My Doha Swan Song

The triple D, R run is less than 2 weeks away. So last night, the Stoat Weasel and I drove out to the desert road and got some eyeballs and some trainer tread on the course.

The road itself is in pretty good condition, in fact I would even say it is some of the best sealed road I have seen in these parts, maybe due to it’s limited use as the more convenient highway runs parallel to the road we’ll be running on.

The Route

So the confirmed routes are now slightly shorter than my provisional plan. a 52K run for the long course and a 28K run for the short group. I had to cut it short as the final section between the WOQOD petrol station and the sports stadium looked pretty dangerous as the road layout did not match google maps and there is a lot of construction traffic. So, now the final 8K is a 4K loop between WOQOD and some roundabout I found – which will allow people to cut the run short too, if they desire, which may help with getting more people along.

What is impressive and terrifying about the entire route is that for the most part, we will be running on a very straight, very flat road with the desert stretching out onto the horizon, so this will be a big mental event as well as a physical one. But saying that, I seem to have a Camel Underpass to traverse every 10K or so, so I think people will be able to break down the run into manageable targets.

The Training

So, Saturday morning (30th) I am embarking on a 40K training run, which I am quite looking forward to. Then the following weekend I will be doing two back-to-back 30K’er and maybe an open-water swim (more on that one later). Then it is triple D, R, run time.

This is the data from the run Stoat Weasel and I did last night. We ran the first 6K of my long route. I think the first 6K will be the hardest part as we have to traverse a bit of desert and it is a little unstable underfoot. But then it is pretty much sealed road all the way.