Smith hangs up his running boots to return to rugby

The Arabian Gulf's Marcus Smith

DUBAI // Marcus Smith, one of the outstanding players of Arabian Gulf's sevens and 15s sides, is ready for a return to the field after satisfying his marathon aspirations for the first and last time. The Englishman, 31, completed a lifetime ambition when he crossed the line in Friday's Dubai Marathon in a tick over four hours. Now he is planning to get back to weight training rather than endurance running as he bids to be fit for the Gulf's Asian Five Nations campaign in April.

"It was rewarding, but I don't think I will be doing another one," he said. "The sense of achievement was obviously awesome, but the emotion that you feel is one you have never felt before. I didn't know what to think." The long-serving Dubai Exiles centre filmed a before and after video diary of his marathon experience, which he posted on YouTube. His exhaustion is obvious in the aftermath."I have made the decision that I am not going to run another marathon," said Smith. "That box is now ticked. I can't really understand why you would want to do more than one unless you had serious mental issues, which, at the last testing, I didn't have. For the last 10kms I was feeling like I haven't felt before. Numbness in your legs, and cramp.

"I was trying to evaluate what the difference in feeling was between running a 42km marathon on your own and playing with seven other players in front of 50,000 people. It was a debate I was having in my head." It was one of his Gulf sevens colleagues, the Australian fitness trainer, Corey Oliver, who initially persuaded Smith to run the marathon. They started the race together, but after Oliver was forced to seek medical assistance, Smith was left to plough a lone furrow down Al Sufouh Road.

"Corey called me up and asked if I wanted to run the marathon," added Smith. "I didn't even think about it, I just said yes, as it's something I have always wanted to do." [e-mail]