When the Dubai Marathon made its debut at the turn of the 21st century, the city was still only a few square kilometres around the original centuries-old Arabian trading settlement of Dubai Creek.
And the first marathon had fewer than 200 participants, though there were several hundred attracted to the half-marathon. Over the quarter century since then, the city state has expanded towards the neighbouring Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the metro stretches out to the fringes of the desert; and the marathon has grown into one of the prominent in the world, with thousands contesting the marathon and the 10k and 4k events.
After a gradual start, with average winning times around 2:10 for men and mid-2:30s for women, the event took a huge step forward in 2008 when race director Peter Connerton and his partner Ahmad Al Kamali brought world record holder Haile Gebrselassie to Dubai for three consecutive years. Haile’s close brushes with a new world record – his first run in 2008 brought the course record down by over five minutes – catapulted the Dubai Marathon into the top echelon of distance running events around the world.
In the following years, with the accent now more on debutant runners, the race continued to produce spectacular results. In 2012, for the first time on a record-compliant course, four runners finished in under 2:05, ten under 2:07, and 17 under 2:10; with three women under 2:20. All before the advent of supershoes and the new sodium bicarbonate supplements took men’s times down to the threshold of two hours; and women’s to 2:10. More
A live stream of the Dubai Marathon (race starts at 5:45 am) will be accessible on Sunday through the website: www.dubaimarathon.org
