Road Trip! (Doha, Qatar)

So about a month ago we went on a road trip! It was the first one for me. (Matt tends to drive to Bahrain when I'm not around but thus far I've never been.)  We decided to go to Qatar, a country that borders Saudi.  It takes a couple of hours longer than the trip to Bahrain, but according to Matt it is well worth the extra time.

One would think that a road trip would be a lot less hassle than dealing with airports and rent a cars and such but when you are living in Saudi that is definitely not the case!  Apparently, if you are going to take a car into another country there are all kinds of paperworks that need to be filed.  Even though Matt started the paperworks more than a week in advance all kinds of things came up.  First, it turned out that Matt's drivers license was expired.  That took three trips to various offices to get renewed.  Next, we found out the car registration was expired.  After several days, we realized that this was not going to get finished in time.  Matt's boss offered to let us take his car but then we had ran out of time to get the travel paperwork in time.  Luckily, we were able to move our hotel reservation (which had been paid in full) over to the next week.  So we tried again.  

After another week, the registration still wasn't finished so we started the paperwork on the other car.  The paperwork finally came through on the morning that we were supposed to leave.  We then found out that our travel visas had expired!!  After much rushing around, we got a one time exit visa and we were off only a couple of hours later than we had planned.  We didn't want to get out too late because we hadn't been there before and the desert tends to get a bit disorienting.  However, we did finally buy a Garmin which helped tremendously!  I can't believe we haven't bought one up to this point.  Especially considering how easily we get lost.  

So off we went! 

 Total distance to Doha was about 489 KM from where we started.  (Doha is about an hour away from the Saudi/ Qatar border.)

 One would tend to think that that drive would look mostly like this, and parts of it did.

 But for the most part, it looked mostly like this.  With gas stations about every 20 miles or so.

 And I still find it a little crazy to see camels all over the place just walking along the side of the road.

I guess it's kind of like seeing horses out here.  

Eventually, we made it to here:

This is the border crossing between Saudi and Qatar.  There are all kinds of stops and we had to keep giving our paperworks to various people.  Then we drove about 8 kilometers to the Qatar side where we had to get out and purchase a visiting visa and car insurance.  The whole border crossing took about 40 minutes.

Once in Doha, we stayed in the W hotel.  It was very nice but a tad annoying with all their jargon.

 This was looking down on the lobby, ahem, I mean "living room" (eye roll.)

We also went to the Souk Waqif where we bought nothing but had a very nice lunch at a Moroccan restaurant.

 Here is Matt drinking a Moroccan tea.  I didn't like it because it had way too much honey for my taste. Truthfully, Matt didn't like it either but he did drink most of it.  I think it was mostly to be polite since he had asked the waiter to make a drink suggestion.  Everything else though was really good.

Afterwards we walked around a bit but there was nothing that either of us just had to have.  Later we drove down to the Corniche. 

The difference in the humidity by the water was tremendous.  It took about 5 minutes before my hair frizzed up and my jeans started sticking to me.  

Still, we did go back later in the evening for a run.  100 degrees and really humid, but I still managed to run a ten minute mile pace for 4 miles.  Lately while running in Saudi I haven't been able to run any more than a 12 minute mile when outside so I was quite pleased with that.  

Another day we also went to go see the Pearl. 

This is a model of the Pearl.  I couldn't fit it all in the picture so here is a super short video.  

It's not finished yet so there are still spots you can buy for your own private island estate.  

And saving the best part for last, I got to see Tiffany! Doesn't she look fabulous!  I can't believe she just had a baby 4 months ago. (Well, I guess 5 now since I have taken so long to post this!) The baby is super cute!  Miss you Tiffany!!

Eventually we had to leave and make the long drive back.

Apparently Qataris really hate trumpets ;)

It was a bit quicker to get through customs on the way back into Saudi but the drive back seemed a lot longer.  Also, it was really windy and so it was very dusty as well.  All in all, a really nice long weekend.  

Wrapping Up Running

The running "season" in Saudi is from September to March obviously due to the extreme heat.  Even in September it is still pretty hot.  As I recall, it was 43 degrees C on the first race of the season. (109 F) It really doesn't cool off until October but who can wait that long?

Looking back on the past season, I must say that it was not my year!  Between ITBS and constantly getting sick my running times all increased significantly.  Despite all this, the roadrunners was and is still my favorite thing to do in Saudi.  Such a nice group of people.

