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| Wadi Bih Run Friday 12th February 2010 |
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The 18th Wadi Bih run was held on Friday the 12th February 2010 – the longest running As in 2009 the run was shunted back a week to accommodate the Ras Al Khamiah (RAK) half marathon which in turn had been moved to allow RAK to focus on the America’s Cup sailing race. Ironically the America’s Cup sailing race was then cancelled. Due to continuing restrictions on expatriates passing through the RAK side of the UAE border it was not possible to hold the event on the usual (preferred) route from RAK to Dibba and we returned to Wadi Khabb Shamsi with the start and finish location at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Dibba directly adjacent the beach. There was a scare the week before when on Saturday 6th February torrential rain hit the mountains and caused some major floods on the RAK side. Fortunately there was very little rain on the Dibba side and the track was in reasonable condition . The route was as per the last 2 years and started from the beach in Dibba and followed Wadi Khabb Al Shamsi to just past the high point of the road and then reversed the route back to the beach . In true hash tradition some teams camped on the Thursday night prior to the run on the beach at Dibba with campfires and barbecue . Unfortunately the originator of the run & laird of RAK, John Gregory could not attend but he was represented by the matriarch and lairdess of RAK Dee McHenry. Despite the euphoria of consumer capitalism with the start of the Dubai Shopping Festival a total of 140 teams and 8 solo runners deserted the metopolis to provide a record turnout for the event. This year we introduced a new timing system to record the start and finish times and automatically rank the finishers. A big thank you to Graham Rafferty of Dubai Road Runners for providing the all singing all dancing spreadsheet that accomplished this. It's always been a traditional part of the event to come up with a novel or amusing team name and as always there were many clever, ingenious, cryptic, interesting and (some) less than 'clean' team names on offer. This year we introduced some prizes for the most interesting/amusing name . It was very difficult for the judges to come up with some clear winners but after very little deliberation and a less than rigorous analysis the awards were given to: RAK &(to) Ruin - a dhow cruise for five This year for the first time we introduced a small award for the best dressed team. Many teams had spent a lot of time and effort to prepare specially printed T-shirts and other humorous rigouts. The best dressed teams were ; Pink Ladies – half day adventure activity with absolute adventure A list of the teams and participants on the run is on the website along with the overall team times. This year we had a total of 8 people who did the entire event as solo runners. Congratulations ( and wishes of a speedy recovery of the legs) needs to go to the brave souls that completed the event. Well done to:
One of the stalwarts of the Wadi Bih run is the Pink Ladies Team led by Rebecca Janaway . Well done to Rebecca and her girls (ladies?) for completing the course and a big thank you to all the people that donated money on the day to the breast cancer awareness charity that they represented. Primarily the Wadi Bih run continues to be a great social event where people can catch up with each other outside of the hustle and bustle of work in the truly dramatic spectacular scenery of the wadis. Without the continued support of the regular social runners and teams from other sports the events would lose its character so a big thank you to all of the teams that turned up and congratulations on completing the run . If people want the team timesheet returned to them please send me an e-mail with your team or captain name and we will return by email the scanned team timesheet. If anyone wants their original sheet back if they can drop me an e-mail with their name & team name and address (PO box number & emirate) we can send this sheet on to them. As always the run relies on the support & help of many organisations and people. Many thanks again to Sun & Sands who provided the T-shirts for the run and also a voucher for the first solo runner. Thanks again to Andy Whitaker for the witty characteristic graphic for the T shirt . This year we change the finish location to the beach in front of the hotel adjacent pool which gave the finishing teams for bureau spectators although there was a sting in the Talal is this meant the last couple of hundred metres were over soft sand. This year there was a new general manager at the Golden Tulip hotel in Dibba and special thanks must go to Duco, Hadi, Arthur, and Marcel and all the other staff for their planning and preparation for superb performance on the day. For more details of the hotel please check out: Special thanks are again due to Helen Rodd for her continued support and updating of our website and coordinating the lost souls looking to join teams. On the day it can be quite hectic and the organisation team performed superbly. Thanks to; Barbara Young Thanks are also due to Robert Aitken for hanging out on the mountain top and making sure people remembered to turn around and did to go on to Khasab. As always there were some stiff competition between the top teams jockeying for line honours in the event. On the day it was very close between the top teams;
Magnificent performance by Chris Sellar , Aya & Mugur as they were only 3 runners. Historically the main competition was between the Dubai Road runners and the Abu Dhabi Striders teams. However the main protagonist from the Abu Dhabi Striders has of late changed his allegiance and Kevin West ran for the Dubai Road Runner & Friends . This is stretching the imagination as he was classified as a Dubai Road Runner Has Beens last year. Kevin ‘has been’ to many triathlons and sporting events around the UAE (and the world) but it was only a couple of weeks ago he went to Safa Park . His newfound status as a Dubai Road Runner was visible as the price tag was still on the back of his shirt at the starting line. Congratulations to all the teams . In the old days John Gregory stood on the back of his truck in the desert, laden with a tub of curry and crates of amber nectar, and proclaimed to the assembled faithful the results. This year we decided to arrange for a special international celebrity compere to act as master of ceremonies. Unfortunately the mystery guest could not make so we had to settle for Dubai’s favourite celebrity explorer. Many thanks to Adrian Hayes for entertaining the masses and acting as compere. Click on top of left hand page for full details of the results. In case of any errors or omissions in the results please let us know. If you have any suggestions or comments or ideas about how the run can be improved in the future please e-mail us. Also if you have any interesting dramatic or otherwise good photographs of participants in the event please e-mail those to us. Hope to see you all at next years run John Young |