Dubai Marathon 10K

As part of the Dubai Marathon weekend, I ran in the 10K (6.2 miles) race along with 7,000 other runners! It was quite a site being part of the largest turnout since the race began in 2000.

The weather was perfect and quite a unique day for Dubai. It was overcast and drizzling (amazing to see rain again) and in the upper 60's as we took our place at the crowded starting line. It took me over 3 minutes to get from my spot in the line to the actual starting point. But since were all wearing small microchips on our sneakers, my official timer did not start until my feet crossed the starting line.  That's why my results were 46:12 even though the clock said 50:54 when I crossed the finish! It was the first race I had run with a computerized microchip and my position on the course could be charted by anyone online in live time. It was also the largest race I had ever run in and the first sponsored race I had run in years.

My results were pretty good, especially since the first 4K were spent weaving in and out of other runners, passing thousands of people who lined up in front of me but then ran slower than me.

All in all, it was a great morning!

DUCE (Dubai Ultimate Charity Event)

To raise money for numerous worthy causes, our school hosted an Ultimate Frisbee tournament on our beautiful new ASD campus. It turned out to be a busy, sunny, fun day. And all the money raised went to charities. Many thanks to the organizers Erik and Mark who keep this annual event attracting people from all over the Gulf. Expats from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain flew in for the frisbee tourney and for a weekend in Dubai.

 CatmanDu scores a newly named "Frisdown" to end the first half. 

Scott from Bahrain helped guide our ASD Falcon team all the way to the finals with his play and zone defense we played in the windy later rounds.

Star player and co-organizer Erik I. slides the disc to a teammate.

The main field with classic Dubai backdrop: buildings and cranes.

Erik makes the grab...

Then turns and hucks the disc... 

..."Frisdown!" 

 The real ultimate players can "hammer" throw and float the disc...

 over defenders for scores. Some of us learned our catching techniques outside Phish shows.

 This full on scrum for a throw to the corner looks more mosh pit than Phish. The running, full speed coordination and physical play was a surprising part of the game for some of us novice players.

 Jackie goes up high for a throw with Ski Dubai in the background.

The attempted kick block cannot stop the disc.

For more information and photos, check out Brad Kerr's photo page chronicling the day.

Sri Lanka Chronicles 3: Turtles and the Tsunami Memorial

On Christmas morning, we set out for the southern town of Galle.  Along the way, we stopped at two very important places.

First, we saw the Victor Hasselblad Turtle Sanctuary where the sea turtles are being brought back from the brink of extinction.  By helping the newly hatched turtles find their way to the sea, the people running the sanctuary are able to allow up to 30% of the turtles to survive.  This is a much higher rate than the natural selection and it counteracts years of these species being hunted.  While not all the hunting has ceased, the turtles are making a major comeback.  They also care for injured turtles and rebuilt the entire sanctuary after the devastating tsunami of 2004.

Since the tsunami of 2004 had happened on December 26th, we were around on this trip for the 6th anniversary.  Even though it had been six years since the west coast of Sri Lanka had been hit, the reminders of the devastation were still quite evident.  The road along the coast was lined with half standing house foundations.  The railroad cars, displaced one kilometer by the water, still sat as artifacts to the power of the sea and reminders of the people swept away.  We stopped at the Tsunami Memorial commemorating all of this and you could feel the power of the artwork.  With the waves rolling on the beach behind the memorial, you could also feel the power of nature.

Sri Lanka Chronicles 2: Tuk-Tuk to Town

Bentota is located across the river from a slightly bigger town called Aluthgama.  For most of our shopping, we were shuttled across the bridge to the main strip of Aluthgama.  The two lane road was an actual main artery connecting the southwestern towns with the capital city, Colombo. In order to accommodate for such a narrow main road, the drivers have created a middle passing lane used by traffic in both directions. To complicate matters from our perspective, the driving is British style, left hand side of the road. Most passing attempts felt like a game of chicken as we were invariably staring straight at oncoming traffic.

Here is a short video of one tuk-tuk ride into Aluthgama where we saw a gem stone workshop.

Sri Lanka Chronicles 1: Suhada Villa

During our one week trip to Sri Lanka, we stayed in the southwestern part of the island, near Bentota.  It was the perfect getaway into a tropical paradise. Coming from the desert, we were struck by how green and dense the jungle was once you left the main road.  We even encountered rain and mosquitoes, two things we had not seen for months!

As part of our reunion with former colleagues, we rented an amazing house called Suhada Villa.  The house came with a full staff including a guide, drivers, waiters, and an incredible chef!  The staff made the trip that much better by being so helpful and nice.  In fact, it is the people of Sri Lanka that are the most memorable part of this vacation.

As we traveled around, it seemed everyone wanted to talk and hang out.  In tourist areas, this often started with a sales pitch but once the sale was obviously going nowhere, merchants and passersby alike would settle into an island-style hangout and chat. The people were genuinely warm, funny and interesting.

In our neighborhood near the villa, we would go for runs and walks up the small narrow streets lined with houses and jungle. And at every house, children would run out to greet us. They would often talk with us in English and introduce themselves. On walks with our kids, Rosie and Bella were greeted with flowers, hellos and groups of children huddling around to exchange names and limited conversation in English. We have many photos of the neighborhood and the people.

The Buddhist temples were also very interesting. We especially enjoyed the small one around the corner from our villa.  As seen below, it had a tree growing out from behind the Buddha right through the roof!