Going the distance: looking at the increasing popularity of ultra running in the UAE

We meet some of the UAE's ultra runners, who are pushing their athletic abilities to the extreme.

Left to right, ultra runners Ruanda Oberholzer, Chris Denison, Veronique Bourbeau and Khalid Hamid train at Abu Dhabi Golf Club. The athletes run distances of 50km and more. Christopher Pike / The NatShow more

It takes a certain type of person to head out during the summer months at midnight to run up a mountain in 30°C heat. Welcome to the sweaty world of the UAE's ultra runners — elite athletes who run distances of 50 kilometres and more, and whose determination seems to know no bounds.

It’s a sport that, despite the gruelling schedule, is growing in popularity in the UAE. When British-Pakistani athlete Khalid Hamid joined the running group Abu Dhabi Striders five years ago, he says most members had never even heard of ultra running. Since then, seven have become ultras. “When a couple of people first broke through the 100-mile [161km] threshold, that spurred everyone on,” says Hamid. “Nowadays, I find that running 100 miles is actually more fun than 50 miles.”

Most weekdays, Hamid and his running mates are up at between 3am and 4am to fit in at least 80km of running a week. They also schedule in strength training — and weekends aren’t for lie-ins. “We get up at 12am so we can start running up Jebel Hafeet in Al Ain at 2am,” explains Hamid, 47, who is executive director for the ­Government.

But not all the ultras are fans of the early starts.

“Some mornings when my alarm clock goes off, I do feel a bit sorry for myself,” admits Hamid’s running mate, ­Ruanda Oberholzer, a South African. “But as soon as the run starts, all is quickly forgotten. The best part of training early is seeing the sunrise — what a great start to a day.”

Read more: Meet the UAE's ultra record breakers

While many UAE residents enjoy the occasional run, few go on to become Forest Gump-style ultras such as French-Canadian Veronique Bourbeau, who has her sights set on becoming the first person to run the 6,000km perimeter of Japan’s coastline.

Abu Dhabi resident Bourbeau, 43, was inspired to take up long-distance running in 2006, while living in Senegal. “I saw a lot of people there running in hot weather and poor conditions, and felt a lot of admiration for them,” she says.

Nowadays, Bourbeau is used to epic runs. Last April, she ran a 250km race in Japan in 35 hours.

Bourbeau has always loved sports. “I spent my childhood doing karate,” she says.

Hamid finds that the runners who end up becoming ultras participated in sports as children. “Those who didn’t don’t make it as ultras; they tend to break down,” he says. “That’s why missing out on exercise as a kid is a diabolical shame.”

Ultras often rely on online coaches to psyche themselves up for a big challenge. ­Bourbeau turns to one of the top in the ultra field, Australia’s Andy DuBois. “Andy has helped me to have confidence in myself,” she says.

But Hamid is sceptical of online coaching. “These trainers are like gurus,” he says. “I prefer to just go with what I feel. Running is partly meditation — I’m not trying to run, but I’m trying to let running happen to me.”

When he starts to feel like giving up, Hamid is kept going by the thought that true happiness is only achieved through hard work. “Drinking cold water in the midst of a hot run beats any drink in a five-star hotel.”

Hamid claims that having an addictive personality has helped shape him as a runner, as has having an understanding wife, and a love of “dark moments”. “When you face your blind ego and what’s mind-made, doing that which you think impossible is how you can go beyond ego,” he says.

Read more: Top outdoor places to exercise during the UAE summer

Alice Robinson, a 30-year-old biology teacher who lives in Abu Dhabi, recalls her darkest moment, during the 45km ­Urban-Ultra Big Stinker race in Ras Al Khaimah in ­February. “It was very hot and hilly. I was determined to do my best, but I fell quite badly in the last 10km. I knew I was in first place for females, so I got up as fast as I could, and didn’t look at my hands and knees, which I could feel were bleeding, because I so desperately wanted to hold my position. You go through many emotions, from elation to desperation, in a race like that. It’s as much a mental challenge as a physical one.”

As she reached the finishing line, Robinson glimpsed her husband and daughter cheering her on. “That was the best moment for me, and made all the hard training and pain worthwhile,” she says.

Long-distance runners discover their own coping mechanisms to get them to the finishing line. Sometimes it’s the moral support of running mates or uplifting music. Hamid turns to Bob Dylan and The Waterboys. “For harder training sessions, I get my son to lend me his Eminem,” he admits.

Perhaps surprisingly, though, none of the ultra runners I speak to follow a strict diet. “Every time I return to the UK, fish and chips is the first meal I have,” says British runner Chris Denison, 46, a civil servant who recently ran from Abu Dhabi to the summit of Jebel Hafeet in 28 hours. Bourbeau, meanwhile, admits to being partial to chocolate.

“The areas that I focus on are sleep, nutrition, training and stretching — nutrition is my weakest link,” admits Hamid. “I tried to be vegan, and ended up vegetarian. I live on marmite and peanut butter when I’m training.”