Doha College Night Run 2013
The famous Night Run series has finally made its way to Doha. Thanks to the good people at Doha College and Aspire, especially the tireless event director, David Thompson. So it was only natural for us Doha folks to be excited about it. Why? Because where else would we have the chance to wear shiny clothing, fluorescent sticks, torch lights or anything that emit or reflect the lights to outshine each other during an official race?
I was not particularly keen to run the race initially, as it was scheduled to start at 10PM on Thursday night and I have to wake up early at around 4 AM the next morning for my compulsory long run. I only registered for the event at the eleventh hour before the registration closed just to support our local races and as encouragement to my friends from Pelari Stylo Yo!. My plan was to have fun, soak up the festive atmosphere and run this race easy. Well at least that was the plan.
I tried to run it easy, but a race is still a race. I ran it at a comfortable pace but still fast enough to be in the leading pack. I maintained the pace of sub 4:35/km until KM 4 when I felt a little tired and drop the pace to 4:46/km. I thought of just cruising at that pace till the end, but then I was schocked when I was overtaken by 2 little girls probably around 11 or 12 years old. Not to be out run by the little girls, I sped up and ran the last km in 4:32/km. I was surprised to find that my 'easy' effort was good enough to give me a new PB with the time of 23:03. All other PSY! buddies did really well too especially my wife completed in 30:10 (It supposed to be a sub 30 finish for her since the course was 5.06km). Other PSY! buddies; Yasir (28:16); Aizal (29:58); Sham (32:35); Lolyta (36:18); Yeen (38:25) and Nani (43:35). All of them did way better than when I started running back in July 2011.
Race Statistics:Nett Time: 23:03
Rank Total: 25/291 Entrants*
* My result was shown as DNF/DSQ (Not Finished/Disqualified) in the official result. The race director verified that they were having problems with the timing chip. The timing mats failed to detect the chip as I ran past them. The position was just an indication of how I would fare based on the time recorded on my Garmin watch.
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| The DBRC Ladies got all glam up |
I was not particularly keen to run the race initially, as it was scheduled to start at 10PM on Thursday night and I have to wake up early at around 4 AM the next morning for my compulsory long run. I only registered for the event at the eleventh hour before the registration closed just to support our local races and as encouragement to my friends from Pelari Stylo Yo!. My plan was to have fun, soak up the festive atmosphere and run this race easy. Well at least that was the plan.
I tried to run it easy, but a race is still a race. I ran it at a comfortable pace but still fast enough to be in the leading pack. I maintained the pace of sub 4:35/km until KM 4 when I felt a little tired and drop the pace to 4:46/km. I thought of just cruising at that pace till the end, but then I was schocked when I was overtaken by 2 little girls probably around 11 or 12 years old. Not to be out run by the little girls, I sped up and ran the last km in 4:32/km. I was surprised to find that my 'easy' effort was good enough to give me a new PB with the time of 23:03. All other PSY! buddies did really well too especially my wife completed in 30:10 (It supposed to be a sub 30 finish for her since the course was 5.06km). Other PSY! buddies; Yasir (28:16); Aizal (29:58); Sham (32:35); Lolyta (36:18); Yeen (38:25) and Nani (43:35). All of them did way better than when I started running back in July 2011.
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| PSY! Guys after the race |
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| PSY! Ladies after the race |
Rank Total: 25/291 Entrants*
* My result was shown as DNF/DSQ (Not Finished/Disqualified) in the official result. The race director verified that they were having problems with the timing chip. The timing mats failed to detect the chip as I ran past them. The position was just an indication of how I would fare based on the time recorded on my Garmin watch.
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