 Things started looking up around February of this year.  My ITBS started to subside and I managed to get my vitamin and mineral needs met so I stopped getting sick and felt better in general.  Unfortunately, by February the running season is almost over.  I did make it to the marathon in March, but Matt and I ran it as a team.  (We each ran half.)  My time for the half, was about 2 hours and 15 minutes.  No where near a PR, but a huge improvement over my dead last time of 2:38 back in December.  It was nice to end the season on a good run.  FINALLY!

Here is a pic of Matt's half of the marathon.  Clearly not a ton of people on the course! By the time he ran it was quite warm.  (Much better to run first if you can talk your partner into it!)

We also ran a 5K Terry Fox Charity Run about a week later.  I ran it in about 27:40 so I was happy with that.  It wasn't officially timed because it was a fun run but that's what my Nike+ said.  It was nice to just do a short run.  The long ones had been getting to me a bit.

This was us at the finish.  Our friends went for another couple of laps. 

We went straight to breakfast!

When I went home, I ran one more race.  It was just a 10K but it was a doozy of a course.  Luckily, it was super close to home so I was able to manage to squeeze in 3 training runs on the course itself.  It was the Verdugo Hills 10K Trail Run.  It conveniently worked out that the race was the day before we were set to fly back to Saudi.

This was my first ever trail race.  It was actually probably my first ever trail run.  I loved it! In fact, I can't believe I've never actually tried it before.

The race was 3.3 miles uphill on an average 9% grade.  Then, back downhill for 2.9 miles.  The course map and profile looked like this:

Since there are no hills like that anywhere near us in Saudi, I had to do all of my training at home.  The first time I ran the course it took me an hour and 23 minutes.  The next day my EVERYTHING hurt and continued to hurt for about three days.  A week later I ran it again and shaved off about 5 minutes.  I still hurt the next day but not nearly as bad as the first time. I skipped the next week due to vacation but I was able to get in one more training run a week before the race.  I stopped to take a few pictures because I knew I wouldn't have time to do it during the race.

 On the way up...

 Almost there...

 At the top!

Stopped on the way back down because a deer was on the path.  

The race was a week later and there were about 650 people there.  It was really only crowded at the beginning and after about the first mile, the crowd was better spread out.  The race was really well organized and they even hauled a port a potty all the way up there!  

My official time up to the summit was 49:04.  (Yes, there was plenty of walking going on in between bouts of running.)  My time on the downhill was 21:52.  Previous to this race, I think my fastest mile may have been an 8:30.  I always figured that the only way I would break 8 minutes would be to run downhill in a hurricane but evidently, I only needed the downhill part because I clocked 2 miles in the low 7's.  

New fastest mile, 7:11!  And, unless I run this particular race again, I will probably never see that time again!  This was also the only time I have ever run all out on a race.  At the end I had absolutely nothing left over.  A couple of people passed me at the very end and there was absolutely no room for me to go any faster.  Also, I don't think I could have continued at that pace for much further.  All in all, I was very proud of myself.  My final time was 1:10:57.  I was hoping to break 1:10 but I got pretty darn close considering I had only a month to train.  Overall, I finished 238 out of 653.  For my age group, I finished 7 out of 48.  

Going up!

We recently had the end of the year awards banquet for the road runners. It was held at the French Embassy in the DQ.  And, despite my less than stellar times I still won an award!  And it was really nice too.  It was for 2nd place in the Female Veteran category in the 10 mile series.  

There were three ten mile races.  Here we are at "The Maze." It was the last of the ten mile series.  I was the only female in my age group that showed up.  Also did I mention that overall I was second to last for this particular race? 

It was very cold and windy! Luckily it had rained the night before otherwise 

the dust would have been terrible!

Here is my award.  Really nice!  But less impressive when you know that there were only 4 female veterans total who showed up to race! Still, it is my favorite race, which is why I always showed up.  (There is a lot more competition in the 5K, 5 Mile and 10K categories.)  Also my time last year was a full 10 minutes faster than this year but Cest la vie!

Currently, I have only been running inside.  Not only is it hot right now, but it is constantly windy and therefore dusty.  It seems like there has just been sandstorm after sandstorm! Of course none of them have been quite as bad as my first real sandstorm (which was Mission Impossible 3 quality) but it's enough to keep me inside.  It's just too crunchy for me outside these days.  I don't remember it being like this for so long last year.  I guess I will just have to wait for either a vacation or for Fall.  

