fast and slow section, got improved last year so now it is even more fun and challenging and definitely one of the best MTB grounds in the country.

           Around 30 racers lined up for the start of the three hour category with another 70 starting one hour later for the half distance. This made the race the biggest MTB event ever. The siren sounded everyone shoot off towards three hours of rounding around the track. Who completes most laps wins. Simple as that J I won both of the previous editions of this event so I was confident. Not as much as usually, because I could feel the lack of proper training over the summer, but I hoped everyone would be in the same position. Wrong assumption!!

          Julien, Jock, Jonathan and others started like it was a 5k sprint and I had to work hard to get back to the front pack from my lazy start. After 500m one of the first guys got puncture and angrily threw his bike on the ground in frustration. “ Gonna be a tough race” I thought forcing myself not to chase full speed the leader and watch also the sharp stones on the ground. “One puncture and I’m done” I reminded myself, but kind of trusted my tubeless tires!

          Jock and Jonathan went ahead full speed and me with Julien were on the hunt. The tempo was just too fast and my heart rate was at 180 straight from the start. “I can’t keep up like this the whole race” I started panicking! Jonathan realized this in the middle of the second lap, slowed down and we passed him. At the beginning the third lap we finally caught Jock and I was hoping that the pace will slow down and we will relax. No way!! Jock and Julien started to race each other and I realized that I just cannot keep up if I want to finish the race and started to slow down letting them go L My dream about a triple was fading away!

          So I started to cruise on my own, still decent speed faster than the rest of the field, but trying to recover and watch my back. In the middle of the fourth lap Jock got a puncture or some mechanical problem he couldn’t solve and had to retire from the race. Then I was second, but felt like I was continuously slowing down.

          It was true because one lap later Jonathan closed on me, passed me and I had to try to stick to his tail. It was hard, but I didn’t want to give up so easily. Unfortunately for him his new rohloff rear wheel spokes loosened and broke, so by the end of that lap his chase was over. And I was still second with no one in sight ahead nor behind.

          From that time I really started to cruise and suffer. Lack of training and my weak shape showed up in full strength and had to work hard every lap to complete it. During the eight round Julien lapped me like a bullet! He was still flying like at the start! Road bike time trial couple of weeks back should have warned me that those roadies maybe don’t have the technique on the mountain bike, but they have the muscle…which counts even more that skill I’m afraid!

          The last laps I had to even stop and rest my toes because of serious pain, but there was no one behind me even after 3 minutes of rest. I lined up next the Filipino weekend warriors doing the half distance and we cruised together. They are definitely getting better every year, but it was me who was that terribly slow! Frustrating, sad and worrying!

          I finished second with 12 laps in 3 hours and 20 minutes (they made me do one more lap because I finished 11 in 2:57!! Last year I did 14 in the same time. But the biggest worry was my shape for the upcoming MTB Championship series organized by Padyak where they are promising huge support, prestige and prize money…and you want to be part of an event like this and you want to be visible in the event like this! We’ll see how bad it really is…still more than a month to go J

Escape to paradise – Maldives

           Islamic three day EID holidays are almost a mandatory reason to leave the country! I didn’t have enough leave days to extend it to a full week, but fortunately my generous company allowed me to take leave from 2014 J And because Jitka had leave enough, we could start planning where to go…which is somehow being quite difficult decision for us!

          We were obviously not the only one who wanted to escape from Qatar, so two weeks ahead all the tickets to anywhere were double the price and with a fact that autumn seems a worldwide low wind season our decision making was really a tough task!

          At the beginning we wanted to go to Greece, than Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Egypt…but always there was something wrong we didn’t like. It was either too expensive, too complicated, too long travel, too crowded and as we were spending more and more time just browsing without finding we started to get even crazier ideas like Indonesia, India or Ethiopia! We were running out of time and each day we didn’t decide the tickets were getting more and more expensive!

          At the end we made a comprehensive Excel spreadsheet with flight times and cost estimations, picked two and we liked the most and chose our destiny J “Wherever we go it is going to be great if we are together” I secured Jitka that Maldives will be superb!

