Running in Ryadh, Saudi Arabia. March 2022.
We ran the first edition of the Riyadh marathon. Ryadh is the capital of a country that lives between the most closed tradition and the desire for modernity. Between poverty and the most extravagant of riches. We ran past Saudi women in black niqabs and sneakers. The air was cloudy after a sandstorm, and we came home with more questions than certainties.
TLDR; “too long, didn’t read”
- I just want to run! Take me to RACE.
- I have 1 minute. Take me to USEFUL INFORMATION.
- Running is my excuse for travelling. Take me to TRIP.
- I want to know what to read in the plane. Take me to ONE BOOK.
But at last Dahoum drew me: “Come and smell the sweetest scent of all,” and we went into the main lodging, to the gaping window sockets of its eastern face, and there drank with open mouths of the effortless, empty, eddyless wind of the desert, throbbing past.
The seven pillars of wisdom, T.E. Lawrence
🌍 The trip 📷
I decided to run the Ryadh when I saw on the internet that Saudi Arabia was organizing its first international marathon. And female runners (both international and local) were “welcomed”.
Thus, a few weeks later we arrived at the King Abdul airport at dawn. Despite the early hour, there were hundreds of people. African schoolboys and men dressed in traditional thawb and ghutra waited their turn in an endless queue. One of the characteristics that I first noted is that people live much more during the night than during the day. This is not suprising if one takes into account how difficult it is to work during the torrid hours of sun.
Ryadh
We arrived to our hotel in a taxi with a driver from Calcutta. In Riyadh there are many immigrants from the Indian subcontinent doing all kinds of jobs. The hotel, in Umm Al Hamam Al Gharbi, seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. It was a building with large empty spaces, marble and gold. Our room was decorated in the same fashion, and I barely managed to open the heavy doors of the closet.
One of my concerns was how I should dress to respect local customs. I read that it was not mandatory anymore for Western women to wear the typical abaya. But I bought myself a sports hijab online just in case . The organization, when I asked about it, had been cryptic: “runners must show good taste and respect for our customs.” The female customs officers were dressed in black niqabs, which only revealed their eyes. Eyes that all wore makeup to perfection, by the way. I put a black pashmina prudently on my head and everything was ok.
The hotel was very much in tune with the rest of the city, populated with huge skyscrapers, highway mazes and pompous mansions. Some even try to resemble Paris, with its roofs with “mansardes” three stories high. All this actually felt very lonely. I remembered that I had read that Saudi law grants an almost sacred character to the privacy of the home. There were hardly people walking, but a lot of very expensive jeeps and porches on the road. As the veteran journalist Ángeles Espinosa explains in her book “El reino del desierto” (“The Kingdom of the Desert”), “no country is so rich and so poor at the same time”. Riyadh is a city where the extravagances are scattered among the real life. And real life is pretty ugly. And dusty.
📅 The Marathon Expo 🎽
On Saturday we had to pick up the number at the runner’s fair. The “Marathon Village“, which was located at King Saudi University.
We left the hotel and… we didn’t see anything! The atmosphere was completely thick with desert dust. It was like stepping into an orange-brown soup, with gusts of wind. We were going to run in such conditions?!, we wondered.
We arrived after installing Uber on our mobile. Again I remembered fragments from the book by Ángeles Espinosa, which was written in 2004. She describes how modernity is making its way hrough innovations such as mobile phones or the internet. Also we were lucky enough to meet a Catalan couple who have lived in the country for years. They explained to us how the country is transforming at an accelerated pace. Women have been allowed to drive for a couple of years now, and since the police have issued orders not to harass them, some drive without a licence. They also told us ugly anecdotes about the feared religious police, the “Committee for the promotion of morality and the prevention of vice”, to which Ángeles Espinosa dedicates an entire chapter in her book.
Cover your face, woman! Fear God! The abaya must be worn on the head, not on the shoulders!, shout to the women in markets and shopping centers the members of the Committee, the feared mutawain, a kind of pious state-paid officials distinguished by their long beards and their short robes. The stick that they exhibited until recently, and that they did not hesitate to use, made their recommendations more convincing
“The Kingdom of the Desert”, Angeles Espinosa
In the “Marathon Village” there were no more than one or two hundred people. Mostly local, but also some foreigners. We were given the runner’s bag while, in a stage, a very spirited girl did aerobics dressed in black from head to toes. There were also food trucks (with no customers) and about three or four stands of sports brands… In all honestly, it looked like a mix of a village fair, a popular race and a military base of Operation Desert Storm.
Tourism in Ryhad
We returned to the hotel through the same soulless streets, seeing ostentatious mosques like King Khalid or the beatiful Al Rajhi, many grocery stores in front of depleted sidewalks, and some large hotels with extravagant architecture.
Following the Catalan couple’s advice, we also visited the National Museum of Saudi Arabia, where we could see a meteorite that centuries again hit Rub’al Khali, the Empty Quarter desert, one of the most desolate places on Earth.
There was also a large model of Makkah and its surroundings, and a few interesting black and white images of the times when T.E. Lawrence was around, and some objects (including a truck) related to oil exploration.
🏃♀️ The race 🏃♂️
We got up at 4am because the race started at 6:25am. So early, “to avoid the extreme heat,” or so explained the organization. The taxi driver assured us, excited, that there would be more than 10,000 people running. We did not know where he got the number from, because we knew that in the half marathon there were 230 women and 950 men signed up; but later we realized that he was counting people running the much more popular 10K and 4K races.
It was still night when we arrived at the “village“, the starting point. Most of the foreign women were dressed in outfits similar to mine: long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and our heads covered (in my case, finally with a sports cap instead of the hijab).
