2007 a dry year

this year seems to be a dry year in running events compared to last winter. the reason is simple; companies have no money put into their budgets to fund a run. from january to april this was different, as it was at the beginning of the year. be assured that i am working on it and make sure 2008 is better. consider this to be kind of a normal situation when building a project like run in jordan. stay tuned and check this site – you never know!

putting the pieces together

we have already june and no race is defined. you may feel there is nothing going. sorry for letting you wait for such a long time. what i am working on is to bring various ideas together besides also looking for sponsors. then i like to give t-shirts and medals. some meetings over the past days where promising others not. well, that’s part of the business.

meetings, meetings, meetings

had several meetings over the past weeks for the summer races. one has being rather disappointing. kb from gam has either not done his homework or he thinks to have a share from rij. at least this impression he gave me. other meetings where more successful though no result is out yet. coming week a company will hold the internal meeting to decide on their participation for the summer races. the talks with them looked promising but, honestly, i have no clue what they will decide on. also i wrote an important paper. what does the paper say? pssst – this should be a surprice for later

i let you take part

you, yes I mean you, the reader! you are the one who helped bring success to Run in Jordan. now i am preparing running events for this years summer holidays. there is lot to prepare to let others have fun. i am persuaded, also you will particiapate again.

but, there is another important point i like you to know. from now on i also will let you take part in my preparations of the various activities. this will give you a fairly good idea how much work is involved in preparing even thos simple foot races. i believe, that letting you take part in this virtual preparation is part of creating a more homogenious running community. compare it with a hugh family: we share the information and each of use is contributing a little bit to the success. what you think of that? leave you comment!

looking back the last eight months

i posted a few articles for you to read. the first is the race review of the mecca mall foot race that was the last of the winter foot race series. then i made a looking back what has being achieved over the past eight months. the post is as a bit long but worth reading the winter is over. finally, the actual success is shortly put together in 100% above expectations. happy reading

100% above expectations

after eight months and eight foot races we can look back happily. our intention was to reach 100 finishers for the last race. we had 140 finishers and over 180 participants. those figures are 100% above what has being reached one month before. we can conclude, we are 100% above expectations. i must admit, that i never expected Run in Jordan would do so well in such a short time and you all who came and participated are part of this success. thank you all and we have plenty of opportunities the coming months to meet, run and enjoy again for the love of running.

the winter is over – so are eight months and eight foot races

end of august 2006 i had a crazy idea: i wanted to organize various foot races throughout amman during the winter. to be exact, my intention was to organize every month – from september to april – one foot race. every race should be in a different location.

when i spoke to my friends about this plan their eyes had a skeptical view and their face a mild and rather pitiful smile. but, never the less they promised to show up and participate. I guess they all showed their friendliness and didn’t want to disappoint me. anyhow, on september 1st, the first foot race was on display. the distances where 2km for children 15 years and younger and 5km for 16 years and older. that first foot race 18 people showed up. most of it where children and no, not all runners who promised to come participated.

at the beginning the foot races where really simple. as my budget is small i provided not even t-shirts. the basic and most important i wanted to offer was: [1] a properly measured distance and [2] the running time. eager to fulfill my promise and – i myself i run for the love of running – wanted to improve what i just started. over the following two months my mind developed permanent ideas for improvements – kind of an uninterrupted brainstorming. my first aim was in getting more and more people joining. then, only with a large turnout others will really follow. even during ramadan we held the foot race at the end of the day just shortly before iftar and with a rather short distance.
in december first time i organized the foot race on the streets of amman itself. so i went to seek permission that, to my astonishment, i received. december 8th we met at jabal weibdeh with some changes. we had a host who paid for t-shirts and offered a light buffet at the end of the race. the police came and closed the road and – we where 35 people – the highest number of participants until then. this gave a boost of motivation to continue on this track. 2007 started with four months left until april my brainstorming was still active and didn’t want to give up reaching the set goal.

