Islands...Yas and Saadiyat

Tuesday found us heading to Yas Island which is being developed as the entertainment island to go along with Abu Dhabi as the business center and Saadiyat as the cultural center. Yas currently has the Formula 1 Race Track where the final race of the Formula 1 season took place on November 14th. It also has a Marina that has room for all the huge yachts that come into Abu Dhabi for the race. Oh look, here's a photo of just one of many.

Yes, that is a helicopter on the front end, (I think that's called the bow).

Also on Yas Island is Ferrari World, the largest covered entertainment park in the world. Which is the current location of the fastest roller coaster in the world with a top speed of 240 kilometers/hr or 150 mph. I couldn't wait to get on this one. I've been fortunate to have lived near Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH and ridden the Top Fuel Dragster and the Magnum which are currently listed as #'s 3 and 7 on the 10 fastest list. I can attest that 150 mph on a roller coaster is a complete and total adrenaline rush. Wow, you shoot out of start area down the track to the top speed and then up the first hill and you're thanking your God that it breaks itself as it gets to the top of the hill or you're positive it would simply rocket you off into space. Then you spend another minute riding the whole ride leaning sideways, going around turns and up and down hills. Fortunately there are no loops that take you upside down.

Can you guess which one of those people in the cars is me? What a fun ride.

The rest of the park is interesting if you're into Ferrari cars and engines, but for me it was all about the roller coaster. I was going to buy this car, but with the way drivers are in the UAE it would just end up dented.

QOB: "I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar." Robert Brault, wanderer, poet

Wayne in UAE

Guests!

So I left off on November 12th talking about my friend Kathleen coming in town and she showed up and I guess I've been busy ever since because I haven't written anything. I guess you can all thank Kathleen and her friend Fiona for getting me out to see alot of different things.

Just to refresh, Kathleen got here on Sunday Nov 14th at night and I fortunately had the next 6 days off because of Eid. We were on the go for 6 days and then I got a break and went back to work while Kathleen wandered safely around Abu Dhabi walking miles alone awaiting Fiona's arrival on Tuesday.

On Monday the 15th I took Kathleen out for a riding tour of the city, to show her some of the sights while she got used to the heat. We went by Emirates Palace, where currently the most expensive Christmas Tree in the world has been placed.

And we stopped by the Saucer Building to snap a photo.

It was a good day to get her oriented to the island and we finished up at the golf course because our students had a golf lesson despite it being a holiday. So dinner on the terrace overlooking the driving range in the cooler night air was a welcome change.

Day two of her visit found us heading to Yas Island and Saadiyat Island and in the interest of breaking your reading up I'll put those photo's and notes in a separate blog.

It was actually a pretty cool two weeks because as the UAE is known around the world they always try to do anything bigger and better than anywhere else and in the two weeks Kathleen was here I was able to ride the fastest roller coaster in the world and go up to the observation deck of the tallest building in the world.

QOB: "Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin." Grace Hansen

Stay Warm,

Wayne

Unexpected benefits

I do love my job. It's just fun to go into work everyday and even the weekends are fun whether it's going to events or sports practices. It's just a great environment. I've found that I like the Sunday - Thursday work week. Mentally I feel like I have a 3 day weekend for some reason and it could simply be that I don't work on Friday, but weekends do seem to be longer.
I've found an added benefit this week. There is another Eid holiday. So there has to be a new moon sighting for Eid (a holiday period) to be declared, but the estimates were that Eid would be from Tuesday - Thursday next week. Which meant classes and work on Sunday and Monday then off for the three days leading into the 2 day weekend.
Well Eid is actually going to begin on Monday now so it will be Monday through Wednesday. Since the original estimate was Tuesday - Thursday NYU had told students and employees to plan on being off then, so many people made reservations to travel. And we would have worked 2 days had 5 off then headed back to work. Since so many people had planned on leaving Tuesday - Thursday NYU simply decided to hold class on Sunday as scheduled and then take the rest of the week off. So now I'll work Sunday and be off for 6 days straight except for a couple of minor things I have to do.
The beauty of all this is my first guest to come to Abu Dhabi was scheduled to arrive Sunday night and I was simply going to do my best to work around spending time with her and showing her around. Well now I have the first 6 days of her visit off to show her around. Talk about lucky planning. Then she has another friend flying in so for the 2nd week she'll have someone else to hang around with.
And this is not considered vacation time. Then of course school is closed for a short break in December from the 23rd - 2 January and since school is closed it's not considered vacation time either so I just have the time off.
Great unexpected benefits.
QOB: "Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others." Danny Thomas

