Week 45 – Sheikh Zayed Road SHUT DOWN!

How do you get 70,000 Dubai residents to get up at around 5am and run either 5kms or 10kms?

You tell them that they can run on Sheikh Zayed Road!!!!!

Sheikh Zayed Road is the 6-lane highway (in each direction… that’s TWELVE lanes in total!) that runs from Dubai to Abu Dhabi.
This is what it looks like:

But when the Government of Dubai decides that as part of the Dubai 30×30 challenge initiative they are going to shut down 2.5kms of Sheikh Zayed Road to allow residents to take part in a fitness challenge, and RUN on Sheikh Zayed Road, then THIS is what it looks like:

And this:

(Yes, those are all PEOPLE that looks like little ants on the highway)

Sheikh Hamdan’s photo shared on Instagram!

(Above photos are official photos from the day; the next few photos and video are my personal ones.)

Arriving

Waiting to be let onto SZR

And we’re off!

We’re on SZR!

Iconic Museum of the Future

Looking back at the runners

Financial Centre interchange

Hi Burj Khalifa!

10km route

What an exciting and FUN FUN FUN morning out this was!

Massive thanks to the organisers as this went off without any incident (that I noticed) – traffic flowed, people were happy (exuberant!), smiles everywhere, timing was perfect… just an all-round marvellous Friday morning!!!! ❤

Week 29 – BEER MILE!

I have finally done it – I have completed a beer mile… without chunking!

And I even managed to convince a few of my crazy friends to do it with me… in the middle of summer… in Dubai! (Although only one of them completed it properly with me with 4 beers and 4 laps finished.)

So, for those not in the know, a beer mile is relatively simple… down a (can of) beer, run 400m; down a beer, run 400m; down a beer, run 400m; down a beer, run 400m… to give you 4 beers and 1.6 kms (or a mile) completed, in as little time as possible.

The Team!

The first beer’s easy… especially in the summer heat, followed by a relatively easy 400m around the block. But that’s when things start getting tricky… the second beer takes a little more concentration but after a few gulps we were out the gate and around the block again.

First beer down the hatch!

Beer #3 arrives… beer #3 disappears down the throat and you’re off again… at one point being overtaken by Double R who shouted out “This is a race, isn’t it?!” while I had to focus on not burping too much in the hopes that my pizza would stay down 😂

And then we finally make it back in for beer #4… which definitely took the most concentration, and the most time to get down… but once we were all finished, we ran the last lap together, proudly coming in at the end of the 400m, having gulped down 4 beers, and smashed (to the best of our ability under the given circumstances) 1.6kms in 15:55!
Which was promptly followed by cracking open another beer to celebrate our joint victories!

FINISHED!!!!

Massive thanks to Z&S for hosting, and to Buki, Nads and Double R for taking part in my craziness!

And just to put it in perspective, here’s Corey Bellemore, the current Beer Mile World Champion, truly showing us all how it’s done, in 4:33!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday: With a few words

Well hello there!

It’s been over two months since I last posted – disgusting, I know.

Yes, I have been trying to continue on the quest to do ‘something new’ each week of my life and some weeks I manage, and some weeks I don’t. I guess that’s called ‘life’, right?

I’ve had some great times (holidays with family, fun times with friends), and I’ve had some shitty times (my cat Olly passing away) over the last couple of months…. and I’ve had the times where I’ve just enjoyed sitting alone on the couch at home.

Just Emmett and I now ❤

I’ve travelled (to China!), I’ve raced (on the Great Wall!), and my latest accomplishment in life is getting back into the gym – with a personal trainer! – to get this body back to its full potential 🙂

China!

Great Wall Half Marathon

Smashing it at the gym!

And halfway through 2019, life is generally good!

• Exam results come out soon
• September sees a holiday to the USA with a wedding and lots of friend catch-ups in the mix
• October sees the start of more studies
• We still have 6 months to make this year GREAT!

Next lot of studies 🙂