Cycling Trip to Sur - Mar 22/23

The Muscat Cycling Club organized a weekend getaway to Sur, which is a small coastal town about 200 km south from Muscat. We hadn't drove that route yet, so it was perfect to see something new, from a bike no less. We dropped our bikes off Wed evening on the truck and would rendevous with the group Thursday morning in Qurayyat (80 km from Muscat).
There was 15 riders of different skill levels and various nationalities - Omanis, Brits, South Africans, a German, Kiwi, Frenchman and us Canucks. It had all the elements of a true Tour - breakaways, crashes (1 of which I was involved in, but came away unscathed), king of the mountain, and a unrelenting peloton. Okay... maybe not quite like the Tour as we did take the scenic route to check out the Sink Hole, Wadi Tiwi, took a few pit stops to regroup and enjoy our cold water refills, bananas, gels, and bars. But we did clip along the 120 km route at 30 km/h, which isn't bad! The group arrived at the Sur Plaza Hotel 4 hours later. Just in time for beer o'clock!

I might as well elaborate a bit about beer o'clock. The hotels and select restaurants that sell alcohol can only serve at certain times out of Islam respect. For example at the PDO club, on weekdays alcohol is served after 6PM, Thursday (weekend) it's 12-1 and from 6 PM on, and Friday (weekend) sometimes it's after 2 PM and other times after 4PM. You can never really be sure because the times change (from week to week) and there's no sign with the hours. Best bet is to always take your cooler with you to the beach.  

The evening plan was to drive to the Turtle Reserve at Ras Al Jinz. The center is fairly new, may be a year old, which had a musuem and facts about sea turtles. The guided turtle tour is either early morning at ~4:30AM or 9:30 PM, when they are laying eggs. Unfortunately, we didn't see a turtle. It was a waiting game that a group of tired cyclists were not willing to play, so we left at 11PM to find some food. We stopped at a coffee shop over looking the bay in Sur and had a great meal - Karek Tea, grilled Hamour, Adam went for a staple burger. The fish was cooked whole (head, fins, bones all in). The tab came to $30 cdn for 6 of us!

The following day we rode round trip from Sur to Ras Al Hadd, about 100 km for the day. The road was further inland which made for much hotter riding, 38C was the peak. It was a newly paved road filled with rollers, just enough to segregate the peloton. We kept the support truck busy, a few more stops and everyone's bottle needed replenishing!
We arrived back at the hotel at noon for a quick jump in the pool and lunch. We told stories and recounted  jokes from the adventure before parting ways. It was a great trip, lots of laughs and met some great people.      

The Grand Depart

Day 2 - Ready to Ride

The Sinkhole

PDO Triathlon & Russell Peters - Mar 15 & 17

Another triathlon, another new blog ;). Janelle and I competed in the 19th annual PDO sprint triathlon last weekend. The race was 750m swim, 16.5km bike and 5.5km run. Janelle had an excellent result, finishing first overall for women and coming in 8th place overall in a time of 1:18:00, her first win! I finished 10th overall, 9th out of the men in a time of 1:19:09. It was a great race with transition at the Ras Al Hamra club basketball court (same spot the Canadian Stampede was). We had perfectly calm water, with the only concern being the jellyfish warning flags up at the boat club. Luckily no jellyfish were spotted during the swim, although with the recent surf we've had a lot of sand had been pushed into the bay and with start of the race being at low tide the swim was actually more like a 700m swim and 50m run through the water. The bike and run course followed the same loop (3x for the bike, 1x for the run). It was a fairly technical loop with substantial climbing (over 300ft in less than 1km on the bike and less than 2km on the run). There was a fantastic breakfast afterwards and Janelle received a new pair of swim googles and a rose for winning. We also met another new expat couple from South Africa and quickly hit it off as we shared much in common.

Two days after the PDO tri we went to see Russell Peters on St. Patricks day with Tom, Donna, Joanna and Darryl, all Canadians. Before the show we enjoyed a great bbq with everyone and managed to down a couple green beers, along with green lemon meringue pie for dessert (our contribution to the potluck). The venue for Russell Peter's show was at the Qurm Ampitheatre, an amazing venue outside built into a hillside. For the next 2 hours we were in stitches laughing, sitting out under the stars in 28 degree weather with the ocean just meters away. If anyone's familiar with Russell Peter's comedy, he did not disappoint and was surprisingly uncensored for the Middle East. There was a large percentage of the audience that were Indian and absolutely adored him, complete with large signs displaying one of his famous jokes "Somebody's gonna get a hurt real bad!"

Canadian Stampede - Mar 8

Moving to Oman Janelle and I were both disappointed that we'd miss the 100th Calgary Stampede this July. Not everyone enjoys Stampede time in Calgary but we definitely embrace it and have a great time. The pros of Oman easily outweighed missing Stampede for one year so we took it in stride.

Unbeknown to us was a hidden gem right here in Oman, the Canadian Stampede. An event that was hosted again for the 19th straight year. Our good friends Tom and Donna suggested that we consider joining the volunteer committee to help out with this years edition, a good way to get involved plus meet some fellow Canadian expats. So for the past 3 months Janelle and I have been attending the Monday Stampede meetings and have thoroughly enjoyed our time on the committee. Not only have we made great new friends (always seem to have an instant connection with any Canadians you meet here) but the committee meetings themselves were fantastic as the common practice was to have a beer or two each meeting. Plus you add in the food tasting for the buffet menu and more importantly shooter tasting for the shooter bar and you have possibly the best committee we've ever been on.

