Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world!

The World Harmony Run Team arrived in Dubai after a great bus trip through the desert of the United Arab Emirates.

After a day spent in preparation for the next day's events, we joined the "Dubai Road Runners" in the evening for their weekly running event.

We really enjoyed the run in the warm (but not hot), misty (which is somewhat unusual) atmosphere in the Safa-park, where all the runners had gathered to hold the torch just before the start of the race.

It got dark pretty fast...

The "Dubai Road Runners" have an unusual but winning way of giving prizes to the runners: every runner has to sign up before the start and give an estimate of the time he / she is going to achieve. Whoever is closest to this time at the finish line is rewarded with a little present. (No watches are allowed, of course!!)

The runners passed the torch to the runner ahead of them: this required some speed work...

This evening, by a streak of luck the prize went to Angela of the World Harmony Run Team, who had guessed her time to the second but was clearly surprised when her name was called!

Graham, the race organiser...

The president of the "Dubai Road Runners", Graham Rafferty told us that the running club is very active in setting up races in the Dubai area and some of their team members have already achieved amazing feats: like an over 50-year-old, who runs the 100 km in the unbelievable time of close to 7 hours and another member, who climbed Mount Everest and walked to the North and South Pole all in one year, setting a new World Record!

So we are looking forward to maybe having some of the "Dubai Road Runners" join us next year for a longer run, connecting some of the cities in this area!

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Team Members:
Dipavajan and Apaga Renner (Austria), Susameepan Kalbitzer (Greece), Angela Muhs (Germany), Sandro Zincarini (Italy) 

Gallery: See more images!

United Arab Emirates 17 February >