Cabo San Lucas

I just read my last blog post and I had to laugh because we had gone out a day early so as to avoid eating in a restaurant the night before a race.  Anyway, the next night, (Valentine's Day) we ended up eating at the compound restaurant because I was feeling lazy and didn't cook anything.  I have done that many times before a race because the food there is pretty basic depending on what you order.  I ordered chicken and boiled rice.  It's basically chicken breast pounded thin and cooked.  Nothing to worry about right? Wrong! I ended up waking up super early with food poisoning.  I was super bummed because the race was Ranco Farm which is my favorite race venue.  Anyway, I missed it but Matt went.  I spent the rest of the day on the couch feeling very unwell.  So bummed! Considering how often we have eaten there since we have been here and this was the only time I've ever gotten sick I guess it was bound to happen.  But I swore off chicken for at least a month after that!

In the meantime, I went home for a visit at the end of March.  Matt came out mid April and we arrived back in Saudi again about a week ago.

While we were home, we took a vacation and we went to Cabo San Lucas.  (mainly chosen because it is so close to So.Cal)  We stayed at the Las Ventanas and it was just the best vacation ever!

 This was our room.

 The outdoor living area with a telescope for whale watching.

A few shots from around the hotel.  Big surprise that we only left once!

 We tried to get our picture taken with the view in the background but clearly they didn't come out.

It was kind of funny because as we ate our dinner we noticed that everyone did that and no one's pictures came out.  Eventually we all had to turn around and take the picture from the other direction!

 Background is not nearly as nice but clearly the picture turned out a bit better!

 This was the view from our deck chairs outside our room.

 The other restaurant is behind me.

There were pools everywhere! Everyone was super nice.  Best vacation ever!

Now just a little something that I found funny.  Where ever I go I always like to eat in the Mexican restaurants if they have one.  Macau had one and it was not too bad.  Where we are in Saudi, there is a chain called El Chico that is not bad.  I think they have them in the States so it is pretty standard. I have a picture of El Chico here.  A couple of months ago though, we found a new Mexican restaurant called Amigos.  I think basically they went to a Mexican restaurant once and they thought... Oh yeah, we can replicate this!  

Here is the restaurant.  Complete with two doors.  One side for single men and the other side for families.  The restaurant was very dark and had the usual kitschy stuff strewn about.  However, the menu did have some "unique" items on it.  For example:

Basically just a wiener rolled up in a tortilla and topped with ketchup.  Mmmmmm.  And of course if you have a Mexican hotdog, there certainly must be....

 A Mexican burger of course!   

I, however, conservatively chose the tacos and this is what came to my table.

 That's just how my Mexican Grandma used to serve it up! Always with french fries!

Matt ordered the sampler plate so what we have here is a burrito along with a taco, underneath which there is an enchilada, and on the side that weird thing is supposed to be a chili relleno.  It looks a lot like an Arabic kibbeh that you would see in a hot meze sampler.  A kibbeh looks like this:

It's basically meat on the inside with maybe some pine nuts.  They are very good but I wouldn't expect to see one in a Mexican Restaurant.  Anyway, needless to say, it tasted about as good as it looks!

On the last night in Mexico, we went out to dinner at a local restaurant and the special that night was Chile relleno.  I ordered it and this is what came:

It was delicious!  No comparison.  Adios Amigos!!

Valentine's Day in Riyadh

Last night Matt and I went to the Noodle House to celebrate Valentine's Day, a day early.  I believe that there are a few embassy events going on but since we have a race bright and early on the 15th we decided to celebrate early.  (I don't like to eat at a restaurant the night before a race.)  Another reason to go out the night before is because the Mutawa will most likely be out in full force as Valentine's Day is forbidden in Saudi Arabia.

At home in the US, it is rather annoying that practically the moment Christmas is over, the Valentine's candy is on the shelves.  I like Valentine's day but it's nice to be able to catch your breath after all the Christmas hullaballoo.  We really don't have that problem in Riyadh. Instead, we have the answer to the question, what happens to all the leftover candy that no one buys? You always see it marked down to 50% off and then a week later to 75% off and then it's magically gone.  I always assumed that people bought it... but evidently not!

