A rock-solid return to racing…
2020. The year of the unmentionable. Definitely, not the year of racing I had planned. However, in the midst of the craziness, the UAE’s Urban Ultra has managed to pull off a fantastic event which, despite taking place in the rugged, intimidating Hajjar foothills, could not have been more welcoming.
As the name suggests, Urban Ultra are responsible for some of the more mental races out here in the UAE. Those of you who have been reading my blogs for the last year will remember my stinker of a performance the the Coast-to-Coast last year – another UU event. They love a crazy challenge – and thank god, as my running mojo has, in recent months, buggered off to somewhere seemingly irretrievable. Of late, my long runs around the community have begun to err on the dull end of the spectrum, but a renewed discovery of the trails has made these the high point of my training week.
I can safely say that this race has re-vamped my love of running. It was bloody brilliant. With distances of 5km, 10km, 15km and 30km on offer it’s completely inclusive, even for families wanting to experience the wildness of the Hajjars in a safe, community-friendly way. For the more mental, 30km of wadi-winding is on offer, including some spectacular views and scrambles on the out-and-back route.
I (sensibly) opted to stick to 15km for my first trail race, and what a race it was. With COVID measures still very much in pace here in the UAE, the return to racing has had to look a little different. Triathlon starts feature a thousand dots for athletes to follow to the sea, no check in and super luxurious, spaced out transition areas. Road running races seem to, for the most part, consist of long, socially distant queues for the start line. Urban Ultra are trialing their genius Arrive and Run approach, whereby athletes can turn up at any point between certain times, wander to the start line and begin at their own leisure. For someone who finds race mornings extremely stressful, this proved absolutely ideal. It didn’t matter that I was late for my planned 6:30 arrival… I could run any time I wanted before 8am! There was virtually no one on the start line when I arrived, so I washed my hands, had my temperature taken and off I went – the most stress-free race start in history.
For the first three kilometers or so, the course follows jeep tracks and goat trails through the foothills of the Hajjar mountains before plunging in to some shaded, green wadis. The ground varies between sand and big, loose rocks, providing plenty of technical challenge for newbies like me! There are some impressive scrambles through colourful, water eroded rock formations before you burst out of super narrow channel to make the climb to the highest point of the course. It’s not steep, but for someone whose running has recently consisted mostly flat tarmac, a decent challenge! The highest point gives rise, if you can catch your breath, to some pretty impressive vistas out towards the desert before plunging down a steep, technical and exhilarating descent to the turning point. It was definitely a case of ‘run like Phoebe from Friends’ as I went careening down the mountain, trusting my feet and legs to find purchase on the rocky outcrops. You then drop back to the Wadi area, before hitting the turnaround point at 7.5km, grabbing some fresh fruit (with newly sanitized hands!), filling up on water and, yes, heading back up that steep, technical and exhilarating descent you just flew down. Not so fun going up, but actually a nice way to stretch and move your body around before the main descent back through the wadis.
The steady, continual descent on the way down really did show me why I was so out of breath on the way up – you make quite a bit of steady, continuous ascent in the middle few kilometres of the outward leg. I managed to get all the way to the 12km point before getting lost in a wadi – cue a scramble up the steep bank to re-join the intended route just before the 12.5km checkpoint. The last few kilometers were tough, mentally, the rolling foothills much less welcoming now that the temperatures had peaked to around 30 degrees and my legs were filled with lead! However, the beauty of trail running is that you are so bloody focused on where your feet are that you forget to worry about how long you still have to go – a massive plus for someone so prone to negative self-talk in a race! I flew down the final 800m or so of the trail, stumbling over the finish line delightedly – my first trail race, and I hadn’t thought about quitting.. not even once!
All in all, I have to say that this is probably the most I have enjoyed a running race in a very long time. There was no pressure, no PB-chasing, no benchmark to hit. The views were amazing and the stewards super cheerful and friendly. The course was well marked, unless you stopped paying attention (guilty!). UU followed all the COVID regulations to a tee, showing us that the return to racing really is on.
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