Running Around Riyadh and the Camel Souk

The latest race was a 10K that was held in a compound that was pretty far out in the desert.  It took us about 45 minutes to get there.  Since it was pretty much out in the middle of nowhere, it was a pretty large  place.  It even had its own elementary school on property.

The race was run in conjunction with a charity run for Terry Fox so there were a lot of people there.  The course was around about a quarter of the compound and each lap measured 2.5K.  We did 4 laps for our race but the charity run was a choice of either 1 or 2 laps.  

We left at around 6:30 AM to get there in time for the race start of 8 am.  We were pretty early but we needed to get through security and check in at 2 separate areas.  When we first got there we had to park our car and get out while they inspected it.  Meanwhile the three of us had to go into a room in order to also get searched for security.  Matt was on one side and they sent me and my friend Tiffany around the corner for a separate "inspection" since we were women.  At first it seemed kind of like the airport and the way they have men be inspected by men and women inspected by women, except, when we got around the corner, there was a guy there.  So my friend went first. She walked through a metal detector and then the guy there asked her to open her abaya, which she did.  Then I walked through next and was also told to open my abaya.  (This was the first time this has ever happened.)  We didn't have to take the whole thing off, just open it up and give him a flash.  We got a good chuckle out of that as we walked out because it just seemed so absurd.  The whole thing went on behind a curtain so the other men couldn't see, just the one guy back there.  We were wondering what makes him OK and the others are not?  What do you need to do to get that job?  

Anyway, after that we got back in the car and went and parked and checked into the compound.  Then we walked down to where they were holding the race and we checked in.  We lined up at the starting line around 8:00 AM but because of all the people checking in for the charity run it of course started late.  There was no shade so we getting quite hot just waiting around.  By the way, here we are before the race.

We were outside the elementary school.  Very nice school by the way. Quite large.  (We went through it while we were looking for the bathroom.)

So anyway, eventually the race started and it went pretty well.  There was plenty of water, most of which we poured over our heads.  Because did I mention it was pretty darn hot??? We finished in about an hour and 5 minutes.  Next race jumps to 10 miles so we will see how that goes.  I really hope it cools off a bit more because that will probably take us an extra 40 minutes at least to finish that and it only gets hotter as the day goes on.  Wish us luck!

Here we are after the race.

Afterward we realized that we still hadn't seen the pool, so we went to go find it and check it out.  It was sooooo nice.  One of the nicest we have seen so far. 

Pretty cool huh?  If we have another run there, we decided that we will bring our swimsuits and sneak in there afterwards.  

Oh, and one last thing.  On the way there, we passed the camel souk.  I had heard about it and I knew that we were going to have to pass it on the way.  I wasn't sure if we would be able to see it from the road but the thing is huge!  Probably a couple of miles long and it was along both sides of the road.  I took a few pictures but we were in the car and it is impossible to see how large it is from the pics but here they are anyway.  

Very interesting to see but buying a camel was not in the plans so we went home without a camel.  There were goats and sheep around too and we didn't get one of those either.  Perhaps next time.  We still don't know where the 10 mile will be held but we should find out tomorrow.