Dubai Marathon kicked my ass

I ran my first marathon in 2010.

It was in San Diego as the course took runners through quaint public parks, around metropolitan stadiums and concert venues and then zigzagged through the downtown area, where it ended at a water park just outside of the city.

I documented all the shenanigans for the Virgin Islands Daily News

It was a 'Rock N Roll marathon', which meant there was a different musical act set up at each mile marker to keep runners entertained and energized. Live bands, DJs, performers and they even had a little girl playing the violin.

The Dubai Marathon had none of that.

Listen, I don't want to be one of those people that writes a bad review about an event on some blog just because he was grossly unsatisfied by the final product. Who really reads blogs anyway?

But in all seriousness, the course for the Dubai Marathon is essentially a point and back route, which means you basically run straight down a road for about 12 miles, turn around and then run back down that very same road. Yawn...

There was no music. There was no cheering.

Just a steady score of gawking day laborers, who loved to record all the action on their circa 1998 mobile phones as the sun came up on another day in Dubai.

Full disclosure: I was not a Top 10 finisher. Not even close. This race kicked my ass.

It took me more than five hours to complete the 42.2-kilometre (26.2 mile) run. But by the time I crossed the line, believe it or not: there was no water left for the runners. I even walked into the medical tent in search of some fluids. Still, no dice.

I'm sorry but it was just a pretty poorly-run event. The execution was not there.

Luckily, I had a great support staff with me. My wife Miranda was the best cheerleader in the city that day; my friend Anique was a solider and ran with me for the first half of the race; and my brother-in-law Kyle was the photographer.

Together, they provided a huge lift for me. More than they will ever know. On top of that, they took me to McDonald's after the race.

So after a full morning of running punishment on the asphalt of Dubai, it felt good to head back to Abu Dhabi. After all, I had bigger fish to fry. Less than 24 hours after crossing the marathon finish line, I found myself in the Abu Dhabi International Airport about to board a plane for Thailand.

Indeed, no rest for the weary...

Color Run in Abu Dhabi

WARNING: Before you play this video, turn down the volume on your device. It's loud.



About five minutes after this life-changing moment was captured on digital film by my wife, we both looked at each other and sort of raised the top of our palms up in the air like, "Now what?"

I guess we had a good time...

Sure there were lots of color, some loud music at the end and we got to run around the Formula One track on Yas Island. That was fun and all but I guess the whole experience was really summed up later that evening when Miranda and I chatted over a beer about what had taken place.

Miranda: Did you have fun?
Aaron: Yeah, it was pretty fun.
M: Would you do it again?
A: Ehhh, probably not. After doing it once, I can't imagine why I would want to do it again. Kind of a one-and-done event, you know? Cross it off the list. We got it under our belt.

Look, it was smiles all around and I'm not trying to be negitive here but...

What is the point of these Color Runs?

Sure, a lot of people that do not normally exercise probably got out there and moved their ass a little bit. Hey, that's great.

But the organisers kept yelling that this was the happiest 5K in the world!

I don't want to sound like a Debbie Downer, but besides people throwing some color chalk on you, how is it that different from any other typical 5K run? Why do our emotions need to be thrown into the situation??

It's not like it was a charity event. Oh wait a second, I did read that a whopping $1 out of every $38 registration fee went toward some Smile Foundation that I've never heard of. So I guess we were out there for a cause. Kind of.

What did all that money go toward? The race T-shirts? The colorful chalk? Or did it go to pay the depressed crew of day laborers that had to brave the mid-day sun and sweep up a huge, colorful mess that more 6,000 people left behind? Sigh...

It's obvious where they got the idea:



I think this whole Color Run fad will die down pretty soon. The company running them should try to do as many as possible because the concept will get old pretty fast.

Plus, it's been like three days and there is still color on my legs and arms. When does this stuff actually come off? I shower quite regularly. Really, I swear.