Ok the wind aided theory doesnt' make a lot of sense to me at first glance. I found the course map and a vimeo of the course.
http://www.adnocabudhabimarathon.com/routes/
If you look at the course video, the first half is largely very simlar to the 2nd half of the course, these atheltes are running many of the same 3-4 5km segements overand over with 180 degree turns and the 30-35 k segement is basically the same as the 35k to 40k segement but in the opposite direction. So one would think if 30 to 35k was wind-aided that 35k to 40k would have wind in their faces.
Now the wind direction does make sense for 30 to 35k to be wind aided. At that point, they are largely running to the NE and here is the official weather from Weather Underground (Race started a little after 6 am). The weather wasn't as hot as I thought it was (Weather.com reports of over 70 must have been off). It was in the 60s like accuweather reported but it's not showing a big wind but the wind was coming out of the SE.. Does anyone know if the coastal breeze is a lot different than where the weather station is (i used the generic ABU DHABI INTERNATIONAL STATION)? They were running right on the beach from 30k to the finish.
Ignore that, thanks to technology, I actually found another weatherundergound station. The ETIHAD TOWERS T4 STATION - which is basically right at the start and finish of the course. Here is their weather report. It's very similar.
NOw the t4 station appears to be getting the weather at the top of the skyscraper so its like 700 feet higher than the other weather station. Is it possible there was a big wind on the ground but not that high up? Isn't that the opposite of what normally happens?