Right now Larry Ellison must be all smiles, as his BMW Oracle team recently won the famous America's Cup. The New York team took the most famous trophy in sailing back to the States by whitewashing Alinghi in Valencia, Spain.

It is a race that Alinghi, now deposed as holders of the oldest trophy still competed for in international sport, wanted to be held in Ras al Khaimah. The Swiss team spent much of last year in the northern Emirate at their Al Hamra base in the hope they could hold the 33rd staging of the competition in the Arabic Gulf for the first time.

The New York Supreme Court overruled them, as both sides used every trick imaginable to gain an advantage. Alinghi's boat would favour still conditions while BMW Oracle's was suited to slightly choppier weather - though, with so many delays when the series finally got underway due to unsuitable conditions, you had to wonder how the most expensive racing yachts in history could not race if it was a little choppy - so they did all they could to get the venue moved.

Larry Ellison, owner of BMW Oracle, made a lot of headlines around the world when he claimed Ras al Khaimah was unsafe for his team due to the proximity to Iran. Iran and the United States do not see eye to eye, and Ellison took the cheapest shot of an unseemly war of words to suggest the emirate was a dangerous choice.

This weekend was my second trip to the emirate. On both times I found residents of the city friendly, was made to feel very welcome and had a great time. Last year I spent most of my time after the race recovering (I did the full half marathon), but this time was treated to a small tour by Anna Zacharias, who is The National's reporter for the emirate.

We got to go up into the mountains, eat at a Lebanese restaurant most visitors would not have stumbled upon, and visit what Anna said was probably the last traditional dhow to be made in Ras al Khaimah. Most development of the emirate seems to be building hotels and malls, like a mini version of Dubai, and it would be such a shame if the elderly Emirati man overseeing the dhow production could not be persuaded/allowed to make more.

I was lucky to have a guide in our reporter Anna, but I'm sure the people who would have descended for the America's Cup would have had an equally enjoyable time. Mr Ellison, you might even have enjoyed it.

Maybe he was colourblind, but the driver seemed confused by it all. At 6.40am on Friday morning I boarded one of the buses that ferried members of the team relay to the various points on the Half Marathon route where they would start their section of the run.

I was to run the fourth and final leg. My bib was orange, the bus had orange on the front and everyone on the bus was clearly distinguished by orange.

So, it was a surprise when the bus stopped at the first handover point and the driver took a lot of persuading that the orange numbers on the front of every passenger on the bus were not blue. We were lucky that we were due to run the last leg, so had time to get lost. Half an hour after the bus left the starting area I was back there by Manar Mall. It's all part of the fun I guess, though I would have been less relaxed had I been due to run one of the earlier legs.

If there is one thing I have learnt from two and a bit years of living in the Emirates, it is to expect such mishaps. If anything, the remarkable thing about Friday's race is how organised it was.

Compare it, for instance, to the Zayed Half Marathon in Abu Dhabi earlier this year. There was a memorable image we put on the front page of the sport section of The National that depicted runners approaching a zebra crossing where pedestrians were crossing. Drivers, waiting to turn at the junction, had no idea there was a run on and, from the picture, it looked like a horrible collision between a competitor and baby in a pushchair was about to happen.

Organisers of the RAK run got it right. Last year my only complaint was about the lack of sports drinks on the course, this year it was rectified (though, according to race director Nathan Clayton, last year the supplier backed out at the last minute).

Medals were waiting right at the finish line, though I had to be prompted to collect the three additional ones for my teammates after initially only taking one. There was no danger of anyone having to dodge in and out of traffic during the run. A juice drink found its way to me shortly after the finish, and I'm sure our marketing girls Fiona and Yvonne were around with copies of our paper. Admittedly, that last one is not vital to the success of a run but every little helps. There was a great atmosphere, everyone I spoke to enjoyed the run and although I did not get to hear much of the music at the finish line the performance of Moonshine was relayed to me several times by different people.

I suppose you will want to know how Team National got on. Our time was 2hrs, 9min, 10 secs. The fastest leg was run by the photo editor Kara who, despite never actually running in a proper race before, nailed the opening 5k in 27min, 57 secs. We all had similar pace, and I rounded off the race with 6k over 36min and 56 secs. From a personal level my time was a couple of minutes slower than what I would have hoped, but in training I never had to deal with the heat of the Emirates sun at 9am.

My favourite part of the race was seeing the satisfaction of those who are not regular runners. Kara was beaming all day at being the fastest member of Team National, and I was introduced to a number of Ras al Khaimah residents who were roped in by work or friends and had a fantastic sense of achievement.

