Dead Sea Half Marathon

Day 253

The opening salvo of my older brother Tim's two-week visit to Jordan was an early Friday morning race I had been training for, running from the outskirts of Amman down (and I do mean down, net-elevation drop was a nice feature) to the public beach at the Dead Sea. Unfortunately my training had been pretty skittish the previous month, ~60 miles/wk and a week off due to illness, but I was still out to have a good run and enjoy the down-time thereafter with Tim, traipsing all around Jordan. Plus, I could only squeeze in about 3.5-4 hours of sleep that night due to our late dinner and hectic provisions shopping.

All in all, though, things went pretty well. The 15th annual Dead Sea marathon is actually 4 races in one: a short ultra (48k), a marathon, a half, and a 10k fun run. The fun run brought out Jordanians, resident ex-pats, and foreign tourists in droves. The start point and check-in were a nightmare, the busing system to the various start points was ill-managed, but nevertheless it was great to see so many enthusiastic runners in a country normally devoid of respect and recognition of the sport. One caveat though--it's still Jordan and I greatly enjoyed the sight of a number of runners lighting up for their last smoke in the waiting pen.



Tim followed in our rental car to the half start line, and acted as impromptu photographer and enthusiastic supporter at various stops along the way. My race had a couple of talented Jordanians in it (from the national team), so it quickly developed into a 4-man race where a third Jordanian guy and I battled it out for third in sight of the leaders. This was my first race in about 10 months, so I was a little rusty tactially-speaking, besides not being in tip-top shape. I cruised through 5k at 14:45 and 8k at 24:15 before settling down and trudging though the second half of the race. The route was pleasant, although hot (with no shade to speak of on the side of the highway)--so I made good use of the sponge and water stations. The last 5k or so was a bit frustrating, not only because it includes the only 3 or 4 long uphills on the course, but because slow jogging and walking 10k fun-runners were congesting the entire highway. After leaving my race partner at about 10k, I wrapped things up in 1:07 even for third place, which I was pretty pleased with, all things considered.



The various races had different prize systems, but my finish was good for a box of coffee products and a flashy new cell phone. So I could finally say goodbye to the standard base-line Nokia model "foreigner phone" and gain much-needed respect from the camera phone and ring tone culture here. On another bright note, my friend whom I had been coaching for her first half-marathon ended up switching to the full marathon distance last minute and pulled out a win! Her 3:34 was a couple minutes quicker than second place and, not to mention, a Boston marathon qualifier.



I had a big crew of ex-pat friends taking part in the race, from the 10k to the ultra, so with Tim included we all enjoyed the lavish post-race party beside the pool above a crowded Dead Sea beach. Then Tim and I kicked off the rest of the trip...