The entertaiment was provided by a small group of very noisy Americans in front of the starting line, wearing flags tied around their heads like a ribbon. I never expected to see women running in the niqab and running shoes, but there were! Quite a bit, in fact.
Daylight broke almost suddenly, and we were relieved to see that the storm of the previous day had given way to a dusty, but more breathable atmosphere.
We headed to starting line than was less crowded than other marathons. Still, some people were yelling in Arabic to cheer us all up.
First part of the race
We set off at a good pace, while some cheerleaders dressed in suspenders and short glitter skirts (but leggings and long sleeves underneath) waved the runners good bye.
The course is flat, and for the most part takes place on large highways (in many sections we ran next to lanes open to traffic), wide dusty streets lined with palm trees and the typical isolated sandstone buildings. Riyadh is full of neon-lit architectural monsters, luxury in the middle of non-existent sidewalks, and… sand, sand and sand. Oh, and palm trees. While running, you also pass through financial districts and “digital cities” (whatever that means).
Halfway through the race it rained mud on us, but the hardest part of the race is running in the extreme dryness of the weather, which leaves your throat and mouth like scouring pads, and forces you to hydrate more than usual. Here you have to drink water at all the aid stations or you end up paying for it. By the way, many expats develop chronic sinusitis because of this climate (and the air conditioners).
Second half of the race
At kilometer 19 the paths of the marathon and the half separated; the fork was indicated only by a lonely fellow yelling in the middle of the street. At this junction, we saw an elite runner slapping a poor amateur runner out of his way. The substantiality of the prizes (30,000$ for the winner!) probably explained his virulent attitude. But karma punished him: a few meters later he took the wrong turn… and ran at least half a kilometer before realising and turning around.
There were two kilometers to go, one… our legs were heavy, but, running holding up the pace, we crossed the finish line that was flanked, of course, by palm trees.
After the race, our image was published on the official instagram of the Saudi federation “Sports for all” and I was interviewed by local television: I smiled and praised the organization, sporting my gold-plated medal. Of course, in keeping with the local taste, the medal had to be golden!
Despite the fact that the event felt somewhat amateurish and is still far from attracting sports tourism, I was glad we had run, and I would like to think that my participation in the first marathon in the hermetic Saudi kingdom contributed, in some way, to promoting women’s sport.
Useful information
🏆 Marathon (42K) / Half Marathon (21k) / 10K / 4K. First edition: 2022. Number of runners: Approx 10,000 between all races. Cut-off time: n/a
⛰️ Difficulty Medium. The course is flat, but the extreme heat and the possibility of sandstorms make breathing difficult and extra hydration necessary.
🌐 Website https://sportsforall.com.sa/riyadh-marathon-2023/
🗓️ End of March in Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia, Asia.
👟 On your feet, asphalt shoes: you run entirely through the city. Bring a lot of hydration and sunscreen. For women, it is advisable, but not mandatory, to wear long sleeves and long pants. No hijab necessary. In this post you can find details about running gear for hot climates.
🏅 In the runner’s bag you will find a technical marathon shirt, and upon arrival, a gold-plated medal, very much in tune with local taste.
💰 The price for the marathon in 2022/2023 is 99 SAR, for the half 79 SAR (24 EUR), for the 10k 39 SAR and for the 4k, 29 SAR. The cost of the trip is high since getting to Saudi Arabia is not cheap, and the standard of living is quite high.
✅ Well organized, with a very inspiring “amateur” touch. 🙂 Btw, the prizes for the winners are impressive, 30,000 euros for the winner and 20,000 for the runner-up.
✅ A very special way to mingle with the Saudis, even if only for a few hours.
❌ A boring route, with no nice sights
❌ Chance of sandstorms and/or extreme heat.
Map
One book
“Seven Pillars of Wisdom”, by T.E. Lawrence
Reading T.E. Lawrence’s highly detailed journal of his wanderings in western Saudi Arabia between 1915 and 1918 can feel as hard as running a marathon, but it is very interesting to read the descriptions of campaigns, XX century politics, the beauty of their deserts, and, specially, the personality traits of desert peoples from the perspective of an Englishman born in 1888 and educated at Oxford.
Summary: Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the autobiographical account of T.E. Lawrence – also known as ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ – of his service in the Arab Revolt during the First World War.
Although ‘continually and bitterly ashamed’ that the Arabs had risen in revolt against the Turks as a result of fraudulent British promises of self-rule, Lawrence led them in a triumphant campaign which revolutionized the art of war. Seven Pillars of Wisdom recreates epic events with extraordinary vividness. In the words of E. M. Forster, ‘Round this tent-pole of a military chronicle, Lawrence has hung an unexampled fabric of portraits, descriptions, philosophies, emotions, adventures, dreams’. However flawed, T.E. Lawrence is one of the twentieth century’s most fascinating figures. This is the greatest monument to his character and achievements, and formed the basis for the Oscar-winning film Lawrence of Arabia, staring Peter O’Toole and Alec Guinness.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
To know more…
| 📖 “El reino del desierto” (“The Kingdom of the Desert””), by Angeles Espinosa. Only in Spanish. 📖 “The City of Veils” by Zoe Ferraris. 🎬 Lawrence of Arabia, directed by David Lean, 1962. |
“The City of Veils” by Zoe Ferraris.
I found the thriller “The City of Veils” by the American Zoe Ferraris interesting and entertaining, set in the same lands that Lawrence of Arabia traveled to but in the 21st century.
⭐⭐⭐
“El reino del desierto” (“The Kingdom of the Desert”), by Angeles Espinosa.
For Spanish readers, I especially recommend “El reino del desierto”, in which Angeles Espinosa describes what was happening just a few years ago. Written in 2004, she goes into details about all the aspects of society that she learnt when she spend several years as a foreign correspondant.
⭐⭐⭐
