Saturday, September 28, 2013

We've been tango'd

Temperature at start: a chilly 29C

Temperature at finish: 40ishC forgot to check immediately. Flippin' hot.

Distance covered yesterday: 18.37km in 2hrs 17mins

Distance covered this week: 32.93km


Today's orange pic: Us idioting around next to the Burj Khalifa last weekend, wearing our attractive screaming orange Myeloma UK running vests. You will notice there is a sunset vibe about the pic, because, it was too frickin' hot to go out and do this in the heat of the day. You also will notice the pics are taken from far, far, away, because we tried close-ups, and as well as hot, it was revoltingly humid, so, while I've tried to upload them but every time I do so, my mouse hand goes into spasms and just refuses to do it because we look ruddy awful.

We managed yesterday's 11mile run with the Dubai Creek Striders reasonably well. Well, I say, reasonably well, we were still completely b***oxed afterwards and had to lie in bed and watch three episodes of Breaking Bad in order to recover. But, joy of joys, oh frabjous day, calloo callay, the temperature felt not exactly cool at a balmy 29C but comfortablish when we got in the car at about 5.40am to go to meet our running chums at the car park near the Financial Centre Novotel.

The Dubai Creek Striders chiefs were also kind to us by picking a route that was particularly shady, taking in Zabeel, then along the main road for a bit before looping under Garhoud Bridge around Creek Park, through Karama and back to Financial Centre again. One of the things I have enjoyed about joining the Striders is that as many of them have been running in the Emirate for a long time, they know the best routes. Arriving in this sprawling car-clogged place for the first time, such is the prevalence of multi-lane highways, it can be pretty intimidating setting out anywhere on foot, but, in the past three weeks I have been shown all manner of underpasses, foot bridges, and pedestrian friendly cut-throughs that I had no idea existed.

I have been blithely telling you in this series of running blogs that I'm so incredibly fit now (roll on the floor laughing, why don't you?) that while I used to find that it was aches and pains in my legs that stopped me, it's now the heat that slows me down. Well, it was still pretty hot after 7.30am yesterday, and, it's true that I found the first 10km, perhaps not easy, but not horribly difficult, and managed not to have to walk until the 15km mark. Unfortunately, after that point, my legs, particularly the part just above my knees, were feeling really rather unnecessary. In fact, I would say they were hurting. A certain large sportswear conglomerate coach I know is always saying that it's not the effort that it takes to run the race you should be worried about, it's the recovery time afterwards, and that's what I am telling myself today. Because, although my legs and back are a bit stiff, I don't actually feel too bad, and am not totally horrified about the impending 12mile run, our final long training run, which is ahead of us on October 4th. As long as I download plenty of Radio 4 podcasts for my iPod, I am sure it will be fine.

Before you wet yourselves laughing at the rest of our bright orange vest pics below, I would like to say thanks again to those of you who have so generously sponsored us. It means a heck of a lot to me that so many of you have been kind enough to donate. I never even dreamt that we would reach the 1,000pound mark so long before the event itself. In light of that, and the fact that I have another small fundraising event planned, I have increased our target. So, if you haven't sponsored us yet, and wish to do so, please click here. If you haven't sponsored us yet, I would like to say: "Look, it's us, wearing fluorescent orange, and running, in temperatures of 30-40C! It's completely out of character! Sponsor us!"

















Sunday, September 22, 2013

Newborn skin, (thankfully) not quite literally

I was in the queue at my local supermarket recently, happily staring into space, minding my own business, while whoever was at the front kept charging backwards and forwards picking up items they had forgotten, keeping everyone else waiting, when my eye happened to fall on this:


I gagged a little at the thought of soap made from placenta, of any creature, let alone human. It reminded me of a chapter in one of the books of my hero, Adrian Mole (yes, I know he's fictional, don't start) in which he describes an incident when his American penfriend advises him to kill a frog and stick it in a blender, and smear the pureed gorey remains on his face in order to cure his spots.

I rushed home to enlist the services of Mr Google, and, mercifully, I discovered that this particular brand of soap, Renew Placenta, is not made from any part of an animal or human's afterbirth, rather, it is herbal. Placenta refers to the placenta of a plant.

It didn't half get me thinking about the lengths to which people will go in this part of the world, and, of course, many others, to keep their skin looking white. Meanwhile while their loony European, American and Australian counterparts, apart from the Goths of course, are doing their level best to burn their skin to a brown, crusty carcinogenified crisp at every available opportunity.

