Sweat, sweat and sweat

Distance covered yesterday: 17.33km

Distance covered this week: 28.77km

Current temperature: 37.5C

Today's orange pic: Training plan with the days until the race marked off in orange.

There is no point moving to Dubai if you're not prepared to live with the fact that it's sweaty old place for up to six months of the year, but, used to that as we may be, yesterday's run was probably a bit beyond the joke. We had been slightly lulled by last week's run into a false sense of security that cool times are here again, as, the weather at the start was relatively pleasant at the start, if admittedly horribly hot by the end of it.  This week, as soon as we stepped outside we found the air thick with misty, sweaty humidity and sure enough, about two or three km in to yesterday's effort, it became clear that it was going to be a tough one. We were meant to do 12 miles but we managed about a mile and quarter short of that, as, we're both starting to get the odd achey joint problem and the humidity was so awful that we practically had trench foot by the end because of the quantity of sweat in our shoes. You have not experienced real running in the heat until you have listened to sweat sloshing around in your trainers, felt your socks go squelchy and seen small puddles of the stuff seep right through to the outside of your shoes when you stop.

The fun part about yesterday's run was that it was around the Dubai Creek area, which we crossed once, through the pedestrian tunnel that I did not even know existed, and then on the way back, we all jumped on to an abra for a nice ride back across it:

Obviously I didn't have my camera with me, but if you can imagine the same but with 20 sweaty runners on it, then you get the idea. If the abra man had done the usual: "One hour boat tour, boss, 100dhs, I would have said 'yes please, one thousand times yes' as being out on the creek with a bit of a breeze was absolute heaven compared to plodding along in soppingly horrible steam room that was Dubai yesterday morning. It was over too soon unfortunately and it was shuffling dejectedly through the souk and then home.

I think we're experiencing a form of hysteria now that all of the long training runs are out of the way as we are considering taking part in the Dubai Creek Half Marathon, which takes place just under nine weeks from now. Once we are over the trauma of yesterday's sweat fest, and providing it does not sell out before then, we may do it, just for the experience of doing it without the appallingly horrible weather conditions.

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