Muscat Marathon 2019

January 18 & 19 was the weekend of the Muscat Marathon.  Stephen ran the half marathon on Friday morning, and the boys ran in the 1k and 2k on Saturday morning.  I should have run the 10k, but it was hard to gauge how quickly Stephen and I could have found each other to trade off boys between ending his run and starting my run.  I should have signed up and asked friends to help with the boys.  It takes place, after all, in the Wave which is where many of our friends live.  Next year, I'll be running the half marathon, too.

One of the many photo op signs they brought in for the race.

For the most part, it was a very well organized run.  It was also one of the largest runs Stephen has participated in.  Not sure how it compared in size to the OKC Memorial race, but this race was large.  I believe the 10k had the most runners.  The kids runs had nearly 3000 kids running!  It was also the first time we had true, world-class runners running in the same race.  True, they were running the full marathon.  But they still finished their marathon after Stephen finished his half, and they started at the same time.  The first finisher was 2:13 (according to Stephen) as opposed to the 2:10 from last year.  One of them apparently fell, and ran through the finish line holding his heavily bandaged hand up.  I think he finished around 5th or 6th.

First finisher for the marathon

Second and third finishers for the marathon

First female finisher

It ended up being a rather humid day on Friday, which was unfortunate.  But Stephen finished just a few minutes over his PR, so he's hoping that next year he can set a new PR even in the heat and humidity of Muscat.  It was also quite sunny.  I am outside a lot, yet I noticed some slight pinkness by the end of the day.  It really did get hot.  Thank goodness the race started at 6:30am so runners were done well before the heat of the day.  Saturday had more cloud cover, so it was much more comfortable for the kids runs.

Stephen finishing the race with the boys cheering him on.

E running in his race with so many other 9 & 10 year olds.  These kids ran a 2k.

J running in his race with other 7 & 8 year olds.  These kids ran a 1k.

I was pleased with how the routes were set up.  From what I could see, it was easy to see where the routes were, and they were well blocked.  The 3 kids runs were on 3 different courses, so volunteers were moving barricades between the races so the routes were obvious.  The marathon and 1/2 marathon routes ran down the coast, back up the coast, and back again.  This was nice because we were able to cheer on Stephen at the beginning, around the 8k marker, and again at the end.  He also ran past houses in the Wave, so we had friends that took pictures of him from their front porch as they cheered on runners.

The lead runners at the 8k marker.

Stephen at the 8k marker.  Side note, the flowers here and there were wonderful!  They are actually always there and always all over Muscat in different pockets.

I was also pleased with the race village.  There were many stalls selling food.  There were many people handing out drinks.  There were balloons galore for kids.  There were stilt walkers and music makers.  There was a DJ blasting a wide variety of music.  There are the normal coffee shops in the walk at the Wave (where I got a morning coffee during the race, and we got brunch post-race).  There was also my favorite stand of snocones run by our friends.  The boys got snocones both days as bribes.  The run organizers didn't do the best job promoting the markets in the race village to Muscat at large.  That could be improved for coming years.

The stilt walkers with E.  He comes up to their knees! 

These noise makers were fun for play fighting and banging together for "clapping."

Oh, the reward snocones!

The running shirts were great!  The boys even received quality running shirts in a slightly different color from Stephen's shirt.  The medals were also great!  Each race had a different color bib and matching ribbon for the medal.  So the boys received the same quality medal that Stephen received just with a different color band.  By the way, J has Stephen's medal because it was part of the agreement between the two of them if J would run.  I thought Stephen would get it back when J got his own, but apparently not.

There were even some little highlights to appreciate.  The Wave area is great with shops and restaurants already established.  They have a community space with a small kids' climbing area right by the race village.  There were also bean bags spread around that area for lounging and watching the people painting murals that day.  There were flowers lining the finish line.  And they provided us with free race photos for completing a survey.  Let's not forget the crazy volunteer groups cheering the runners on, the drum line starting the race, or the traditional dancers along the course.

A sample race photo.  Without this, I wouldn't have seen the traditional dancers on the course.  How cool!

The boys playing on the climbing equipment.

The flowers at the finish line.  The color is a little off because it was well before sunrise when I took this picture.

The bean bag chairs and a lady painting a mural.  I should have taken a picture of the completed mural the next day.

As for the not so good... Stephen passed no food when he finished his race.  Apparently, the food was better situated for the 10k racers that finished at a different finish line from the full and half marathon finishers.  Not cool.  The parking lots were blocked off at 6:00am both days for the races.  Really?  Even for the kid run day when the kids aren't running until 9:00am?  On Friday, the parking lots would open back up at 12:30 they said, but we were able to leave a bit earlier than that.  On Saturday, they were definitely open by the time we were leaving.  We parked outside of the Wave that day.  It was a bit of a walk.  I feel that they should change the path so that the parking lots can be accessible for coming and going.  There must be some way to manage that for both race contestants and locals living in that community.  The Wave is an unfinished community, so there is construction (which doesn't help with the parking issues) and some compacted dirt spots where the runners ran.  Those issues should get better with time.  For the kid runs, I was not pleased with the starting holding area.  It was unmarked, and I couldn't find a volunteer who could tell me where to take my kid.  We ended up running up and joining the group as they were headed to the starting line post "last call."  The pick up corral was also crazy with quite a bit of chaos as too many parents were trying to enter.  They did try their best with requiring that parents have a tag that matched the kids' bib number to retrieve your child.  However, J snuck out when he couldn't find me.  Thank goodness he found his dad.