Bike & Run

Day 313



Once upon a Friday, Jordan Cycling hosted the 2nd annual Bike & Run race at King Hussein Gardens park. Great fun was had by all, and namely friends Nina and Dave (ex-pat team #1), and me and our friend Kelsey (team #2). To be fair, there were some Brits from the posh 'Abdouni gym Vy on hand as well, but they had paired up with Jordanian cycling stars, so I'm not going to count 'em. Kelsey and I sort of scrambled even to register on time. In fact, Nina and Dave had kind of talked us into this whole thing; I wasn't really in serious training still from the Dead Sea half marathon, and Kelsey and I had to track down a racing bike via a French friend-of-a-friend so that she actually had something to ride.

About 30 pairs of competitors were on hand for the ~20k bike and ~5k run combo-race on a warm June morning. Dave and Kelsey sped off at the start while Nina and I jogged and stretched in the waiting area with my Jordanian running pals from Sports City. Dave came speeding in about third among the bikers (some of whom wiped out unclipping from their pedals in the exchange zone). Also dangerous was the biking route itself, apparently, without any traffic redirecting and with plenty of jostling among the cyclists for the shoulder. Kelsey got tangled up with another biker heading around a traffic cirlce, flying head first over the handle bars. The warrior that she is, though, she hopped right back on the bike (with a new nasty gash on her hip) and came flying into the exchange area to put me in a good spot in the race overall--and 4th in the mixed team competition heading into the run.

I caught the first two mixed team runners after the long first hill, and closed in on Nina (with a friendly smile) at about 2 miles. I came trotting into the finish area still unsure of our place, but Kelsey and I ended up fourth overall and first in the mixed category (with Nina and Dave close behind for second).

We were (all four of us) all smiles as we fetched Kelsey some ice and chugged some cold ones from our (now familiar) neighborhood race sponsor Red Bull (see Dead to Red and Dead Sea Half Marathon posts). And we collected our bling at an award ceremony presided by HRH Princess Reem.

I'm a bit sad to say this will be my last race in Jordan. But I've been hitting the Sports City running trail daily now, bumping up mileage to be ready for some more serious post-collegiate stuff back in the States...