Running During Ramadan in Morocco

  As July has ended and the month of August is now in full swing we are coming to the end of Ramadan here in Morocco. Ramadan takes place once a year and during this month Muslims fast during daylight hours (no eating or drinking from sun-up to sun-down). This takes great discipline on their part especially in cities like Marrakech where the temperature has been around 110 degrees Fahrenheit and often water feels like the only relief from the heat.

  What this also means is that is the normal group of runners I have become accustomed to seeing on my morning runs have all moved their runs to running just before sunset so they can finish their runs off by returning to their houses and breaking their fasting with a glass of water, some dates, and maybe some freshly made fruit juice.

  Although foreigners are not required or even expected to fast by the people here, it is always a good idea for us to be respectful to those who are fasting. I am almost never without a water bottle nearby, in my bag or in my car, but during Ramadan I leave it at home out of respect for my friends. So, what does this mean for runners like me who are not fasting?

  Nothing really.

  The only change I have made in my running habits this past month is that I have chosen not to run with water on any of my daytime runs. This is for the same reason I mentioned above, respect. I normally run with a Nathan hand-held bottle but I've just been leaving it at home.

  Also, my diet has gone out the window. My family has been invited over to several families' homes for their traditional breaking of the fast meal, the Iftar. This is basically a feast with soup, several kinds of breads, cakes, and other sweats. This is an awesome meal but one that truly tests my self control (which is often weak when it comes to Moroccan cuisine).

Some of the awesome food that we get to enjoy at Iftar

  So, if you happen to be visiting Morocco next year during Ramadan do not worry, run as usual. Just remember to be respectful and enjoy running in Morocco. If you have any experiences of running in Morocco or any where else in the North Africa/Middle East area tell me about it in a comment below.

Rabat Half Marathon Race Report 2013

  A couple of weeks ago I traveled up to Rabat for the 9th annual Rabat Semi-Marathon (or the Rabat Half Marathon). Although I lived in Rabat last year, because of a nagging injury resulting in a lack of training, this was my first year running this race. I had decided not to train specifically for the Rabat Half this year but just to use it as an aggressive long run in my training. As such my personal goals for the race were not very high. My first goal, as it is with any event I participate in, was to finish having had a good time. I run because I enjoy it and if I stop enjoying races...well that would not be fun. Second, I wanted to set a new P.R. (personal record) for the distance. Seeing as how I have only ever run one other half and did not train for that either I went into the race thinking I had a good chance of accomplishing my goal.

  On the Rabat half marathon website (which is of course in French (Google Translate does a good job with making it readable) there is a page that allows you to sign up online. However, unlike the when I ran the Marrakech Marathon back in January I decided not to do the online registration but rather just sign up on race weekend in Rabat. Interesting side note: if you are in Rabat anytime in the few weeks leading up to the race there are certain places you can go to sign-up in person in advance of race weekend, like the park near the Sofitel Hotel or the Marjane in Hay Riad. 

  So, we arrived in Rabat on the Friday before the race, checked into our hotel, and headed to where the starting line would be on Sunday hoping to find an expo, a race village, or somewhere I could register. This was the one thing I could not find on the website, information about a packet pick-up. Luckily we saw a lonely white tent set up about half a mile from the Rabat train station. I filled out the registration form, paid (50 moroccan dirham), and was given my bib. That was the entirety of the race packet, nothing else, but when you only pay about five U.S. dollars you can't ask for much. (The website said that the fee for foreigners is 20 euro but I wasn't going to argue with the lady). 

Race Day

  On race morning I headed down to the starting line from our hotel in the old medina (market). It was about 3/4 of a mile walk to the Rabat train station where the starting line was. Once we made it to the starting area I said goodbye to my wife and son and worked my way into about the middle of the crowd of runners. Unlike some races there are no starting corals or people with signs saying where people going for certain time goals should meet. Instead there was just 1,500 runners all mingled together. Some slow in the very front and some fast in the very back.

  As race time neared the pros came out from somewhere and entered the starting are in front of us age groupers and began their last minute warm-ups. Remember that unlike many races in America, races here do not have elaborate pre-race speeches or countdowns. It normally goes like this; the music on the PA system is turned off about five minutes before the start (if there is music), then the pros line up for a few minutes (normally the crowd is big enough that you can't see them), and finally you hear a gun go off and the race starts. This year at the Rabat half there was almost a stampede when the pros lined up and then took off doing some extra stretching, causing the age group runners to think the race had begun. That was an interesting experience.

  Eventually the race began and we headed out on our 13.1 mile run.

