Madinat Zayed Race

Today was the big day. After getting a good night's rest in a very comfortable bed, I woke to start my 9:00am "fun ride." From what my friends who did this last year said, this was not a race. Well, this year it was a race. I actually appreciated not knowing that fact until about 20 minutes before the race or otherwise I probably would have over prepared.

As it turned out, the local Sheikh took control of the ride from HCT and invited local high schools to participate. Because the Sheikh is involved, the police were very good about clearing the road on which the race was. I heard that last year the police were given medals for their help. Because of that, the police officers were fighting over who got to help with the race this year.

The idea is to gradually expand this race into a biking festival. In fact, Madinat Zayed has five festivals including the internationally known Camel Festival culminating in the Camel Beauty Contest. This is now the sixth festival.

I think it's great that Madinat Zayed is working to promote physical fitness by getting high school kids involved in something like this. I also think it's great that HCT promoted something like this so I could have the day off to go cycling.