One week after completing the dreadful Fleetwood Marathon, I drove up north to Elgin County with Nadia, kids and Amana Aunty to take part in the Moray Marathon on the North Sea coast of Scotland.  The night before the race, we checked into a really nice B&B in the town center and went for a nice curry dinner. On race day, we got slightly lost getting to the starting line, but again, how lost can someone get in such a small town! I followed a few runners and we reached the fairground well in time to pick up my race kit. 

A few weeks before the race, I wrote to the race director and informed her that I will be running to raise funds for the Pakistan flood victims. She was extremely impressed and put up the story on the race website and allowed me to keep the charity box at the start / finish line. The race started at 9am and lived up to its expectation. The whole family was there at the start line cheering me on. The race route was absolutely breathtaking. We ran through the picturesque country side and met some interesting people along the way. One such person was a football coach who had plenty of interesting tales to tell. 

The course was mostly flat and with overcast conditions and little breeze, the run was very enjoyable. At around the 18 mile mark, I surprisingly bumped into Nadia and kids in the car. Later on, at the 22 mile mark, they were beside the park waiting for me. It was nice to see them all and I even had time to give the kids a few kisses before proceeding further. Mekaal wanted to run with me as well, so was hard leaving him behind. At the home stretch, as I was coming to the finish line, they announced on the public system that I was running 3 marathons in 3 weeks to raise funds for the flood victims. The whole crowd applauded and cheered me on as I crossed the line. The only downside was when they were announcing this; Nadia was taking a video of me. When we got home, we discovered that she had actually forgotten to press the “record” button!!! Other than that, it was a great weekend as we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I even managed to raise some funds as the charity box had quite a few coins in it. A great race and will surely do it again!!!

Until I ran this marathon, I had never heard of getting sandblasted at the beach.  Fleetwood marathon was the first of the 3 back to back marathons I was running as part of raising funds for the Pakistani flood victims. On the race morning, I drove from Glasgow to Fleetwood in my rented car. The journey took about 3 hours. As I reached the Town Hall in Fleetwood, it started raining quite heavily. The wind speed was around 34Km/h and I needed my running wind breaker to keep me warm. At the registration desk, they couldn’t find my bib and I also forgot to bring my confirmation email. After much deliberation, the race organizer gave me another bib. (When I reached Doha, I found the original bib on my desk, as they had mailed to me while I was away in UK!!!). The race started along the sea shore under overcast and windy condition. Within the next few miles, I realized what I was up against. All runners were getting sandblasted, and it was painful, liking someone poking countless needles all over your body.  Basically, running along the Blackpool coast in a force 10 was not fun. Many experienced marathon runners ended up walking (me included) for a little while as the wind and sand being kicked up was enough to remove skin. After all, who needs expensive microdermabrasion treatment when you can do this and run a marathon at the same time!!!! The race course was all along the shore, out and back, so there was no hiding away from the forces of nature. It was absolutely impossible to run and my body temperature was cooling down fast which is dangerous from a medical view point. With about 10 miles to go, I bumped into another runner who had literally given up running and was merely walking towards the finish line. That runner was an Albanian Muslim and had been living in UK for 20 odd years. We ended up chatting the entire course, mainly about politics, the war in Balkans and races around the world. At the 26 mile mark, just 0.2 miles before the finish line, we stopped and took photographs and I did the same for him as he crossed the finish line. I gave him my email address after the race, but somehow never heard back from him, maybe he lost it. Anyhow, it was a tough race and am glad I completed it. Straight after, I changed and left for Glasgow, getting there after 3 hours. 

This was a very low cost marathon organized by a team of amateur running enthusiast from Zagreb. The total field for the full marathon was around 15 and was set on the beautiful Peljesac peninsula off the Adriatic coast in Dubrovnik region. A day before the race, we drove from Mostar in Hercgovina to the coastal town of Neum which is only 15 minutes drive from Ston. Neum is the only coastal town in Bosnia & Hercegovina and bisects Croatia from North to South. On race day, we drove to Ston by crossing the Croatian border. I picked up my race kit from the organizers and had enough time to take some pictures with the kids and assess the 800 ft Ston Wall which we were supposed to climb twice during the marathon. Just the mere sight of the wall overlooking the starting line sent shivers through my spine and Nadia thought that there is no way I would be able to finish the race (considering I had absolutely done no training, whatsoever.). 

I knew the challenge ahead, so had already planned the way to tackle the wall. The race started at 9am and around 10 minutes into the race, we hit the wall. It was tough to say the least… some of the steps were at least 3 feet high with big drops on either side. After a painstaking effort I reached the top and realized that the descent was even harder with slippery rocks and narrow stairways leading us 800 feet down and then going up again the narrow path for the second time. By the time I hiked up and down the dreaded wall twice, an hour had passed by but my GPS watch confirmed that I had only done 4K. I had never felt so tired and winded after 4K in my life. I really hoped the rest of the race would be on a pancake flat course. This was not to be. Since the island was primarily hilly, the race course was continuously rolling with no respite for the remaining 38K. I just ran and walked at my own pace and met some runners along the course. 

