Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon

the marathon has hardly any spectators. having run in London and been cheered along by hundreds this was a big disappointment. but that is nothing compared to the way the slow runners were treated. for the final 2 hours of the run we were trailed by the police who had the lanes of traffic behind them they curb crawled us and then eventually just re-opened the road so the marathon runners had to get on the pavement. They stopped serving water – energy drinks were only for the earlier runners and when we finally go to the finish they had run out of medals – it was a horrid horrid feeling to run for 6hours for a charity and be treated like this. I think marathons are amazing and i hope the organisers get better for next year – otherwise who cares that they are giving the most money in the world to one person when the rest of the runners are treated like rubbish.

Sonia,
I totally agree with you. It’s a pity the organizers don’t pay attention to slow runners. You deserved as much if not more attention than the elite. Running during 6 hours under the sun is as much challenging as running for two, if not more.
I can also understand that certain marathons focus on elite runners as Boston does. But in that case, they should state it in the entry sheet and remind every runner that there is a time limit and that the roads will be opened again when the limit is reached.
Thanks for the feedback

Actually I participated in 10k last year, but as I remember they mentioned 5 hours limit time in the marathon entry forms. anyway I agree that the medal problem was awful, and also some parts of the main road for elite runners were very narrow and without any spectators.