Dubai: 2024 Skechers Performance Run race review
Not what I’d intended to do, but glad I did it. Plus: Why I’ll be giving more attention to the 10K distance
The Skechers Performance Run in Dubai was held on March 10, 2024. The event consists of four distances — 16K (not a very standard distance, but it’s about 10 miles), 10K, 5K, and 3K. I found myself unexpectedly in Dubai that weekend and chose to run the 10K.
An unplanned event
This wasn’t a race I was meant to run. I was meant be taking part in a large half marathon in The Hague in Holland with my son that day. The plan had been for the two of us to fly from Miami — where he’s a college sophomore — to Amsterdam on KLM, getting us in more than 24 hours before the start of that race.
But, as with all my travels these days, we were flying standby using staff travel benefits. And loads on KLM are unusually hard to check. To cut a long story short, we didn’t get on the flight. There were seven standbys and only four — all KLM employees — made it on.
So there we were airside at the Miami airport, wondering what to do. All the other flights to Europe that day were looking full, and we were by no means the only standbys trying to get there. There wasn’t time to get to another gateway city further up the East Coast. So it began to seem unlikely we could get to Holland in time for the race. We retreated to the Turkish Airlines lounge to contemplate options. That lounge is part of the Priority Pass network and, although it can be crowded at times, is a nice spot — especially if you like Turkish food.
Standby travel calls for flexibility. That goes along with the amazing freedom it provides. Our plan for this trip had always been to head from Holland to Indonesia, a former Dutch colony, to spend a few days exploring the island of Java before returning to the United States. So we figured out a Plan B and started to look at flight options headed toward Indonesia, but cutting out Europe and missing the race.
The loads on Qatar and Turkish Airlines looked unpromising. But it turned out Emirates had a flight going out to Dubai in a few hours with 83 empty seats. So we listed ourselves standby on that, confident we would get on.
Injury time
Maybe the race in The Hague was not meant to be (for me). I was recovering from an injury that made me pause running at the start of the year for a month, causing me to miss the Miami Half in January for the second year in a row (the time before, I was sick). And although I was running again more than a month before the race in Holland, I was not where I’d normally want to be in terms of fitness and strength for a half marathon. But I really wanted to do the race and so stubbornly pressed on with my plans. Maybe not getting on that KLM flight was the running gods’ way of telling me I wasn’t ready to do a half marathon.
Plan C: A last-minute idea
Our Plan B involved not lingering in Dubai after the 14-hour flight from Miami. Maybe we’d spend a few hours lounge-hopping while in transit, but we didn’t plan to leave the airport. We’d already spent some time in Dubai two or three years earlier and I had also been there with my daughter more than 10 years ago enjoying some R&R after a trip to Iran. Not to mention having once been there on my own in the 1980s — flying from London on the upper deck of a Pan Am 747 — when the city was unrecognizable from what it is today.
But as we were about to board our Emirates flight in Miami, it occurred to me that maybe there might be some sort of a running event that weekend in Dubai. After all, we had our running stuff with us. If not The Hague, why not somewhere else?
Thus began Plan C. I began to research the possibilities and learned about the Skechers Endurance event taking place that Sunday morning — 12 hours after we landed in Dubai. There was just time to register, and I signed up using the inflight WiFi. So Plan C was to spend a night in Dubai, run the race in the morning, and then try to head to Jakarta on the next available flight.
Although our original plan had been to run a half marathon in Holland, I went with the 10K — not the 10-mile — distance in Dubai. We’d be running after a much longer journey, and would likely only have had a few hours sleep, at most, in the hotel.
Arriving in Dubai on the Saturday night, we forewent the usual pre-race pasta dinner for a classic Middle Eastern mixed grill with hummus and rice.
The race-day experience
The races began at 7 AM the next morning. With jet lag, we were awake before the 4:45 AM alarm I’d set. The start line for all the distances is at a school a few miles from the city center. I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to get there by taxi, so we left the hotel with plenty of time to spare. But getting there proved a breeze.
The window for packet pickup was just 30 minutes from 6:15 until 6:45 AM. We arrived early, but the desks were already open. Everyone picks up their bib on race morning. I was pleased to see that despite our last-minute registration, our names appeared on the printed list of bib numbers.
This is not a large event. The organizers sent out an email later in the day saying that over 500 people took part over the four distances, which felt about right. Nonetheless, I was impressed by how full-service it all was. The race had many of the hallmarks of something much larger — a big-name sponsor, fully closed roads, ample volunteers, timing chips on the bibs, decent race shirts (included in registration), nice medals, plenty of water stations along the course, and course photographers (with free downloads). All this for around $50 for the 5K and 10K. I think the 10-miler was a bit more.
The porta-potties were quite nice. Mine had a potted plant on the counter. And there was bottled water and some snacks in the start area while runners milled around.
The 10-milers went out promptly at 7 AM with the 10K starting minutes later. The 10K out-and-back course is a T-shape for the most part. The 10-milers follow much the same route, but run one portion twice.
The course is flat except for some very slight inclines and declines and one short uphill onto a bridge. It goes through an area known as Meydan, which is a large low-rise urban development project — including a horse-racing course — that has apparently been underway for a good many years but feels far from finished. I wouldn’t say the urban landscape was especially interesting, but it was all new to me, had a fair amount of greenery, and was perfectly pleasant. At one point, the course passes close to a mosque. And at another, there were views of the city-center high rises in the distance.
The weather in Dubai can be quite mild in March. But by the time I finished the race, the temperature was almost 70 degrees. The day before, there had been some significant rain, and the air still felt moist.
I’ve observed over the years that smaller races tend to have larger proportions of fast runners. I’d say that applied here, but the race does attract runners of all levels. For myself, I had few ambitions on this occasion, other than, ideally, to finish at a pace of 10-something minutes per mile, slower than I’d normally aim for in a 10K, which I managed to do.
There were snacks, water, and juice boxes at the end of the race. And after getting their medal, runners were then able to hand over their bibs in return for a shirt. I wondered whether the reason they wanted the bibs back — an unusual request — is because the timing chips are reusable.
Final thoughts
Overall, this was a very well organized event with a good vibe and a lot of positive energy. I was glad I switched to Plan C after Holland fell through.
Although I didn’t realize it at the time, this event is one of a series of similar Skechers Performance Runs in Dubai during the city’s running season. (Don’t even think of running in Dubai during the summer. It’s hard enough to walk.) I believe they all follow this same course. So if you’re visiting Dubai in a month other than March, you may want to check out the dates. The organizers also put on some other races, including a couple in the Dubai harbor and waterfront area, which might have more interesting courses.
Most of my reviews on this blog are of bucket-list races. But this one provided a reminder of how smaller ones can have a lot to offer. No one is likely to plan a trip to Dubai especially in order to run this race. But my experience illustrates why if you are visiting or passing through a distant city anyway, it can be a fun idea to check out the local race calendar. Smaller races tend to be low stress and can be a great part of your overall travel experience.
Lastly, although this weekend was meant to be my first half marathon since Tokyo almost five months earlier, I was actually glad I ended up running the shorter distance. A 10K is great workout, but is also a lot more doable than a half marathon if you’re coming back from an injury or just not really ready for the longer distance. The Dubai race, together with the challenging 10K I ran in Ethiopia a month after Tokyo, reminds me to pay more attention to this distance when planning my fly-run calendar. ✈️ 🏃