Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Dubai Marathon - a huge success!!!







Hurray! After all the sweat and tears, the Dubai Marathon is finally over. It was a huge success and one of the greatest projects I have ever worked on.

This past Friday was the big day! The Dubai Marathon attracted thousands of runners for the full marathon, 10K, and 3K fun run.

Ethiopian athletics legend Haile Gebrselassie attempted to break his own world record and walk away with a million dollar bonus, but the 66 degree weather and a bad back didn't help his effort. He set his world record in Berlin in 2008, and failed to break it by a little over two minutes. He finished in 2hr 6min 9sec, while the record time is 2hr 3min 59sec. However, Haile still won his third successive Dubai Marathon with great fanfare. His ever-faithful fans stood at the finish line and cheered for hours in celebration of another great win in Dubai!

Henry and Joseph finished 16th overall in the 10K. Go H & J! To learn more about Henry and Joseph's amazing story, please read their story below. Henry is a blind Kenyan runner and olympic gold medalist. He runs tied by a tether at the wrist to his guide Joseph to raise awareness about preventable blindness. They are truly an inspiration!

It was a beautiful day with all the events running smoothly - interviews with all the elite athletes, finish-line activities including drummers, face painters, balloon benders and the biggest attraction, water walkers! I had an awesome team of volunteers. There was tons of music, food, and fancy-dress! Thanks to everyone who came out to make the day such a huge success.


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