Last November 10th while I was shopping in LuLu I came across this display:

Evidently, pumpkins that don't get purchased for Halloween jack-o-lanterns, get sent to Saudi Arabia. I'm not quite sure why you would buy one unless you want one for display on your Thanksgiving table perhaps? But the prices  were 50, 75, and 125 riyal which is the equivalent of $15, $20, and $33 US.  Ummm, no thank you. As you can see, people weren't exactly pushing and shoving to get themselves some of these pumpkins.  (I always did wonder what they did with all the leftover pumpkins after Halloween.)

But moving on to the current Holiday season.  On Tuesday I went to the Danube to do a weekly grocery shop. (I really like LuLu but the bus wasn't going there this week and traffic lately has been really horrible and Lulu is rather far away.) Anyway, I noticed that there were lot's of displays set up at the front of the store.  This is where they always put the new stuff that they get imported in.  One must always check in case there is something new and fabulous! So of course I wandered over there and had a nice little chuckle because this is what is currently on display and touted as "fresh."

 Here we have some Christmas tree boxes of chocolates along with some candy cane shaped Rolos. The perfect gift for your Valentine! A little lower you can see the Christmas colored York Peppermint Patties.  These aren't the best pictures mind you, but I was trying to be discreet because there were plenty of workers around looking.

 Our next two displays feature a variety of Hershey products festively dressed and or shaped for the Christmas season! We have holiday bells along with Hershey Kisses all dressed up in their holiday finery.  I suppose you could buy the bag and then sort out the ones wrapped in red and mix them in with some regular silver ones but these are 34 riyal! About $9 US! For OLD candy!!!! Again, no thanks.

In this pic at the top there is the candy cane version of Kisses.  I really like those and they at least have a different taste.  (We still have every version of regular Kisses in the regular packaging that are cheaper so I'm not quite sure what the draw would be to spend twice as much for Christmas candy in February.)

 Since Christmas here is also banned, I guess they felt the need to disguise the big man.  Poor Santa.  Still, someone did manage to scrape the sticker off Santa on another display but there were too many workers standing around for me to take a picture.  Besides, I am pretty sure that you all know what Santa looks like.  Notice that they put a sticker over both Santa's front and back.  Ho ho ho!  Also, the brown one next to him is a reindeer. Evidently the reindeer must be disguised as well.  There were bunches of these around.  So, since my woman colorer inner job never panned out, perhaps I can get a job as a sticker putter oner.  Although that doesn't sound nearly so skilled nor fun.

Lastly I came across these towards the middle of the store and at first I scratched my head thinking huh?? Easter is coming up, why would they have out Cadbury creme eggs before the actual holiday? And why the heck do they look so strange? They are supposed to be red blue and yellow! I know because my grandma used to buy them for me every single Easter along with the Cadbury caramel eggs.  I loved those things! So good! So I took a closer look and I saw that these are not Cadbury creme eggs, these are Cadbury "Screme" eggs.  WTH? I've never heard of them and never seen them before.  So I took a picture and when I got home I looked it up.  I believe, that they only had these in the UK but I wasn't home in the states to know if they were there as well. Anyway, the point is, that these are a Halloween candy!  With all the candy that we have in the US around Halloween time, I can't see these doing well.  For one thing, they look gross, and for another they tend to be around a dollar or $.89 each, and when you are giving out candy to sometimes hundreds of kids, that would be a bit too expensive.  They are supposed to taste the same as the regular Cadbury creme eggs, just the insides are green.  Oh, and apparently they are about 5 months old now!! But at SR3.50 they are still full price here!! And truthfully, those will probably sell because it's still pretty darn close to an Easter egg.

When living in Riyadh, one must get a bit creative around the holidays.  So this year I made white chocolate covered Oreo pops.  And yes, I did sort out all the red m&m's out of a couple of mini tubes. And yes, I do spend entirely too much time on Pinterest!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Dead Last! (And Happy New Year!)

Hello again!  One of the things that I have noticed about going somewhere new is that the first year just flies by.  Everything is new and interesting.  The second year... eh... not so much.  At this point I am at one and a half years.  And judging from my blog posts or lack there of, things are no longer as interesting as they once were.  Also, my two favorite friends have both left! On to much better places happily but I miss them! Not to say there aren't new friends of course, but I miss them nonetheless.