I went on a press trip to Taiwan when I first moved here, and I remember being staggered that the lady who was showing me round was five or six years older than me, when she looked about 10 years younger. Genetics has a lot to do with youthful appearance, of course, but, having professed such shock at this lady being in her late 30s, I had to do all the: "Goodness me, how do you stay looking so young?" stuff.

"It is the damp climate," she professed. Which I suppose could be a point, if you will excuse the slightly "bad science" connection between damp weather and skin being extra moisturised to help it stay looking young. Or, it could be the fact, that, when we were out and about, as soon as the sun even thought about peeking out from behind a cloud, she put up a parasol and cowered under it, lest any of its rays reach her skin. For her trouble, she did indeed have an incredibly youthful, extremely pale complexion.

The value of a pale skin to many women of different nationalities is clearly not something to be snidey about, and far be it from me to criticise women who choose to lighten their skin. Women clearly feel pressure to lighten up, and certainly don't feel embarrassed to do so, rather, tanned skin is seen as something to be embarrassed about, as is borne about by Renew Placenta's slogan, which is enough to make your average left wing westerner gasp: "Stay Young, Stay White."

A pale skin, after all, demonstrates prosperity, a concept loaded with the symbolism of a time when you showed your wealth in the fact that you did not need to labour or work outside. Instead, you were inside, protecting your delicate visage from the sun's aging effects. On our trip to India, we got used to seeing the product "Fair and Lovely" advertised everywhere, something, we agreed, that may as well be labelled "Rich and White" as that is the image users are hoping to project by using it.

It is bizarre, when you think about it, though, this opposing obsession that the two cultures have with light and dark: Us white people risking skin cancer and premature aging to go darker, perhaps for the same reasons our darker counterparts do the opposite, to project the image of health and also, wealth - of being someone who can afford numerous holidays in the sun. Meanwhile people with dark skin take the same risks, skin cancer and premature aging, plus the sinister sounding "skin thinning" and poor wound healing ability, to go lighter.

I read earlier this year that one Bollywood actress is taking a stand against skin lightening in films, branding it racist. It will be interesting to see whether others start to take up her cause and her message spreads.




Saturday, September 21, 2013

Four weeks to go

Distance covered this week: 27.33km

Distance covered yesterday: 16.18km (10 miles) in 2hrs 07mins 20secs.

Temperature at finish: Forgot to check until a while after we got home but it was 44C.


Today's orange picture: It's a repeat of our running gear, to "celebrate" the fact that there is four weeks to go until the half marathon as of yesterday... (pause while I vomit a little with nerves). The plan is to post some pics of us in said running gear at some point and I had hoped it would be cool enough by now to go outside and pose for pictures during daylight hours without immediately pouring with sweat. I have now accepted that that's not going to happen so expect some sweaty pics coming your way soon.

We set out on our second run with the Dubai Creek Striders yesterday with a lot fewer nerves than last week and managed to complete the full course of just over 15km. We actually needed to complete 16.09km to fulfill our training plan, so, after finishing, we walked the remaining distance up and down a grass verge on the side of the road, which was handily shaded by date palms. I find it's psychologically important for me to complete the required distance, even if I have to walk some of it, because not doing so gives me extreme nerves that I won't actually make it around on the day.

Although I have a bit of a twingey left knee at the moment, which is perhaps not surprising how much further I am running these days, I find that the biggest hurdle that I have to clamber over when it comes to running is psychological. Before that it was the early starts, and now I've pretty much conquered that  Although, I wake up for each early morning training session thinking: "Oh, for f***'s sake, who's stupid idea was this? What the f*** was I thinking? Why on earth did I think I could do a half marathon?" I usually manage to drag myself up as soon as the alarm goes and into my running gear while stuffing half a banana down my throat. It becomes automatic.

But the twin obstacles of psychologically overcoming the heat and long distance are very, very tricky. I tend to find, that having run three 10km races, I feel fairly ok during the first 10km. But, once I go past 10km, my body starts to tell me it's time to stop, and it's a matter of will to keep going after that. Unfortunately, the point at which I get past 10km is usually long past 7am, meaning the sun is starting to climb higher in the sky and the temperature nudges up into the late 30s or early 40s.

