This year’s edition of the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon held on 22nd January 2016, was graced by 30,000 registered runners, running for various causes: the charities they support, promoting wellness, or just plainly having a fun time on a sunny Friday morning. Over 100,000 people participated, including the crowd that cheered the runners on all the way to the finish line! The XpertLearning Team, joining this event for the 3rd year, participated with a total of 7 team members— the most that there ever were!
Paul Michael Gledhill, Co-Founder and Executive Director, XpertLearning, who has been a true participant every year quoted: “It was barely a run for me this year more of a limp and crawl (but who cares) this is a “must do” event and the charity spirit breathes into the atmosphere with almost as many reasons to participate as runners. Will look to do the personal best walking time next year”.
Now let’s hear what the other participants from XpertLearning had to say:
Kat: “A friend of mine whom I went to high school with, got me into running about 6 years ago when I struggled with borderline Diabetes. Running became a way of life and this is the 2nd time I am running the Dubai Marathon, my first with the Xpert Team! It was also the first time that I was able to see the 42km race finish as they did it differently this year. I was overwhelmed with the crowd reaction—first time I saw running in a different light: as an actual sporting event! I quite enjoyed the run but, although I have run several 10k races before, I was a good 35 minutes behind my PR! Thanks to the leg cramp at about past the 7k mark! I will for sure train for next year’s marathon—the 42k is a hard push but I will continue running! I just hope I have some female colleagues would be inspired to join next year! #runforlife.
Rob : “This was my first Dubai 10k run – it was great to have the support of other XpertLearning colleagues who were up for the challenge. On what was a hot day, it was great family event with so many different ages, nationalities and abilities taking part. Although, I can barely remember the last 1k, it was an enjoyable but tiring day!”
Amr : “I was not sure if I could do the 10K this year as I was getting older, but seeing Paul Gledhill’s determination made me feel better. I started out on par with all of our team for the first 4 kilometers, where Krish and Paul (Rob) Coulthard were the pacemakers, then I started to lag behind so I changed the strategy to run for 2K then walk for 1K and that worked for me. Given the distance that I had to walk to and from the race and the amount of walking that I did on the day, my tracker told me I did 22 Kilometers overall, that explains why I still have pain in one foot till now. I enjoyed it more than last year and appreciate XpertLearning for sponsoring us on this Charity event”.
Robbie : “This could be my last 10K run in Dubai and unfortunately I was not able to beat my best time years ago! I would like to thank XpertLearning and the rest of the team for all the support”.
Krish : “ This was my second year running the marathon and was excited to have the largest contingent ever from XpertLearning. I could clearly see the excitement in the team. All of us did exceptionally well in our respective categories and looking forward for a larger contingent next year”.
Congratulations to the Xperts who participated and smashed their PRs! We hope to get the entire team participating next year! Well done!
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