Wayne

Precipitation

At 11:00pm on Tuesday, 9 November, the first drops of water I've seen fall out of the sky since I got here on July 30th hit my windshield. I'm serious this is the first time it's rained in any way since I got here.

No pictures necessary.

QOB: "If you think you are too small to be effective, you've never been in bed with a mosquito." Betty Reese

Athens

Two views of the Acropolis which is home to many structures, buildings and ruins like the Parthenon.

This is a very cool view of the theatre down below the Parthenon. I think they did plays here or maybe held court and beheaded people. Who knows, but it's a nice theater, very steep, as steep as it looks.

What a neat photo with such a small camera. It actually does panoramic shots and this is one of them. Did I tell you I received this Sony cyber-shot 14.1 pixel camera as a free gift for subscribing to The National newspaper? The subscription cost me $149 and the camera is easily worth that. Look at the pictures it took.

The one below is the entryway/arch leading into the structures on the Acropolis.

If you look closely at the photo you can see there's a lot of work going on restoring many of the buildings with craftsmen, crains, trains, forklifts all hoisted up to the top of the Acropolis to do the work.

As you can see I went to Athens and although I'd love to tell you it was a beautiful old, European city that I could have spent weeks exploring, it wasn't like that for me. I'm glad I had the marathon expo and the marathon to occupy about 10 hours of my 3 days on the ground there, otherwise I might have been bored.

I'll admit I'm not a big history buff and I'll also admit there are a lot of historic buildings/structures and stories attached to those buildings in Athens and all over Greece, but it's not my cup of tea. The Temple of Zues is pictured here. And also from on high at the Acropolis.

This is another beautiful area of ruins down by the Plaka area and below the Acropolis. I took this at the end of the day.

I did have a nice time in Athens because I had a reason to be there, the marathon. There are some good areas to walk around in, The Plaka, is a great shopping and dining district. After that I'm not sure what was available. The city is in tough shape, graffiti everywhere, stray dogs and cats everywhere, but a nice clean Metro system.

The Metro was put in for the Olympics in 2004. The story goes that the dogs were all rounded up prior to the Olympics so as not to bother all those visitors. They were kept in kennels and had collars put on them. Then they were released and now they sit around all over the city. Most seem friendly or at least apathetic, they don't bark much just lay around either waiting to die or waiting for someone to feed them.

The streets are crowded with vehicles, there are motorcycles driving on the sidewalks, the cab drivers don't use meters and you need to negotiate the fare before you get in. The food was good, pizza, gyros, Greek salads (I think they were invented there) and like many countries the desserts were very tasty.

So from my perspective go to Greece, see Athens and then travel to some of the Islands weather permitting and see the sites there.

QOB: "The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become." Charles DuBos

weyinuae

One road leads to Athens

As a runner I know that the history of running marathons is tied to the legend of Phidippides. He was a member of the Athenian Army that defeated the Persian Army against great odds and then was asked to run from Marathon, Greece to Athens to announce the victory and let them know the Persians were planning to attack Athens after they were defeated in Marathon. Upon completing the run and making the announcement he fell over and died from exhaustion. That happened in 490 B.C.