It wasn't all just sitting around drinking and eatting though, the days before the big event there was a lot of physical labour required to decorate and construct all the necessary pieces. The Stampede is regarded in the expat community as the best party of the year so there was a lot to live up to. By the middle of Thursday afternoon we had successfully transformed the Ras Al Hamra club basketball courts into the Calgary Stampedes grounds, complete with a bull, chuckwagon, hay bales galore, shooter bar, tepees, and a plywood cutout of the old Wainwright Hotel. Our committee even managed to find Moosehead beer in Dubai and get it delivered as our welcome drink for the night.

The big night arrived and our committee of about 20 were responsible for taking tickets, tying bandanas on (Janelle got blisters from tying, no joke) and handing out welcome drinks. I was even nominated to sport a fairly good Mountie costume at the beginning of the night. After the 800+ patrons had made through the door, the majority wearing pretty decent Stampede outfits, the remainder of the night quickly passed with much two stepping, line dancing, shooters, beer and a couple fights. For one night at least I could have been home in Calgary had I not known where I was. 

Another responsibility of the committee was tear down the following morning. Waking up with a couple nasty headaches Janelle and I made it down to help with the last remaining tasks nursing our water bottles. A fantastic experience and one that if we're still here next year would gladly partake in again. Yeehaw!!!!!!

Abu Dhabi International Triathlon

We drove to Abu Dhabi this past weekend for the 3rd Abu Dhabi Intl Triathlon. We opted for the Sprint (750m, 50 km, 5 km) and there were choices for the Short (1500, 100 km, 10 km) or Long (3 km, 200 km, 21 km) course. It was a fantastic event - the venue was great, the race was well organized, and the weather cooperated with a nice 27C (as opposed to last year it was ~38C). The volunteers were telling us that people were fainting on the run...I can't imagine doing even the sprint in that kind of heat, let alone a 7-8hr day for the long course!  This was the main reason for choosing the Sprint, not knowing how the heat would effect us. Myself, having a past of dehydration at Coeur D'Alene ironman in 29C, thought I best take it easy.

The drive from Muscat to AD is 500 km. We weren't sure what to expect at the border, having spoken to others who've crossed said it isn't all that straight forward. There are 2 separate checkpoints, 1 for Oman and 1 for UAE. It took an hour to get through, and we were on edge the whole time, not knowing what to do or where to go, and it's difficult to ask questions because of the language barrier, but we made it through. With a 30 day visa no less, not the 96 hr one.

About an hour into the UAE, you could start to see the differences from neighboring Oman. A 3-lane highway, even faster drivers (which I never thought possible). Literally 160-180 kph was typical, and nicer cars.  The desert musk hid the AD skyline until we were right downtown, and what a city. Out of nowhere in the desert,  there were huge buildings, developments, and people everywhere.  It felt a lot more western and modern, people out walking without abayas and dishdashas, streetlights, modern buildings and stores, and the grandeur of the Emirates was apparent.
We checked into the Sheraton which was right along the corniche. I couldn't have picked a better hotel spot either. We were able to bike to and from the race venue, as it was 5 km down the beach. The entire city beach was lined with a bike path, walk path, parks, and seating areas. Absolutely well done. We were very impressed, and knew that we would enjoy our time in the city. It's horrible having to be confined to a car when it's a beautiful sunny day, so this was a welcoming change.
We biked down to the host hotel, The Khalidya, on Thursday to pick up our race package. Right when I walked into the hotel, there was Julie Dibens, last year's winner and one of the top Ironman competitors.  We also saw Chris Lieto, another top pro Ironman. It was very cool. The race had 1900 athletes registered, up a few hundred from last year, which is good to see that tris are catching on in the middle east (it also helps that the race has one of the highest prizes, 1st gets 50,000 USD).
We more or less hung out by the pool and relaxed until race day, Saturday.  There was an athletes pasta party at the Hilton Thu night, by far one of the best sponsored pre-race meals. The pros started at 7:20 and the sprint didn't start until 9:20, so we had plenty of time to see the pros swim and then get ready for our race. It went by really quickly, Adam finished in 1:59:23, 32nd male and 2:00:29 for me, 3rd female. 

The pros put on a great race, close finishes by the men and women. We cheered for our fellow Canadian, Angela Naeth, who finished 2nd, and had a fantastic race! We got a chance to talk to Angela before the race and at the awards banquet later that night. It's very cool hearing her perspective on how the race went, and about training and travelling. 

The weekend flew by, we didn't get a chance to see much of Yas Island (where Ferrari world is), but we'll be back. We went to the Grand Mall to do shopping and on the way out of town, stopped by Saadiyat Island (a multi billion dollar urban development).  They are building a Louvre and Guggenheim museums! What an amazing development. That's Abu Dhabi for you! I can't wait to see Dubai as well.

Us with pro triathlete Angela Naeth

Corniche bike path

Abu Dhabi skyline at night

Etihad Towers

Red carpeted transition

Top Females - Nikki Butterfield, Angela Naeth, Caroline Stefan

At the Saddiyat Development exhibition