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.
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