Doing The Dubai Double

After a great summer of running in the Dubai heat and humidity, we recently had a chance to put our training to a test with the “Dubai Double”.

- David O'Hara

On a Friday night in late September, Urban Ultra held its season opener – the 30km Night Rebel on the Wadi Showka trails. Bright and early the next morning, Dubai Desert Road Runners held its season opener, a 10km road race at The Sevens. These two events take place within twelve hours of each other, but are diametrically opposed – a night 30km trail run in the mountains on rocky trails and a sunrise 10km road race on smooth asphalt.

Urban Ultra

Pascale and Louise of Urban Ultra put on the toughest running events around the Middle East, yet every time all the runners are simultaneously both suffering and smiling. The Night Rebel is on a technical trail at Wadi Showka with lots of rocks and hills, but with the added challenge of starting at 19:00 in sheer darkness. There is nothing easy about the 30km, yet the Urban Ultra crew at the checkpoints are like family to me. These are the same folks who remember me crashing spectacularly at Hajar 100 last year, who shared my snacks of pickles and potatoes at the Big Stinker and who were mildly amused when I ran the UTX50 wearing sandals. Big thanks to all the crew and volunteers from Urban Ultra – that’s a top-notch gang!

Checkpoints

Urban Ultra stocks its checkpoints every 5km with chopped up fresh fruit – it’s like going to a picnic but with the food spread out over long distances. The crew at the checkpoints have probably seen everything possible among ultrarunners, like people who are running for twelve hours in the desert but try to economize thirty seconds by rushing through a checkpoint. Yeah, I prefer to kick back and enjoy the checkpoints, sample the cuisine (did you know Hajar 100 has the greatest vegetarian minestrone soup at the 52km checkpoint??), and chat with everybody to enjoy the social aspect of the event much to the chagrin of Louise.