Looks Like Perfect Doha Running Conditions
I would say the surroundings are hotter than the Dutch, because the temps honestly never come close to 130 degrees in the Netherlands. They may be faster or quirkier than Qatar, but definitely not hotter.
Heat? Yes Please!
Aspire in the Sun
Moving to the Middle East in late July is never considered the ideal time to relocate your family. At this point in the year, the relocation was bound to be hotter than almost every single spot in the world, except for maybe Kuwait.
Exiting the Doha airport, toasty concrete greeted us outside. Yet, the temp wasn’t as brutal and shocking as expected. That would come later. It was really just hot at 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 Celsius), not stifling. It was a dry heat, similar to a West Texas summer with an extra ten degrees thrown in for good luck.
That was before the Qatari climate then introduced heat with humidity two weeks later. A new layer of hot swarmed our every movement. Walking out of a frigid classroom hit me like an invisible heat shield. The hot, humid afternoon sun blinded me blind with fogged up sunglasses.
A Run in the Qatari Heat
Sun Setting on Doha
One particular August morning, I left our climate controlled apartment to run three miles with friends across the searing black top streets at 6:30 a.m. (the sun had been up for over an hour). After two miles slogging through wet air, my impossibly saturated wicking running t-shirt and rising body temperature suggested I should call an end to this run, and so I did.
Back inside, I peeled off my sopping wet clothes and checked the weather. This run finished at a morning temperature of only 92 degrees Fahrenheit, but with real feel humidity temp of 112 degrees . . . at 6:45 in the morning!
A Red Flag Waving
124 Degree Duty
At Qatar Academy, the office notifies the school faculty every morning of the “real feel” temperature. They then decide whether or not it is a red flag day. A red flag day is a day that is too hot for kids to safely play outside. Up to this point in the academic calendar, every school day has been a red flag day. This includes one day after school where after school duty was out by the soccer field. Needless to say, my shirt and tie became a little sweaty in 124 degrees (51 Celsius). To date, the highest heat index at school has reached 132 Fahrenheit (56 Celsius).
The 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships in the Desert
IAAF Doha World Athletics Championship
Finally, as a practice run for a high profile global sporting event leading to the 2022 World Cup, Doha currently hosts the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships. The marathon is easily the longest distance. Life is about spin. It’s not that they are running 26.2 miles in a desert, IAAF is selling the new midnight marathon as “innovative”, because who wants to promote a long distance event in a desert where it would be hotter than Dutch loving. Despite starting at midnight, it is going to be smoking hot. As I write this, two hours before the start of the race, the forecast predicts the real feel temperature to be 103 Fahrenheit (40 Celsius).
Update Of the 67 runners in the women’s midnight marathon, 27 dropped out including all of the Ethiopians.
Air Conditioned Khalifa Stadium
Everyone says the temps will fall and be nice. “By November, there won’t be Qatari heat. It will be great, only a high of 90.” If that is considered nice, what will I consider “nice” in a year’s time?