On yesterday's run, that also coincided with the our arrival at Jumeirah Open Beach Running Track, the scene of a rather disastrous 8km run in August, which I talked about in this post, so quickly found myself in psychologically shark-infested waters and wanting to give up. The combination of heat, lack of breeze, and the sun getting higher in the sky, and the memories of a rather unpleasant run, made me start justifying stopping to myself. "I need to stop, this is dangerous. I'm dehydrated and the frozen bottle of water I started out with is now melted and rapidly heating up to bath water temperature and my knee hurts. I'm probably injuring myself and I'll probably faint," I found myself thinking. My head was telling me it was time to stop, when in actual fact, my body was more than capable of keeping going, as was proved by the fact that I did in fact manage to complete the distance, and, by the fact that I was not lying on the floor unconscious.

I suspect Striders members have their own monsters lurking on this path, though, as thankfully we only ran half of it before a water stop, and then we set off on the run home. What helps, in this situation, is arriving at the water stop and seeing lots of people who are clearly feeling the heat just as badly as you are, but who are determined to carry on. After that, I had to make a couple of stops to walk, because I do find it particularly hard to keep going when the sun is properly hot and beating down on me, and, I'm already tired having done 12-13km. I'm usually fine during the shady patches. I know it must be possible to keep going when the heat starts to get extreme, as runners in hot climates do it every day. But I haven't cracked it yet. The key to not giving up altogether yesterday was telling myself that on the day of the race, it won't be that much cooler, and there will more than likely be periods in the second half when there is no shade, so, if I have to walk, so be it, but I need to keep going in order to have prepared myself for the race.

On a brighter note, a long-term Striders member told me yesterday that while many people think July and August are the worst months, September is actually worse because of the humidity. It's certainly true that on my Monday night run, it was so bad that I came back not just dripping with sweat as I usually am, but with a running vest that looked like I was about to enter a wet t-shirt contest at a naff holiday camp. Not attractive. Once October comes, it should be better, hopefully...

If you're wondering what on earth could prompt us to undertake this lunacy, click here to find out more and sponsor us. We're rocketing towards our target, thanks to one particularly generous anonymous sponsor, but if you can find a few pennies or fils to spare, we would be hugely grateful.





Friday, September 13, 2013

Nine miles in memory of Roy Nasr

Start time: 6am.

Temperature at start time: 31C

Temperature at finish: 40C

Current temperature: 34C

Distance covered today: 14.86km, time: an eternity.

Distance covered this week: 27.82km



Today's orange pic is courtesy of an uber-runner and former colleague of him indoors, who found it on instagram and said it reminded her of me. I should add at this point that my old school chum, who supplied last week's fox pic, has started an orange4myeloma account on Instagram, where you can see all kinds of fun and unusual orange pics.

This week, we joined the Dubai Creek Striders, our local long-distance running club, for our long run. The reason I'm not sure about my time today is that I gave the running watch to him indoors. The "social group" section of the Striders, that we were running with, like to make several stops for water, something that was particularly welcome for me, as, although I started off near the front, by the 10th kilometre, I was at the back and struggling as the sun got higher in the sky. The social group run is the slowest group, running an average of 1km every six minutes. On a good day, I usually average 1km between roughly 6min 20 secs and 6min 45 secs, so I just about kept up. The fastest group takes just four and a half minutes to run a kilometre. Scary.

It was an emotional start to today's session as it was held in memory of Roy Nasr, a triathlete who lived in the Emirate for a long time and did a lot to promote the sport here. He was killed a week ago when a car hit his bike on the flyover that crosses Sheikh Zayed Road near Safa Park. I didn't know Mr Nasr, but, as you quickly discover when you move here, Dubai is but a village and I know people who knew him, and his death has clearly sent shock waves through the triathlon and sports community.

A minute's silence was held in his memory before we set out on the run and many runners turned up in fluorescent gear to raise awareness of the need for road safety when out running or cycling. Armbands and tags on which you can write your name, emergency contact and medical details were also handed out.

Understandably, the Striders' organisers were particularly keen to enforce the safety message today, and, they were strict about us running single file when we ran over the flyover where the accident occurred.

