Folks! I am back! I haven’t been updating my homepage for a long long time. Why? I have been lazy and I have been thinking you might not even be interested to know what I am up to nowadays. Well, I will try to change this and update my homepage on a more regular basis.
After a great summer home in Europe, in Finland, Germany and Switzerland, (I took part in a UCI coaching course in Aigle and became a certified UCI Cycling Coach). I returned to Doha mid September. My work at Aspire Girls Center started right away with some cycling session planning to do. Good to have something to do, especially when it is something you like and enjoy.
So the days have been filled with work and some exercise since that. I still love sports and I how found running to be my new sport. In September it was still a bit hard to go out for a run because of the heat and high humidity. Now it is completely different. It is not hot anymore, it is warm and this makes exercising outside much easier. Enjoyable in other words.
With the winter coming the sports event season starts here as well. I already did a 10-mile run 2 weeks ago. It was quite an experience. The race was at the US Army base and I had to be at the gate 3.30 in the morning. the start was 5 o clock. The car was checked before I could enter the base and a bus picked all the participators up and brought us to the start. The day was indeed interesting, but getting up 2 o’clock was a bit too early. It is in the middle of the night! On the other hand it was an experience that I will not forget and the event was well organized. After the run we were offered breakfast wich made the morning complete.
Today I did a triathlon in Dukhan. Dukhan you find when you drive across the country and before you hit the sea. Probably better known as the Qatar Petroleum area. Dukhan has s beautiful beach with crystal clear water. If you would cross the sea you would hit Saudi Arabia. If you still not know where Dukhan is. Google it 🙂
The swimming leg was in the open sea wich made me a bit worried. I am not really comfortable when 100 starters rush into the water and starts to swim. I have always been ran over and I thought the same would happen today. But no! I got some good advice from my husband how to tackle the first part of the swim and actually I came out of the water in 4th place! Then off for cycling. I have my road bike here, so no problem to take part in triathlons. Not really the best aerodynamic position, but what the heck. It is just “racing for fun” nowadays 🙂 After the cycling leg I was about a minute behind the leading woman. I knew that my running is not too bad and that there is a tiny little chance to pass her. I did and I crossed the finish line as the first, even before any man. This was quite a great moment for all female spectators. Not very often a woman is faster than a man. Also the second position of the day was taken by a woman. So great day for us ladies!
Pia Sundstedt 
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