So I was invited by my friend Lisa whom I've know since I coached her in high school track back in the late 80's to come to Athens. She, along with two friends, was participating in the 2500th anniversary of that run in Athens on October 31st.

I'll just talk about the race itself in this blog and then tell you a little about Athens in another blog. The marathon is 26.2 miles as most runners know. They do start in Marathon which is 26.2 miles from the original Olympic stadium built for use in 1896. Oh and I just happen to have a picture or two of that stadium.

It's all marble inside, wow. Nice toilets too, but no bidets (that are ubiquitous in the UAE) in the stadium that I could find. They must have udpated the plumbing since 1896 though because there's running water, and all the W.C.'s are marble.

I got to be Lisa's water boy in Chicago last year when she qualified to run Boston and then we were able to hang out in Boston together until the start of the race and we both ran it. She won't mind me mentioning that she's on a personal quest to run 40 marathons before she turns 40. She'll do it because she is focused and goal driven, but also an all around nice person. So I was off to Athens to be the support crew again.

Lisa and other members of the Burlington High School cross country team I coached in 1988 were part of my support crew when I ran a marathon in 1988 in the Boston area so life has certainly come full circle.

Lisa, (left above and beside me below) Kelly and Sarah arrived in Athens the day before me. Since Sarah was now five months pregnant (and hadn't been when she signed up) she wasn't going to run so it was down to two runners among the 13,000 registered that Sarah and I had to support.

Support isn't just on race day it's also doing little things like making sure the runners aren't doing too much walking the day before the race, making sure they're staying hydrated and just trying to take care of them so they have as little as possible to worry about. These women are all veteran marathoners with 35, 11 and 9 behind them so they know what to do, but it's nice to be able to help them out.

Getting out to the Expo was fun, although crowded they had some nice stuff for sale. I was surprised at how much they catered to the Greek runners specifically with language and printed information. Maybe the organizers didn't let some of the sponsors with booths know how many foreigners, particulary American's were registered to run or they were simply just targeting their own citizens. I was just suprised there wasn't more printed information in English. Nonetheless we had a great time visiting the expo twice and wandering the area.

The weather was great on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Of course nice weather for fans on Sunday to line the course doesn't mean perfect weather for runners. With a 9:00am start and already 60 degrees it was probably a little too warm too early for many of the runners. Sarah and I grabbed the metro (very clean) out to about mile 17 or so to watch for our friends and to cheer them on along with everyone else that came by.

And they just kept coming. We yelled and whistled for everyone we could by name, by number or by country if that's all we had to go on. I will admit I could not understand any name that was in Greek on their running bib, so I'd clap for them. There were alot of Greek runners. Like these guys.

Lisa came through a little behind her intended schedule, but still running well. Her intended target was under 4:00 hours, but given the weather and her experience she was smart enough to dial the pace back to something that she could manage and still finish able to run another day.

Kelly was smart too in the same respect she realized by mile 9 or so it was going to be a longer day than she had planned so smartly texted us telling us she was backing off her pace and not to worry about her. Of course we were thrilled to see both of them come by and stop for quick hello's and "you look great", "keep it up" encouragement. Having been in the same situation a few times in my running career I know what a friendly face can do to help when you are truly in the throws of what's become a race against the weather and not the clock.

I can tell you after a long day on the Road to Athens these women finished in one of the most thrilling and unique venues I've witnessed. I've finished marathons in downtown Honolulu, Chicago and Boylston Street in Boston, at the Iwo Jima Memorial in DC, on the 50 yard line at Notre Dame Stadium and even a 1/2 marathon on the Olympic Oval that Eric Heiden won 5 gold medals on in the 1980 Winter Olympics along with a couple on military bases in Iraq, but to sit in the stands at Olympic Stadium with the Acropolis off in the distance was very special. I can't imagine what Lisa and Kelly were feeling as they entered those hallowed grounds. Music playing, people from all over the world cheering, it gave me goose bumps and I wasn't even a runner.

