Well,
 
another week and another country... Friday will see the 4th edition of the Worlds best road race (voted 2009) in the tiny principality of Ras al Khaimer, around 90kms from Dubai. The elite fields are red hot! 8 sub 60 guys and 13 sub 70 ladies grace the roads as the event chases more World Records, Wanjiru ran a world half best in the first year (2007), unfortunately not ratified because of a doping protocol cock up, Last year saw the worlds fastest time by Pareick Makau (BIRCHFIELD) 58:52 and Deriba Merga broke the world 15k best at 41:29 on route. This year the ladies threaten to overshadow the men!
 

With just a few days to go before the 4th Edition of the '' Worlds Best Road Race'' the anticipation of high quality fast performances is rising and hopefully the weather is going to stay kind to promote more world leading performances in the tiny Emirate of Ras al Khaimah. With record entries again this year the event goes from strength to
strength, this IAAF Silver Label event is truly a sought after property for the world's fastest runners and this also is starting to make it an event that good quality tourist runners as well as local expats and Emirate nationals have to do in order to improve their 'Pb' times.
John Kunkeler, one of the world's top course measurers arrives tomorrow to oversee the marking of the kilometre points on the course and these will be marked by another great innovation as huge inflatable arches will mark every km point making it easier for the athletes to regulate their pace. The men are looking at running a startling 2 minutes and 46 seconds per kilometre as they launch an attack on Kenyan Sammy Wanjiru's world best of 58:33 and the ladies will not be far behind targeting 3 minutes and 8 seconds per kilometre as they seek to eclipse Dutch Star Lornah Kiplagat's time of 66 minutes and 25 seconds.
In addition to a record field in the Half Marathon, the relay challenge will also see a new record number of teams and it will be interesting to see if any of these groups of keen athletes can get close to the times of the individual winners as they also chase generous prizes.

The ladies international Field will be a mouth watering prospect with no less than 13 ladies faster than 70 minutes, the generally acknowledged measure of world class, and hopefully we may even see the magic 66 minute barrier breached if the much anticipated showdown between road queen and defending champion Dire Tune (Ethiopia) and track star Elvan Ableggessie (Turkey..but formerly Ethiopian)
comes up to expectation, renowned front runner Kenyan Caroline Cheptanui (4th 2009 World Champs) is improving all the time and certainly won't be intimidated by them nor will Mare Dibaba (Ethiopia ...formerly Azerbijan) who ran here last year but made a massive breakthrough in the Delhi Half in November. Probably the most aggressive front runner on the men's circuit is Ethiopia's Deriba Merga (3rd last year), indeed in pushing the pace in 2009 he broke the World best for 15km, he can expect to have company in the men's race with no less than 7 others with lifetime bests of better than 60 minutes including former World Champion Tanzanian
Fabiano Joseph and Kenyan John Kiprotich. So all in all it looks likely to be another major success for promoters Premier Marathon's the young company responsible for this the ''Worlds Best Road Race''.
 
Meanwhile Matt Pierson is back in Kenya and after a couple of days dropped Mutai and Simon Tonui on 38km run and then out toughed them by doing a hard fartlek in the rain while they stayed in bed, lets see how he goes in weeks to come, he's promised to write a piece soon!
 
Paul Mareletti came back 2 weeks ago from Kenya where he had been training with them and ran 49:15 while Commonwealth Games outside hope Hellen Decker ran a great pb of 56:00 in the same race, a decent week for the 'McLadders Clan'.
 
Anyway.... its now 9:15pm and we started work at 7am measuring the course early this morning so I'm off for some grub and maybe a cheeky glass of Red!! ....its 24 degrees and the early morning weather around 16/7 so perfect for a race, let's see how it goes.
 
If you haven't put in your entries for Wilmslow (England Champs) you need to send a paper form in to the address on the website this week............. it looks likely to be a great race with a lot of guys aiming for 63/64 as they build for London Marathon.
 
Finally a big congrats to Martin Williams and Dave Webb in Seville last week, fantastic performances in less than ideal conditions and hopefully it will see Martin in the Commonwealth Games and Dave in either European Championships or Commonwealth Games depending on how people fair in London Marathon in April.
 
 
More soon...............
 
McL