I opened this blog with an important scientific experiment . With just days before the Ras al Khaimah Half Marathon it is time to return to science and answer the questions that matter to you.

I run with an ipod on, listening to music to help drown out surroundings. I don't fully understand why,  but with the music I can generally run further and faster than without it.
I am not the only one. The head coach of the British students athletics team, Dr Costas Karageorghis, describes music as sport's "legal drug", and says it can increase performance by 20 per cent and reduce perception of effort by 10 per cent. It makes you more efficient, basically, and can even minimise pre-race nerves.

So, the big question is what kind of music makes you run faster? I've tried everything, largely because my ipod has an amazing ability to acquire unusual songs. 

My first approach was to put my favourite music on, cue me listening to New Order, Oasis, The Verve and Ocean Colour Scene. It was great when I could sing along to Wonderwall or World In Motion (the bit where John Barnes rapped always made me run faster).

But I found my love of British Indie music and Britpop did not always transpire into inspiring sounds. Sure, listening to Jarvis Cocker putting the world to rights in Mis-Shapes or Common People was great but too often the songs would be more suitable to a relaxed evening with shisha than the intense level of pain my running would put me through.

I tried downloading so-called motivational songs, and quickly learnt that what advertising companies pitched as uplifting were not as effective on me as they had been pitched.

I went through a stage of listening to podcasts. I found ones that lasted around an hour that fitted with my runs, but recently have turned back to music.

What works best for me? Not letting my full ipod selection loose. I tried with the full collection on shuffle but it only served to highlight what ridiculous songs can sneak into your music collection. Somehow I have The Wurzels, famous in the UK solely for singing about combine harvesters, covering Shaggy's It Wasn't Me.

These days I have a selection of 100 or so of my favourite songs I put on shuffle. I've found I've been able to select the best songs and avoid distraction. Too much choice can be a bad thing.

On Sunday I completed my shortest run yet in training for Friday's Ras al Khaimah Half Marathon.  It took me just 280 seconds.

You may wonder what benefit I could possibly gain from less than five minutes of running. Indeed, in that time I completed one kilometre. And I was pretty shattered at the end.

That was because I sprinted most of the distance, although had I the energy reserves to maintain my top pace for the full distance I reckon I could have done it quicker.

Despite the fact I will run 6K on Friday as part of Team National, and would normally run more, short runs like these are vital to increase speed. If your body becomes accustomed to running long distances at a slower pace it does not develop the capacity to run quicker, and your pace will continually dwindle.

There are other benefits, your muscles are less fatigued despite your cardiovascular workout so it is good to rotate between long and short runs. I find it makes a massive difference when I then go back up to a longer training distance.

And sometimes, when I just can't bear a complete rest day from running, a cheeky 1km satisfies my cravings.

I draw on many influences for my running. As mentioned in a previous blog, sportspeople who have overcome asthma are a big inspiration. There are also friends and family (when my mother was 10 she was hit in the head by a javelin, I daren't ever complain to her because nothing I've ever been a bit down about could compare to that).

There are also fictional characters. Forrest Gump is one famous example: he ran for three years, two months, 14 days and 16 hours. Gump ran from coast to coast in the United States, but I am trying to go one better by running around the entire planet. That is 40,076km. Having started the challenge at the beginning of this year, I have just 39,936km to go.

So where have I been on my travels? Have I crossed over mountains, taken in the sights of rainforests or even braved Sheikh Zayed Road? I have, sadly, only seen my neighbourhood in Abu Dhabi.

I use a sensor that slots into my left trainer that records and tells me, via my ipod, how far I have run and how fast. It really has changed my running, previously I either had to use a treadmill or run for how long felt right. I've trained for half marathons by doing nothing more than running for an hour every other night around my block and increasing the time as the run approached.

The sensor is made by Nike (though I'm sure other brands are available) and now I can tailor my running to include short then long distances. Via Nike's website you can sign up for challenges, such as the mammoth task I have taken on that ensures I have motivation to keep running for years to come. In fact, the hardest thing about my training for the 6K I have to run in Ras al Khaimah is stopping myself going further in training as I want to make progress on my challenge. Right now the challenge feels a bit like the mortgage on a flat I own in the United Kingdom: I can see it clearly coming down, sometimes quickly, but it will be there for a good few years yet.

It appears that keeping records motivates people other than myself. Kara, a fellow member of Team National, has kept a log of how far she has run since buying a new pair of running trainers. She feels justifiably proud of the distance she has put in, she has nailed 40km in two weeks. She says the log has been a big encouragement for her, not to mention giving her a heads-up for when she needs to buy new trainers...

