2014 Dubai Marathon - 2:13:35

I ran my second marathon ever.  Last month I ran 2:18:15 at the California International Marathon in Sacramento.  Today I improved by almost 5 minutes and finished 16th place.

I'm very happy.    Official results

2014 Dubai Marathon results

Aissa emailed from Dubai:

"My race was good. I was very strong today. I was in shape to run 2:07 but I had stomach problems in the first 3 km and it bothered me up to half marathon.  I had  to stop to go the bathroom 5 times.  I lost 5 minutes in total .

After that I felt ok.  My stomach was empty from water and I pushed harder.  My legs felt good and good, and I started to catch athletes.  I was happy and I caught about 20 athletes.

I'm going back to Ethiopia to continue my training.  All my partners ran faster and they were so happy for me.

Now I want to try to run Boston Marathon because I know all the best Americans will be there and I want to challenge myself with them.

My splits for the race:

Later Aissa emailed about the rumors that he was disqualified:

"For the Dubai marathon I contacted the IAAF about being disqualified.  I didn't hear anything before. They don't know anything about it. They told me that my results are accepted by the IAAF.

Also I called the organizer about my results.  He told me that they have problems with the timing chip and also Harroufi running 59 min for the last half marathon.  That is not possible for him.

I contacted Harroufi to ask him, how he finished before me, and he said he was behind me, and he didn't run faster than me. He told me that his time was not 2:09.  On his watch he ran 2:15:42.

Also he contacted the race but he didn't get any answer from them.  I'm following up with the race organizer."