Why is this Lebanese expat running on every single street in Dubai?
LONG-TIME UAE RESIDENT SAYS SHE IS ON A UNIQUE CELEBRATORY JOURNEY
Assistant Editor
ADubai-based Lebanese expat, who was on a mission to run every single street in the emirate, may have been stopped in her tracks by the stay-home drive amid the Covid-19 outbreak. But she is back on the streets now, revelling in all that the city stands for.
The 49-year-old Yasmine Salaam told Gulf News that she undertook her mission after she was inspired by Every Single Street, a project that Rickey Gates, an American ultra runner, launched in San Francisco in the US in 2018.
At the time, Gates famously said, “To walk across a place is to observe and participate in a vast, intricate and complex web of infrastructure. It is to experience the history of that place in a very real and personal way.”
Yasmine, a woman who wears many hats, cannot agree more, especially at a time when coronavirus has overwhelmed the world.
A Pink Marathon runner, golfer, lawyer with a doctorate from Harvard and a single mum of three, she said: “The run, for me, is very significant. It’s a celebration of not only my fitness, but also the energy and diversity of Dubai, a city that I have lived in for 43 years. I want to be role model in this context.” But to have watched her city pause these past few weeks hurt.
Relieved with reopening
“Now that the city has reopened, it’s like reclaiming the spirit of Dubai as we know it,” she said.
“I see more energy and a healthier lifestyle in people’s attempts to keep fit these days. Everywhere I run, in all the communities — from the gated Springs and Arabian Ranches to the more local Al Rashidiya and Al Warqa’a, or even the cosmopolitan Al Barsha and Al Mankhool, everyone, except the kids and the elderly of course, is trying to get a breath of fresh air.”
She said her own “every single street” project in Dubai required a level of comfort and intimate knowledge of the place, which only someone with a long association with the city could undertake.
“Most expat athletes of today are not comfortable running through areas like Satwa or Al Quoz because they say they feel intimidated. But that’s not the case with me. I have known Dubai over the decades and seen it grow; I can feel the changes in the neighbourhoods I’ve known even as new communities keep coming up,” she said.
Yasmine said her run ensures that she is on a journey of constant learning. “Time was when people would identify Satwa with Iranians or later the Filipinos. But that is no longer true. There’s a mix of nationalities and a mingling of people from different backgrounds everywhere. The contrast is striking.”
I go by the Citystrides map and have covered around 40 per cent of what there is at the moment.”
Yasmine Salaam | Lawyer and runner