Setting long-term goals, like my round the world challenge or simply keeping track of how far you've done in a new pair of trainers, can make a huge difference to training. It pushes me to do the extra few hundred yards, I am sure it could do the same for anyone.

The Team National competing in the relay come next weekend will look substantially different from the group I originally signed up to run with.

When I stepped into the breach to join the team I was the fourth member, now none of the three who had originally suggested they would run will even be in the country next Friday.

While those three deserve nothing but eternal shame and ire for agreeing to run without checking they would be in the country first, the most recent pullout has nothing by sympathy.

Jeff, who works on projects such as Super.ae, suffered an injury while trying to run faster than his girlfriend in the Dubai 10K held on marathon day. He described it as "some kind of muscle pull or bruise" in a very confused manner when pulling out.

Luckily we were able to find a replacement, meaning we are four-strong - Ann-Marie, who is a news editor, Kara a photo editor, Nickie, whose role seems to change every time I see her but mostly involves the website, and myself -- for the big day. I have to up my distance to 6K rather than 5K as the most regular runner, but we all seem in good shape.

Jeff did the sensible thing. I would have been tempted to stubbornly run on anyway, but that runs the risk of aggravating the injury. In the past I have suffered from shin splints, a condition that can only be cured through rest. It was agonising not being able to run or play football, but taking a break ensured a full recovery.

If you are due to run in Ras al Khaimah and have any doubts or lingering problems, get them checked out by a professional. If you are not fit you will not enjoy the race and no one wins: come back next year and nail the race.

Running is a wonderful sport because it is so accessible, I spurn expensive gym memberships and instead run in the great outdoors.

This was wonderful before I moved out here, as I would run through the Yorkshire countryside. Now I have adapted to running in the area of Abu Dhabi that I live - I run round and round an old palace on my block. The pavements are well lighted so I can avoid the notorious potholes in the capital (I'm lucky to have only suffered one pothole-related injury, a sprained ankle).

Things changed on Sunday night, with the first sign being some additional palm trees that had appeared as I jogged down the centre of the block towards the palace: someone had been sprucing up the area.

Then I set off on a first lap, and around three-quarters of the way round I couldn't stop sneezing. 

Pretty purple flowers now hugged the side of the road next to a roundabout. I liked my route because I generally avoided traffic and minimised risk of injury: now I find myself suddenly suffering at the same point on every lap.

Changing my route is an option, but that involves mingling more with traffic coming off the main roads. I'm going to stick with the same route for the time being, and given the ridiculous amount of pollution I have no doubt inhaled from running in the centre of the capital I am not about to let some flowers get the better of me.

The defining moment of my sporting career came when I was eight or nine. I may not remember the exact year, but it was a moment that changed my life.

Growing up in rural northern England I naturally spent a lot of time outside, mostly kicking a football around with my best friend who lived next door and who was six months older. I was not challenging for many race wins at school sports days, but we would play for hours and I cherished a little trophy the Lincolnshire Football Association gave me after a five-day training course from which I returned home and took great delight in dribbling the ball around my friend until it got too dark for us to see each other. I had been considered the most improved player in my age group.

A normal childhood then. That was until my primary school decided I should not be part of the football team any more because of my asthma. Asthma is a condition that affects my lungs, inflaming my airways if I attempt to exercise without first taking medication.

All I need to do, however, is take an inhaler before any physical activity and I have the same lung capacity as anyone else. I have never, touch wood, suffered an asthma attack or had any difficulties other than needing to take a break if I do too much when I've forgotten my inhaler.

Monday nights after school used to be football training night. For me it then became art club night, where I learnt how to use origami to make stars and buildings. I did master several different techniques for paper airplanes, but my dreams of emulating Gary Lineker or Paul Gascoigne (my footballing heroes growing up, thanks to the 1990 World Cup finals) were over.

There was a legacy for me as I ended up playing football much less, and that I did play was without the benefit of coaching. I was never going to be a top player, but the decision to stop me playing still riles me to this day.

Eventually it clicked to me that they were so wrong, that I could be as athletic as anyone else. I found myself playing in and captaining a men's football team in my teens and then also captaining a work's five-a-side team. I took up running, as a sport I was actually better suited to, in my early 20s.

I have since completed four half marathons, including the one in Ras al Khaimah last year. My motivation is to prove my old teachers wrong. It is close to 20 years ago, but I remember Mrs Walker telling me it in the cloakroom like it was yesterday.