What a great day and what a spectacular venue. I will admit I had harbored thoughts of registering late for the race and despite not being in any kind of shape to run just slogging through it to say I was part of the marathon, but a couple of nagging injuries told me to not even pack my running clothes so I only brought sneakers to make sure I was comfortable getting around, but nothing else to run in. It would have been a thrill to do it with Lisa or Kelly, but I was very happy to see them accomplish their goals of finishing the 2500th anniversary Athens Classic Marathon.

So my heartiest congratulations to my old friend Lisa and new friend Kelly on a great achievement. Would I suggest Athens as a destination marathon? Certainly. Traveling to Athens, spending 3 - 4 days (at most) in the city to run and then heading home or visiting some of the Greek Islands would be a wonderful vacation. There's great food, great shopping, great history and a unique and special venue to finish a race in.

These are the faces of two happy marathoners and one great supporter and a jealous marathoner behind the camera after a great meal in a cafe in the Plaka area of Athens. Those chocolate milkshakes were delicious.

QOB: "The challenge in marathoning is not completing the race or mastering the course, it's in training and making your body go beyond its normal limits." WEY

Activities

In an earlier blog I tossed in a picture of me steering a 42' sailboat away from Abu Dhabi, don't worry we didn't go far, but it was a great way to spend a Thursday afternoon out of the office.

This picture shows Abu Dhabi in the background and on the boat is me steering, Erika the actual Captain of the boat, one of her crew and sitting down is my boss in the purple cap and our Fitness Center Manager in the purple shirt on the left. All five of us from the Athletic Department went out to see what the boat would offer if we started offering sailing classes to students.

Certainly not a tough way to spend a Thursday afternoon. The fourth member of our staff is now steering while the 5th member is behind the camera taking pictures. Our Thursday is the end of the work week and on the way back in we were escorted by two dolphins who were swimming beside us and jumping out of the water. A nice way to end the week.

So on the 7th we went Kayaking and since then have sent 20 students out on a kayaking adventure, on the 21st we went sailing, on the 15th I attended and spoke at a walk to help raise awareness about breast cancer. It turns out I was the featured speaker because I'm a man and men talking about breast cancer here in the UAE are tough to find. So I spoke to the crowd of about 400 before the walk about family history, education and early detection.

On October 22nd I was invited to a Polo Match which was also a breast health awareness event. Never been to a Polo Match before and I now know there are four team members not counting horses (4 of those too) on the field. I ended up not doing much talking to any group there, but did do a television interview. Come to think of it I don't even know if that aired. I'll have to check.

On the 27th I attended my first ever Cricket Match. Some of my fellow employees and students are big cricket fans so 12 of us went to a T20 match, which is a much shorter version of a match and lasts around 3 hrs, between Pakistan and South Africa that was taking place here in Abu Dhabi. Cricket is huge in South Africa, Pakistan, India, England, Australia and many other countries and it was nice to go with some folks who could explain the game to me. We also had one American there who was able to explain it to a few of us that could also relate it to baseball.

I know this, I can now read a report of a cricket match in the sports page and at least understand it. Normally Cricket has Test matches which can last 1 day (about 8 - 9 hrs) or 3 or 5 days. A T20 match has 20 overs and each over has 6 balls so the bowler {pitcher} throws 120 balls to the batsmen on the other team and they try to score as many runs as possible. If the bowler knocks down 10 wickets he's gotten the other side out. The match I went to ended on a sixer for South Africa after 18 overs and 8 wickets. Don't I sound educated?

Sorry no pictures from Cricket or the Polo match. I did get a new digital camera when I signed up for a 1 yr subscription for The National newspaper though and I took it to Athens with me the following weekend.

QOB: "One thing common to most success stories is the alarm clock." Anonymous

Stay cool or for some of you stay warm. The weather has turned back there in the states, but it's now beautiful here.

Wayne