One of the many terrible things about Mr Nasr's death is that I have seen comments on stories written about his death declaring that "Dubai is too dangerous for cycling", or similar. As I have said, I did not know Mr Nasr, but, reading the many tributes to him, I am willing to bet that people feeling too unsafe to get on their bikes and go out on Dubai's roads would be the last thing he would want. Such attitudes could be disastrous for the future of the Emirate in my view. It is true that the climate in Dubai is far from ideal for cycling at certain times of year. And yes, the driving standards are pretty dreadful. You simply cannot trust people to see you and stop on time, so it's totally up to the pedestrian or cyclist to look out for their own safety. But, reliant as we currently are on fossil fuels to power our high-powered vehicles, we all know that that can't last forever, and, sooner or later, alternatives will have to be considered, such as hybrid vehicles and manpower. Plus, the health situation in the form of a growing obesity crisis is critical in the UAE, and the more people can be encouraged to exercise, in any form, the better. Discouraging them would be nothing short of criminal.

Today's Striders run was actually a little more than nine miles but, handily enough, the last water stop came in at exactly the distance we needed to complete to keep up with our training plan for the race. So, the two of us plus hardcore running chum and neighbour, who kicks both our arses at this running lark, caught a cab back to the start because we were all pretty much destroyed at that point. It was the furthest him indoors and I have ever run, and the furthest hardcore running chum has run since she came to Dubai, which I believe was at least five or six years ago.

I had to stop and walk for a few hundred metres twice, which considering the distance and the fact that it is still pretty hot, I am not too upset about. Apart from some pretty persistent blisters on my toes and rather achey legs and hips, and the need to crash out for a few hours when we had got home and breakfasted, there are so far no ill effects. Ask us how we are feeling tomorrow, however, and you might get a slightly different story...

Most of you know by now what this is all about, but if you don't, and want to sponsor us, please click here. Thanks again to those of you who have already sponsored us.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

8-mile

Start time: 5.20am

Temperature at start: 33C

Temperature at finish: 34.5C

Current temperature: 38C

Distance and time: 12.89km (exactly eight miles) in 1hr 35min 22secs

Distance covered this week: 25.9km.


This week's orange pic is courtesy of my oldest chum, well, old, in the sense that we have known each other 25 years, she is actually younger than me by a whole month. It is an orange fox. Thanks for that, buddy.

The day's inspirational running song, well, it has to be the theme from the film 8-mile by Eminem:

I must confess I don't actually own this song or have it on my iPod because I find the music of Mr 'Nem a little bit shouty and nasty for my delicate ears, particularly before 6am. But, I may consider getting it because it has the old useful persistent beat to keep the legs going and, ahem, "encouraging" just get the heck on with it lyrics.

The run, starting near our abode in Downtown Dubai, actually took place yesterday but I had to do some actual work, (I know, on a Saturday, the cheek of it), hence writing this the following day.

The earlier start helped with the heat, but, we tried a new route and as him indoors is usually 500m ahead of me, and I have no sense of direction whatsoever, I did get slightly lost at the point where I had to come back across Financial Centre Road after doing a loop of the Emirates Towers. This will mean nothing to those of you not familiar with the vagaries of the Downtown Dubai one-way system, but I nearly ended up running up a flyover to the upper level of The Dubai Mall. Oops. This was in part due to the fact that Downtown continues be, in parts, a spaghetti junction of roads that mysteriously come to an end with no warning due to the fact that the place is half-built, and, in part due to the fact that around 6am on a Friday when three or four kilometres into a run isn't my most intelligent of times.

Anyway, I got round most of the rest of it fine, although, I did have to stop at the Boulevard Cafe at the Al Manzil Hotel, (if you haven't been there, go for breakfast and try the Eggs Benedict) and ask the man who was preparing the tables to fill my water bottle. Oh, and there were the times I was just walking along, thinking: "Where the hell am I?" and 300m where I was despairing a bit due to the sheer depressingly ugly un-built wasteland hell that is the back parts of Downtown. Apart from those instances, I succeeded in running most of the way.

I am slightly terrified that on the day I will have to run an additional 5.1 miles on top of yesterday's distance considering it was quite exhausting enough for me. But, now that I have managed to get through more than half the distance, I am starting to feel a bit reassured that I will actually be able to make it all the way round without a) crying, b) having to walk a lot of it or c) coming so far behind everyone else that the race organisers have gone home by the time I finish.

None of this will make any sense to you if you don't know that him indoors and I are doing a half marathon for Myeloma UK on October 18th, but you can read a bit more and sponsor us here.