in january 2007 i got the ever first permission to hold a foot race in abdoun. then, vy the health club just opened and they where our host. a marvelous buffet was offered, a fast race as it was flat, cool t-shirts where given out and, yes you guess it right, a new record in participants. we had 70 people coming. playFM made a live interview and JO magazine wrote a one page story with nice pictures on it. at the beginning of february this blog was opened with the hope in reaching out more people. the foot race in february, despite having the arab bank as a host, had only 25 runners showing up due to bad weather (read the race review). but it’s being not less fun. at the end we all stood around the big buffet and enjoyed telling and listening to stories and getting to know each other better. nevertheless, the arab bank was very happy with the work of and by Run in Jordan. march has being a foot race on historical ground – we run in the heart of old jabal amman hosted by JARA the jabal amman residential association. and after all those successes we expected a great number again. romero, the italian restaurant close to the third circle, made the richest and to most varied light buffet. that month we had 77 finishers and 82 showed up in total. the jordan times wrote a great article on this foot race.
one moth to go, april is coming and all where wondering what is going to be offered. i knew it long before but kept it for me until 10 days before. days after the dead sea marathon the news went out – the host is mecca mall and the race track will be outside around the mall. now eager to get a round figure of finishers i posted a call let’s make it 100 finisher. the host on his side made a great pr effort. april 27. was the most important day of the past eight months. i knew and all knew april is pay day as all will measure the success of Run in Jordan by the numbers of people showing up. until 9:40 there where hardly people at the mall. but then out of sudden runners where here. i still don’t know the exact number of runners at the start, it must being more than 180 and we had 140 finishers despite a difficult track and hot weather.

looking back the eight months, we see great success. usually people talk to me and congratulate for what i have achieved. thank you! but remember, without you the runners itself young and old, girls and boy, women and man, Run in Jordan would not be successful. in other words: all of you who came and participated you are part of this success – thank you and congratulation to you! we all have done well and we are 100% above expectations. i hope you all liked the eight foot races during the past eight months. now, i make a promise here and now – as long as i can i will offer such foot races in various places.

of course, looking back also means looking forward. i see plenty of room for improvements and of new events coming. you can be assured and only in short for now, Run in Jordan will be organizing new events and you will be challenged again to run for yourself, with your friends and families as i am persuaded you run for the love of running. see you around.

8th and last foot race is over

the last foot race of the winter is over. after calling out loud that we like to have 100 finishers, it turned out to be even better. people where calling me until 12:00pm on friday to ask what time the Run in Jordan foot race was on. sorry, at that it’s over! actually the phone stated already to ring on wednesday. i can predict according to the number of calls i get haw to race day will be. i even msg to our host Mecca Mall to ask if there would be sufficient t-shirts. personally i expected over 200 people coming.

the day is beautiful and promised to be hot. at 9:00am the place in front of gate 4 was still empty. i know this week-end was difficult for Run in Jordan because of two reasons: first it was a prolonged week-end as on sunday was 1. of may (workers day) so many left amman for a longer week-end. and, that same friday thousands went to petra to vote for this monument of world heritage. as at 9:30 only very few people cam i got a bit nervous. but, by this winter experience showed, that when you say start at 10:00am the people show up at 10:00.

9:40am – suddenly, runners coming from all sides are starting to fill the place in front of gate 4. and in less than 20 minutes there must be arund 200 people who like to participate at this last foot race. this is going to be a successful event. we are late – as usual – giving out t-shirts and haitam giving some stretching instructions. unfortunately not all got their t-shirt as some where taking two. finally at 10:15am we started the kids. definitely there where more than in any other foot race. how many i will see at the end when the last crosses the finish line. this time we also changed the procedure and let the kid’s run alone until they finished. so the participants of the longer distance had to wait a half an hour before going to their start. usually ayub is ahead of all other, but not this time. he faced two older boys who where running together all the way from start to finish. the youngest boy – armen – was 3 years old only and completed two laps (2km) – bravo armen.
10:45am finally we could also start the longer distance. they where all nervouse as they had to wait so long. we had all sorts of people coming – top runners like mohamed al-sweiti, mohamed masri, fahed abdel asiz, haitham and others. but also not so well trained came who needed around 40 minutes to complete the not so easy 6km.

all in all we can say that the mecca mall foot race was the race with the highest participants. 63 kids crossed the finish line and about 77 adults. making it 140 finishers. this is much more than we all expected. but also the track was not realy easy. and looking at the faces of all who came you could see a brightness and happiness that only can be noticed when you participate at the foot races for the love of running.

look back in a few days

hi all, give me a few days to write the race review. also, i am going to look back what Run in Jordan has achieved over the last eight months.

we are set

folks, we are set for tomorrows foot race around macca mall. just to be clear, we run outside the mall and not inside and the finish line and meeting point is at gate 4. come early, about 9:30 am as the start for the small distance is sharp at 10:00 am. the start of the longer distance will be when the kid’s are done (around 10:30 or 10:40am).

see you at the foot race …