          You’ve seen pictures from Maldives right? Crystalline waters, white beaches rounded with palm trees, wooden houses on shallow reefs and stunning underwater life. Safe bet! Well…in certain places and certain time for sure! 

          We wanted to be at the smallest budget possible and do kitesurfing and stand up paddleboarding, so based on Google maps I chose the Maafushi island. Maafushi is one of the many local Maldivian village islands, with no alcohol, no picturesque cottages standing on water and no luxury what so ever, but cheap and public ferry ride from airport. 

We got a decent and clean room in a guesthouse, which was unfortunately not directly on the beach. But no problem…beach was just 100m away. 

          The problem was though, that the beach was full of rocks, corals a palm trees were just on the water edge, making it quite unfriendly to kiters. The good places for kitesurfing were either on the leeward side of the island or inaccessible, because there was a prison. Things like this you cannot find out from Google maps!

          Using SUPs was also not exactly as expected because even on the shallow reef area there were many waves and once the waves are half a meter high it is very difficult to stand upright…especially on a 26 inch race board! And going to other islands across deep open water channels to snorkel at better reefs than the Maafushi’s small one was almost impossible!

         Also an exceptionally big hurricane was forming up next to India was making the weather extremely shifty, unpredictable and which was forming isolated heavy rainstorms running across the sky and showering us every hour! Adding up very average meals and rather vegetarian unfriendly cuisine in our place, no wonder that from the first day the mood was not great and there was a tension and questioning “Why the hell are we here and not in some beautiful resort like from a catalogue!” It was just not going according to the plan!

          True…the place was not perfect and the first two days we were just running around, trying to do what we wanted with little success and basically learning our way around, but on the other hand there was no guarantee that we would be happier in a posh isolated hotel island with no spirit and among people from higher levels which we would hardly come along with! There we wouldn’t definitely met Jascha, a lone German kitesurfer, having his last minute budget holidays in Maafushi also J

          With more people stuck on the island (he definitely didn’t look that “stuck” as we did!) it was easier to do things, ease the tension and try to enjoy more. With him we saved our second day by hiring a boat to go kiting to an amazing sand bank at Cocoa Island resort nearby. We had a great session spiced up with some rainstorms passing by and pinning us down under the kite to protect us from heavy rain and winds.

          For three hours we were kiting like in the promotion spot…shallow blue water, white clouds, sand and palm trees at the back! Magical! Then the resort staff kicked us out to protect their 1000 dollar a night guests from invaders disturbing their boring peace by doing some activity one kilometer away from the beach and spoiling their view!

          Inspired, we took another boat the next day and went for the whole day to a similar island with a perfect sand bank, but no resort and annoying people. Unfortunately the cyclone Phailin had a different idea about us enjoying kiting in paradise and sent over 25 knots of wind! Excellent conditions if you have smaller kite than 12m…which you usually don’t have when the forecast is 15 knots max! Like that we just had to sit and wait until the boat picked us up in the evening. Such a bad luck and waste!

           So we resigned on kiting and went for a snorkeling trip the next morning. Much better, because we were swimming with manta rays, turtles, huge schools of fish and were surrounded by unbelievable colors of coral reefs and the life around. I went out kiting at our beach in the afternoon and had very nice session. That I had to launch and land the kite in the water, ride over corals and waves, and pay for any possible mistake (which didn’t happen!) by smashing the kite into the trees was a small issue J And the mood was going up again…

            The last day we took our SUPs and paddled to the Cocoa Island once more to have a lunch and maybe a beer too! Waves were quite big so we spent the most of the 9km paddle doing Sit Down Paddleboarding! But it didn’t matter, because it was nice to be out on the sea anyway. Luckily the decided to check out their beautiful house reef first before going to eat, because as soon as we ordered and we revealed ourselves not being their guests, we were again kicked out from an empty restaurant with 150 dollar order. Private is private and policy is a policy! Silly!

          And that was it! Five days in “paradise”. Once taking a boat back to the airport we were kind of happy to go home again, despite the last good days improving the experience 100%, but on the other hand kind of unhappy, because we knew that if having a better weather, better island and better hotel, this place could easily be that dream paradise as we were imagining it! We’ll see when and if another chance will be given to prove it J