Currently, we need to decide if we are going to stay for another year or not and it is looking like we are so I guess I need to find a way to make things interesting again.  We are planning on doing a bit of traveling this year so that will be nice.  It's always good to get out of Saudi for a bit.  In fact, I have just recently returned from a visit back home.  Right now the weather here is a bit cold which is quite nice.  I found when I came back last year in September that I was a bit grumpy to be back.  But returning this time was much better.  Winter is a pleasant time of year here weather wise.  June, July, and August are a bit difficult to say the least!  If you want to know a little about what I did when I was home check out this blog:  Mostly Legos

Dinner in Vegas

So my last blog post stated that I had been sick.  A lot.  I think part of my problem came from exercising outside in extreme heat conditions.  I didn't really realize how much it actually takes out of you.  When I originally arrived here (in the beginning of August) I tried running outside once, and then I promptly switched to running inside on the treadmill which was much easier.  I didn't start running outside again until September, which is still hot, but not nearly as hot as August.

Since I was here all year last year, (minus vacations home) I was a little more acclimated to the heat and so I continued to exercise outside. (running and a circuit training class) I guess it gradually took its toll on me because since about June, I started to notice that I felt tired a lot. Then around July, I started noticing that I couldn't remember the last time I felt good during a workout.  Then I went home to LA and felt a little better but really arrived back in Saudi still feeling crappy.  Then the running season started and I noticed my times going from OK to gradually increasing! WTH? Which brings me back to the current running season.

My last blog was just before the second ten miler of the season. (I was unable to finish the first one and only did 7 miles.) I am happy to report that this time I felt pretty good and I was able to finish with a time of 1:40:12.  It's over ten minutes longer than my best time on this course but I was actually quite happy with that time considering that I had been so sick the month before.  This was 2 weeks out from the upcoming half marathon so I jogged another mile afterwards so that I would be OK training wise to complete the half marathon if I wanted to, which was a good thing because in the following 2 weeks I didn't finish anything more than 5.5 miles.  Normally it probably would have been good to get in at least an 8 miler.

After the 10 miler

Despite feeling crappy, I still wanted to keep my options open to do the marathon in March.  My logic being that if I got in a 13 mile run before I left for LA then I would be on track to get in the minimum amount of training to try again for the full.  I decided to treat the race like a long run and not worry about time, just go for completion.  The course was 3 out and back "loops" of about 4.33 miles each or 7K.  Each loop starts out flat and then has a steady incline until you turn around and go back down and back to the start.  The first loop was fine.  The second loop was crap.  My knee hurt and I just felt tired. I seriously considered dropping out at that point.  Since this was an out and back course, I was very much aware of the fact I was pretty much last.  There were a few people still behind me when I started out on that last lap but I could tell that they were not planning on doing the third lap.  Nevertheless, I went out again feeling super crappy.  By the time I got to the last uphill, I had to walk a bit.  My knee was killing me and I just felt exhausted, but just before I reached the top I saw another runner heading back down.  I was still in last place, but I was only about 200 meters out from the "next to last place runner."  This was a bit of a relief because I was a good 15 minutes behind the other runners and it bugged me a bit that the time keepers would be hanging around waiting for me to finish before they could pack it all up and go home.  Now that I knew they were waiting around for two of us, I could relax just a tad.

So here I was, officially in last place.  The guy ahead of me kept looking back to see if I was gaining on him but clearly I wasn't so he kept stopping to pick up trash along the way.  (To give you some idea of how slow I was going.)  I had absolutely nothing left.  And when I finally arrived at the finish line everyone who was still there cheered for me.  It was very clear that they thought this was my first half marathon.  (It was my 6th.)  My time? 2:38:16.  Last year around the same time I finished (a much friendlier course mind you) the half in about 2:03.  In August I finished in around 2:20 and that was in 90 degree (F) heat!

Last year was just not my running year.  Between injuries and illness I did not have a whole lot of success.  Hopefully, this year will be better.  Time will tell.  I started taking magnesium and that has helped a lot! (Evidently it is very easy to sweat out magnesium... who knew??)  Anyway, I was so tired after the super long flights back home that it took me about a week to start feeling human again.  Of course I did some running but no where near enough to do the marathon.  And after seeing the course, (which is the same as the half just double) I am pretty sure I am not currently up for it.  Maybe next year!  Also, considering my current times I would be looking at around 5 hours to complete it.  Hmmm, no thanks!

In other news, Matt finished in 2:17:56.  It was his first one.  Congratulations!

And here is a picture of me and my daughter going out on New Year's Eve. It has nothing to do with this blogpost but I like it!

Happy New Year!!!