We tend to give large scale races a pass on things, because the sheer ability to say "I ran in Dubai" is fairly impressive. This race failed on more levels than one and as such is not entitled to these overlooks.

The expo timings concerned me. Even though I was traveling in country, it made more sense to drive up the night before and collecft everything and get settled in for the night. The expo was open until 7 every other night except the final one, when it was open until 5. The problem with this is, people flying in, traveling from other emirates, were at a mad dash to make it. The number of people pulling up or rushing to the number collection spot would have been comical to a degree, if I wasn't one of them. When I made it in, the woman handing out instructions was incredibly rude, to the point that we wondered if this was indicative of how the rest of the race would go.

The morning of the race began smoothly. These were some of the best bathrooms I have ever seen, funny to think of, but they were essentially construction trailers with bathrooms, running water and fairly clean. For the men there are 2 stalls per trailer and about 5 trailers, so fairly long lines for that, but still very accessible, easy to find and nice quality. The baggage drop off was also easily reached and very well run.

Then the race started. This was so poorly run it bordered on the dangerous. Immediately after the start line, people decided to hand out energy drinks and wrist bands, which caused people to jack knife across the crowd, crashing into people, running each other over and disrupting the flow or teh actual event. On the course, the managers were busy taking selfies and pictures as opposed to guiding runners. At one point, people were running head on into the elite/front pack of 10K runners, with a few colliding.

Water stations were plentiful, but poorly run, people stopped fully or were clustered and unable to mvoe through. At the 5K turn around, the water station placement was in the actual turn, so as people are navigating it, there is a cluster of bodies blocking them.

The placement of the start and finish line made is oddly confusing when you actually started and stopped. You have to run through the start to get to the finish, but the beep of the time card could be heard when crossing both, leading some people to halt and start walking too soon.

The medals and shirts are amazing and you are given a wrist band that gives you a discount at any Adidas store in the UAE, which is impressive. These things do not make up for a poorly run race. The course is not designed to handle such numbers and is incredibly cramped, to the point that if you are a regular runner, a PR is possible, but difficult to attain.

While it's hard to tell someone not to make this trip and see Dubai, there are better run races that show more of what makes the city actually interesting. Save the time and your ankles and avoid this one.