Trail running in Saudi Arabia at the vanguard of change as the kingdom opens to tourism
- Men and women are running together as customs relax within running clubs and the first trail race comes to the conservative nation
“Go to an elite shopping mall in Riyadh, Saudi girls there used to all walk around in high heels, now they wear the latest designer running shoes – Luis Vitton, Kenzo. The new generation is learning more about fitness, there is an inclination to get fitter and healthier,” said Cyma Aziz, a “foodie, social butterfly and fashionista” and runner since 2005, living in Saudi Arabia.
Aziz is a Pakistani but was raised in Saudi Arabia. She has recently swapped her presenter position on Saudi television for PR and communications at EcoTrail Al Ula – Saudi Arabia’s first ever trail race that took place on February 8 this year.
EcoTrail Al Ula offered distances of 83km, 45km, and 10km as well as a 10km hike. Six-hundred participants from 51 countries attended. Two-thirds of the runners were Saudis and women ran alongside men.
Saudi Arabia is now in the midst of reforms to wean its economy from oil. Under the country’s Vision 2030 plan, 10 per cent of the Kingdom’s GDP is to come from tourism. Last year, Saudi Arabia introduced online tourist visas, relaxed the dress code for female foreign visitors and allowed foreign couples to share rooms without proof of marriage.
The region of Al Ula is expected to become one of the Kingdom’s main tourist attractions. Two millennia ago the area was part of Nabataean Kingdom that created the famed Petra in Jordan. Al Ula is home to several, smaller Petras – such as the necropolis of Madain Saleh, a Unesco World Heritage Site.
