The jet lag is killing me. But I grabbed a Careem over to Reda’s work place. She said it was the Gold Tower and she wasn’t kidding — we pulled into the Cluster I section of the Jumeirah Lakes Towers and there was no mistaking which building I needed:
Reda would later tell me she thinks the Gold Tower is actually second best to the Bronze Tower but way ahead of the Silver Tower. Precious metals and Olympic medals be darned, I suppose.
It was nice to grab lunch and chat with her — she’s an amazing woman. When she told me she was embarrassed she didn’t speak Arabic and thus decided one day to just enroll in a night class and now spoke it passably, and that this only added to her canon of language that include native Lithuanian, Russian, French (though she claims to have forgotten most of that), Spanish, English which she picked up without formal training as just the thing to know how to speak, and now Arabic. I think there was something else in there too. People who speak a second language always impress me as I am embarrassed to say I can barely pull off English. But when people can speak multiple languages I’m just blown away.
Anyway, Reda was trying to finalize some deal memo paperwork due to new regulations before jetting off to run Muscat so she’s probably going to work a bit more. She setup an observational tower tour with her good friend’s cousins who were also visiting Dubai for the first time and had already scoped out a meeting spot for us in the Mall of Dubai to get up to the top of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest man made structure (it surpassed all buildings and even the tallest thing human kind built, a tv tower in South Dakota of all things). With its spire it tops out at 200 storeys (with secret plans to extend it somehow… but no one is saying how far, no doubt as trade secrets to preserve its height dominance in the unlikely event there’s some upstart looking to knock it off the record books). The Guinness Approved World’s Highest Observation Deck is at Floor 148 of the tower and Reda had paid extra so we could get the “Sky Experience.”
So after a Thai dim sum lunch near her work, Reda walked me to a taxi stand to make sure the driver could get me to the Meydan Hotel for my race bib pickup and then wait for me to take me to the Dubai Mall to meet her friend’s cousins. She’s an incredibly considerate and gracious host and I keep telling her thank you for taking the time out of her busy schedule for a fellow runner she met once several years ago at the Petra Marathon. There are good people in the world to be sure. I need to strive to be better to everyone as a result.
The packet pickup was… odd. It had two vendors but I wouldn’t call it an expo. There was a designated bank of elevators in the lobby to the venue, a scotch taped marker indicating it was on the 4th floor. There were a few banners and standees. And all the volunteers were very helpful and courtesy.
And yet given that my cabbie was waiting patiently for me, I tried to rush through. I didn’t miss anything but it did feel… odd. Most of the international races I’ve done don’t feature a lot of merch and swag and vendors (though there are notable exceptions). Yet this one felt particularly… “here ya go! See ya tomorrow!” I kinda wish they had just offered race day pickup for out of towners as it seemed small enough to do that… but I don’t quite know what the logistics are going to be like in the morning. I was looking to prebook a cab or Careem to take me to the start but I think given road closures that might be a fool’s quest. It sounds like they’re recommending people park at the Mall of the Emirates and walk the 3-4 KM from there. If that’s the case, the Mall isn’t too far from my hotel so I may be better off just hoofing it in the wee early hours.
As for the Burj Khalifa, it offers quite the sights. It’s an impressive building that defines the Dubai skyline. And when I read they were rocking and rolling through floors every three days of construction, well, that’s just astonishing. From breaking ground to final completion was an incredible 6 years — 2004 to 2010. The tour guide as part of the Sky package was very brief but the few details I scribbled down as she spoke:
- The Burj Khalifa houses one of two Armani Hotels, the other being in Georgio Armani’s hometown of Milan, Italy.
- Seven hundred private apartments sold out in seven hours when they went on sale.
- It takes 77 seconds to go from the ground floor to the 125th floor. Then it takes another 55 seconds to go from there to the observation deck on 148… but that may be for dramatic effect. As one rises in the elevator,digital drawings of world landmark buildings float by as you ascend past their heights. It’s an effective bit of theater, one of the best I’ve seen in one of those “Can you believe how high we are?” moments.
Once at the deck, a New Yorker commented that though she knew she was higher than the Empire State Building, it didn’t quite feel like it because the Burj Khalifa so dwarfs the surrounding buildings and there’s so much more open space than in the Big Apple. I recall the rickety fencing of the Empire State Building and my vertiginous fear of heights that always kicked in any time I was out there. I was incredibly uncomfortable and felt very unsafe on the observation deck in NYC. Here in Dubai I had no issue walking right up to the tempered glass and feeling the wind through the open air slits in the viewing windows.
It’s really, really high up.
I thanked Ivirs and Virginie for meeting me and told them I looked forward to our desert adventure on Saturday but that the jetlag was quickly catching up to me and I was going to head out. We were supposed to have 40 minutes on Deck 148 before heading down to the lower observation area on Floors 125 and 124 but I bailed after about half an hour.
I did stop and snap some photos on the lower deck.
I even snapped a photo of the souvenir penny machine they had. What does a country do when it doesn’t have pennies? Charge a fee for a copper wafer to be made into the stretched penny souvenir of course.
I was really creeped out by the animated cartoon character of Burj Khalifa on the SECOND penny press machine I found — it felt like a Transformer and Godzilla merged into one giant Kaiju bent on destruction. But I’m sure it was meant to be cute and cuddly. The one above was I guess the adult version?
For dinner I wasn’t sure what the prospects might be closer to my hotel, and so I stumbled upon a pizza meal deal in a bid to submit a shot to Team Pizza Racers… and because it seemed reasonably priced in the Dubai Mall Food Court. To exit the Burj Khalifa, one had to exit not only through a gift shop, but an entire mall to boot!
Wandering around trying to puzzle out seemingly contradictory “taxi stand” signs that pointed one way and the other at the same time without ever leading to a en exit, I did find myself on the waterfront for a bit of a light show on the world’s tallest man made structure. It was crazy crowded, overwhelmingly so, but I did snap a few pics for funsies.
Taxing back to my hotel, I stopped at a corner convenience store for a little treat. An ice cream night cap before I doze a few hours and get ready for tomorrow’s marathon. I’m oddly nonchalant about the race proper — maybe because I’m not looking to do anything but run the distance and try and shake off some of the calories and injuries I’ve foolishly taken on. Some of the shots above only further highlight the multitude of chins I seem to be sporting and my losing battle of the bulge, despite running crazy amounts of races. Perhaps I have too much of a sweet tooth. The Sky Experience included complimentary snacks — these fig pastries were delectable. Why must sweets be so sweet, I posted to Facebook. If only I could resist.
Tomorrow: The Dubai Marathon.