Official RAK Half Marathon Thread - Race Starts at 10 pm EST Thursday Night

There could be some fast times on both the men's and women's side. I was wondering the other day how long Kim Smith's world leading half marathon time would last... could be less than a week, but if it survives after this Friday, it could last most of the year.

However this was the bit that almost made me spill my coffee.

Patrick Makau has an average time for his ten best Half Marathons, of 59:26.

http://www.iaaf.org/LRR11/news/newsid=59320.html

But someone needs to tell the guy that did the

http://www.rakmarathon.org

website, that their silly countdown clock doesn't take different timezones into account - it seems to assume your pc is in the same timezone as the UAE, so it's telling me the time left is 000 00 00 00, even though the webcam shows the course as dark and the race clearly hasn't started.

I think that RAK is due for an Arab revolt:

"The Ruler since 1948 has been H.H. Sheikh Saqr Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi and his son H.H. Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi was appointed Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler in June 2003."

Going to go off on a wing here and make a prediction. I will say Patrick Makau will take it while Deriba Merga takes second.

The Best Athlete wrote:

Going to go off on a wing here and make a prediction. I will say Patrick Makau will take it while Deriba Merga takes second.

Merga DNF, FTW.

long sox wrote:However this was the bit that almost made me spill my coffee.

Patrick Makau has an average time for his ten best Half Marathons, of 59:26.

Here are his 10 best performances.

58:52 Patrick Makau KEN 02.03.85 1 Ras al Khaimah 20.02.2009

58:56 Patrick Makau KEN 02.03.85 1 Berlin 01.04.2007

59:02 Patrick Makau KEN 02.03.85 2 Udine 14.10.2007

59:13 Patrick Makau KEN 02.03.85 2 Ras al Khaimah 09.02.2007

59:19 Patrick Makau KEN 02.03.85 2 Rotterdam 09.09.2007

59:29 Patrick Makau KEN 02.03.85 1 Rotterdam 14.09.2008

59:35 Patrick Makau KEN 02.03.85 1 Ras Al Khaimah 08.02.2008

59:51 Patrick Makau KEN 02.03.85 1 Rotterdam 14.03.2010

60:00 Patrick Makau KEN 02.03.85 1 Berlin 06.04.2008

60:08 Patrick Makau KEN 02.03.85 1 Den Haag 15.03.2008

Not bad!

Three minutes in and the race is on. The live tracker is here:

http://spectator.mylaps.com/69825_RAK_Half_Marathon_2011

I remember following their tracker last year.

That's a damn fancy race tracker. Not even sure what I am looking at...

Changing to satellite view and zooming way in lets you watch the lead pack move along in real-time ; just make you that you have the "Follow Leading Competitor" box checked off on the right side.

SilkySlim wrote:

That's a damn fancy race tracker. Not even sure what I am looking at...

it gives me the name of a bunch of unknowns and their pace in km/h.

Susan Dun. Ed Belcher. Tim Verdon. Pardon my ignorance - do I need to know them?

Those are probably some pedestrian runners who have logged in to the system. Maybe the elites will show up after the 5K split.

All I can tell is that a pink dot is killing it at 25.5 kilometers per hour.

10:57 at 4K!!!! sheeeiatttt

SilkySlim wrote:

All I can tell is that a pink dot is killing it at 25.5 kilometers per hour.

Watch that, you can hear the announcer and somewhat see what's going on on a screen in the background

10:56 for 4 km, they are flying

13:39 at 5k!! cranking it

Damn 13:39 5K

Merga on pace to get the 15K world record again

5K splits:

Merga 13:37

13:37 at 5k, Makau 4th place at 13:40 is what I believe I heard...? Nice pace.

they correct it 13:37!!

gosh...sick.

The webcam page has audio status

http://www.rakmarathon.org/webcam.php