  The first few miles lead us out of the old city walls and up toward the part of the city called Agdal. From there the race turns back toward the old market and the gate Bab El Had. This was, in my opinion, one of the neatest sections of the race because after you reach the gate you turn around and follow the same road for about a mile or so. Since it was still early in the race I was able to watch the pros and all the lead vehicles and camera crews coming back up the road. It is not a group of people I get to run with everyday. After the turn around the race heads out of town toward the soccer stadium.

The Pros

The Pros Again

The Turn Around Close to Bab El Had

  Other than a quite a few rolling hills there are really only two hills of any significance in the Rabat Half-marathon. One comes almost immediately after the half way point. After running past all the car dealerships in the city, the race route turns and you have to run up quite a large overpass that goes over the auto-route and the train tracks. It is not a long climb it is just steep and comes out of nowhere if your not expecting it.

The climb up the overpass

The view down to the auto route 

  The other hill is actually a down hill section that leads the race back into the old city walls and to the finish line. I mentioned about a hill section in an earlier post 

Places to Run: Rabat part 3

 this is that area just down hill. It begins going down at Chella (the old castle that has Roman ruins inside) and really does not stop or return to flat until the finish line. I mentioned this because for me it was one of the hardest sections. I was chasing a PR and had been pushing myself so to then see this steep down hill was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it was not an up hill but a curse because as I picked up my pace my quads began screaming at me (I have done NO hill training recently).

Chella 

City walls at the start of the down hill section

  The finish line is about a quarter mile from the starting line but in the same area as the train station. As I crossed the finish line I was surprised how many people were still hanging out watching people come across the line. After catching my breadth for about 30 seconds I was given my finishers medal and directed to get in line for some water, a finishers t-shirt, and a hat.

Finish line area

Finishers medal

Post race thoughts

  I had a great time running this years Rabat Half Marathon (Rabat Semi Marathon). While the half is not my favorite distance, it is races like this that I enjoy running because they take you places in the city you normally could not run or could not run without risking being hit by a car. Will I run it again? I'm sure one day I will but like I said the half is not my distance and so I do not know when that day will come. However, I can say that I would recommend this race to others.

Getting Back to Cycling in Marrakech

  It has been a long time since I spent any quality time riding my road bike. A few years ago, before I came to Morocco, I was training for my first ultra marathon. I quickly realized that if I did not start doing some cross training I was going to be in trouble so I started cycling. I really began to enjoy cycling both solo and in group rides. So, almost immediately after arriving in Morocco I went to a bike market, bought a 

used

 bike (notice the emphasis on used), fixed it up and then realized finding somewhere to ride away from lots of traffic was very difficult. Due to this fact the bike was set aside. 

My old steel frame road bike I bought for $35

  Well, since I recently discovered the

Palmeraie area of Marrakech

I decided that I had no excuse not to get back on my bike (that and an old knee injury creeping up on me). So I cleaned up the bike, got a new inner tube, put my kit on and went for a ride. 

This was going to be an awesome picture but the camel would not look up

  As I mentioned in a previous post the Palmeraie really is a great place. I love to run there and so do lots of others, and now I can say it is an excellent place to go for a medium length ride. It is not pancake flat but since it is in Marrakech there is by no means any great elevation change and there is very little traffic. Probably the best part of riding out there was having to dodge all of the sheep and goats hanging out either in the road or close to the sides. The first flock I came up to I almost hit one of the sheep because I was ridding into the sun looking for cars and was not expecting sheep.

Video I took while riding of camels and goats

  I can not say how great if felt to get back on the bike and after that first day I went back out there the next because I had such a good time. It was a great feeling getting back out there even if there is a noise coming from my old bike that kind of terrifies me. If you have ever ridden in Morocco or know of any good races or rides here let me know below in the comments and then get out there and go for a ride.

Another Tall Truck Sighting

  As proof to substantiate my claim in my last post that the highly stacked van phenomenon was not exclusive to our neighbors, here is another sighting. Just after I posted my previous article on this topic I was down near Jma El Fna and I was lucky enough that a traffic light stopped this van for a photo op.

The Van

  The material this van is carrying is used to stuff the cushions on the Moroccan style couches. 

An Unconventional Move

  Things in Morocco are often done differently. This is not a bad thing it is just different. Like in the U.S. other than pizza or burgers we really do not eat food with our hands and never from a communal dish in the middle of the table. However, because of this we do not have Tajine or Couscous. 

  So, I cannot say that I was surprised when I looked out the window of our apartment and saw that our neighbors, who were moving, didn't have a U-Haul but were taking a different approach. They were using the tempting physics approach with a van.

The moving van

  It is always interesting driving down the road and seeing trucks piled so high occasionally tall trucks will even have cows, sheep, or goats on top.