There are many great sporting role models who have asthma. Sir Ian Botham is a favourite of mine, he captained England at cricket - a sport in which he is recognised as one of the greats - and also played for my hometown football team Scunthorpe United inbetween the English cricket season.

It is also prevalent in athletics. I chose distance running, and was surprised to learn greats like Paula Radcliffe and Haile Gebrselassie have it. Radcliffe can run a marathon in 2hrs 15min 25secs, so it clearly doesn't slow her down.

In a study at the 1996 Olympic Games it was shown that 15 per cent of competitors had diagnosed asthma. In the UK, where I am from, it affects six per cent of people and in the US seven per cent, so in elite athletics it is more common than in the general population.

Maybe, just maybe, people like Radcliffe and Gebrselassie push harder because they suffer from exercise-enduced asthma like me. There is no better motivator than beating it, and why I will be in Ras al Khaimah again in two weeks time.

It seems my pre-race routine is not that different from Haile Gebrselassie's. Prior to a race that involves an overnight stay I have often sat in a hotel room eating pasta and watching TV before getting as much sleep as possible ahead of an early start.

That is where our routines differ. Before Friday's Dubai Marathon Gebrselassie fell asleep in front of the TV in his room, meaning he spent the night in a different position to what he is used to. As a result he needed physio before the race to ensure he could compete and wrecked his hopes of setting a world record on a course organisers had planned to encourage a new mark.

When I "sleep funny" the best I can manage is my hair sticks up at the back or one side.
It got me thinking to the RAK Half Marathon last year, when I stayed at the City Hotel which was handily placed right next to the start and finish line.

I thought I had landed on my feet: I could roll out of bed half an hour before the start, down some jaffa cakes while getting ready and wander out to mock those who had spent the past hour or so driving up from Dubai.

My thoughts changed around 10pm, when the music started. It was Thursday night and the good people of Ras al Khaimah wanted to party. The hotel was fully booked so it was impossible to be moved to a room further away from the nightclub. As is so often the case with hotels in this country, the priority seemed getting money out of people visiting its bars than allowing those who had paid for a bed to sleep undisturbed. The guys manning the reception promised to ask for the music to be turned down, although I did not hold out any expectation. I had to grin and bear it, and fell asleep listening to my ipod.

I flagged dramatically during the race, partly because I'd entered on something of a whim two weeks earlier when it was suggested I run and write a comment piece for our paper. But I have no doubt the three or four hours less sleep I got made a huge impact.

I have learnt my lessons. When checking into a hotel this year I will ensure we're not near any nightclub. If you're staying over this year, I suggest taking the same precaution.

I love running. I'm not very fast or particularly good at it, but I love running. I hate rest days.
I also have a burning ambition to complete a marathon, something I have yet to achieve despite four half marathons to my name.

This blog was initially to follow my training to run the Ras al Khaimah Half Marathon next month, but now I find myself part of a team representing The National in the relay challenge and will run 5km rather than 21km. Three colleagues will also run 5km (and we will follow their progress on this blog).

Once the face of it I should hate that fact: after all, only three paragraphs ago I stated my love for running then went on to declare a goal of running a full marathon. Now I'm running a quarter of the distance.

But, I'm beginning to change my mind. Being naturally tall and skinny, with long legs, I am suited to distance running but a half marathon takes up far too much training time than I can ever spare. Journalism is not a job that lends itself to regular or social hours, which is why my training here is often in the final minutes of the day after work.

Reducing the distance I run requires training schedules of weeks rather than months. I can run 5km in little over half an hour now, meaning for the next month I will focus on building up speed and strength rather than merely just the ability to keep going for more than two hours.

In training I've nailed half marathons. I can do it in less than two hours on a treadmill (I know this is not that fast for an enthusiastic amateur, but I never said I was any good), but have never managed to get a time below that figure in an actual race.

I did the Abu Dhabi Striders 10K at the end of last year, and had I not indulged in the Baskin Robbins and fizzy pop at the UAE v Manchester City friendly the night before I would have posted a time I would have been proud of. That's the last time my pre-race meal is ice cream rather than pasta.

This time, with just 5km to nail I will tailor my training for speed. Sometimes this means running just 1K, but sprinting the full distance (I did this the other night in less than five minutes). I don't fully understand why this makes you faster, but when upping the distance the next night my pace was naturally quicker.

What does all this mean for my running? Well, one day I aim to complete a marathon. For now, though, the focus is on shorter distances and recording some times I can be proud of.