The race organizers were constantly driving along the course handing out water and bananas. Just before the first turn around, we have to go through a small narrow street with houses on either side. There were 3 big dogs sleeping in the middle of the road and would not move as I approached them. This was my worst nightmare. I knew for a fact that had one of them attacked me, I would not be in any position to defend myself.  Luckily one of the residents spotted me and knew I was scared. He came and stood beside the dogs until I passed by. On the way back 2 of the dogs were still sitting on the road. This time I just continued running past them with my heart in my mouth. Later on in the race at the 2nd turn around, we got lost as there were no signs. One of the marshals didn’t even know where the course was. We had to wait for 15 minutes as she phoned the organizer to inquire about the course but to no avail. Finally, we decided to head back again for the 2nd round of the course. By that time, I was in a lot of pain but still had another 15K left. However, I continued running and walking along the hilly course on my own and met some supporters along the way. After reaching the same turnaround where I got lost the first time, I decided to follow the long curved road. For the next 2K’s there were no signs or marshalls. I still continued running and in the hope that I was on the right track. Luckily, I was as I saw the last water stop. From there on the course was through a tiny dirt way through the jungle and a few miles before the finish line one of the race organizers was waiting for me. That was a big relief as he and I chatted towards the finish line. However, the biggest surprise was waiting for me a kilometer before the finish line. I saw Nadia and kids on the main road cheering me on. From then on I walked / ran along with them towards the finish line and as I approached the finish line dragging the double stroller, all the supports stared clapping and cheering me on. Being last in the race, I got a bigger cheer than the winner. It was truly a great feeling. The race medal was nice and so was the post race meal. In the end we thanked the race organizers and headed back to Neum. The race was tough, but it was worth it! 

A lot happened in the week leading up to the Windermere Marathon. I played 3 rounds of golf, spent 2 days in Alton Towers and did a bit of sightseeing in and around Glasgow . A day before the race Nadia opted out of the Lake District trip due to exhaustion, so I had no choice but to go there myself. We had rented an automatic car from Enterprise especially for this trip so that Nadia could drive!!! On race morning, I woke up at 6am and thought about quitting the race. After thinking for about 10 minutes, I assured myself that I am actually super human so there is no way that I would miss the race. 

So, on a bright sunny day I drove down from Glasgow to Windermere, Lake District. It was a 2 and half hour drive but took me about 3 as I had to make a dash to the WC along the way. After relieving myself and feeling a lot lighter, I continued my journey to Windermere. I got there about half an hour early but was stuck at the Brathway estate gates for about 20 odd minutes due to traffic congestion. I had to run across the field to get to the station to pick up my timing chip and join the starting line…so that cost me about 4-5 minutes. The race itself was a treat….by far the most beautiful race that I have ever run to-date. The scenery was breathtaking, beautiful hills on one side and the Lake Windermere on the other. 

There were a few steep hills along the course but by and large the route was rolling. There weren’t many supporters along the way apart from when the course went thru the small towns. At around 20 mile mark was the main Lake Windermere tourist attraction and I was well on course to do a sub 5 hr marathon. However, it started raining heavily there and it continued until I got to a mile from the finish line. Along the route I was competing with a British soldier who was running the marathon in his military gear with a 50 pound pack on his back. I made a point not to lose to him and I didn’t !!! I crossed the finish line in a little over 5 hrs. As they took off my chip, I walked ahead searching for the medal, but it wasn’t there. Disappointed, I asked around for it and was told that the they have run out of it and one would be mailed to me. It did arrive about a week later and Nadia brought it back with her from Scotland. Hence, I achieved my target … running 3 marathons in 2 weeks. Not bad for someone who doesn’t train for marathons!!!!!

This was the second marathon within the week. After driving around Ireland for 5 days, we took the plane from Belfast to London Stansted. During the stay in London, we met up with Tata Mamu & Kiren/Shafiq as well as visited Cambridge. On race day, we drove to Halstead, about half an hour drive from Stansted. The race was a much smaller affair than Belfast but was in a picturesque town in county Essex. The race started at 10am on a hot sunny day. My legs were already sore after the Belfast marathon and all the hiking we did in Ireland. To make things worse, the first km or 2 were all uphill. Luckily I started chatting with a couple of runners and they assured me that the rest of the race is pretty much flat with a few rolling hills. The scenery was amazing, running thru the rural roads with farms on either side. 

The support was minimal on the course and very few cars along the route. For the most part I pretty much ran alone and had I not had support of my IPOD, the journey would have been quite boring and tough. I continued at my own pace and was well within the 6 hr cutoff. Finally, after about 5 and half hours I reached the main street finish line. Nadia and kids were there with the video camera to shoot by finish line video. After the race, I stopped by for a massage and then we headed back to Stansted to catch the flight back to Glasgow. Oh! By the way, the medal was amazing…much bigger and better looking than Belfast.

This marathon was the beginning of something that I have never done before, that is to run 3 marathons in under 2 weeks. We flew from Dubai to Glasgow on May 1st and after spending a day with the in-laws (including a round of golf), we flew by Easy Jet to Belfast. We rented the car from airport and drove straight into the city to pick up my race kit from the park. Later on we headed up north to see the Giant’s Causeway and Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. 

Next morning, the race started on a typical overcast Belfast day. Nadia and kids were there at the starting line with me. It was a big field and great atmosphere that one usually expects from a big marathon. One of the interesting things about the race was the timing chip that was embedded in the race bib rather than on the shoe. 

The race route was interesting as it cascaded through the historic streets of Belfast. Around the 20K mark, I was beginning to feel weak and badly needed some sugar. To my luck, the route turned downhill and passed through one of the most affluent areas of the city where lots of residents were cheering on runners with food and drinks. 

I must have had 3 or 4 chocolates on the way that gave me the boost I needed to continue. The latter part of the course was along the river where the wind and rain was brutally strong and the cold temperature didn’t help either. I slowed down my pace and as I entered the downtown area, the wind picked up again.

The finish was at the park where Nadia and kids were waiting for me. They were a little worried as I took longer than expected. Later Nadia told me that she had actually walked 5k’s to get to the park from our hotel as the roads were closed due to the marathon. After a bit of rest, we headed back to the hotel via the race shuttle bus and stopped at Tim Horton’s (yes, in Belfast) for the worst coffee I have ever tasted in my life! The rest of week was spent driving across the beautiful Emerald Isle.