I ran my race today! It took me an hour and nine minutes to run 10 kilometers. That is really sloooowwww, about 11 minutes per mile, but faster than a walk, and faster than I was two weeks ago. Haile won it again, running four times as far in less than twice my time. John pulled himself from the race due to his fever, so he and iola hung out and had breakfast at the hotel.


Notice my snazzy sweatband! And brand new shoes: I forgot to pack my running shoes. John had to run to the Mall of the Emirates to buy me a new pair at 10pm last night. They made my feet numb during the race because they're so new. My Monday column will be about the race. Last Monday's column was about pre-race advice, none of which I followed.

We had a quick visit with Katy Chang and her husband JR in the midst of all our forgetfulness. She is trying to start an at gallery in Dubai, he is a new professor. After the race, we had brunch with our friends Karen and Michael Hewitt and their baby Ellis. Then we dashed back home to pack for America. Peter is driving us to the airport tonight.

I am going strong on my new year's promise to collaborate more with friends. I worked with Dan Engber to write a Slate piece on family history, and I worked with our downstairs neighbor Keach Haguey, who has an online magazine, to write a story on our pregnancy. Excerpts below.

Heavy Duty
Nothing makes you realize you’re an animal like growing another one inside you. (Photo by Lauren Lancaster)
By Rose Dakin with John Gravois

Just before we moved out to Abu Dhabi, I had a conversation with my younger sister about birth. It was May 2008, and I was seven months pregnant at the time. I sought her advice because she had seen more births than anyone I knew. She had worked on a cattle ranch for three years, and then a dairy goat farm, and then a weed-eating goat operation where she trucked around a thousand goats to cattle ranches in the Mid-west. She knew I wanted to do everything naturally for my baby’s birth, so it was with caution when she said, “I think a c-section might not be a bad option for you.” Continue reading...

My Great-Uncles Tried To Kill Hitler
One family's story of the Valkyrie plot.
By Rose Dakin, Jan. 12, 2009.

I may not look it, with my overgrown bangs and thrift-store shoes, but I'm descended from aristocrats and heroes of the German resistance. Years before the failed coup recounted in the movie Valkyrie, my great-grandfather Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord tried to overthrow Hitler. From 1930-34, he was the chief of the German military; later, as the commander of an army detachment, he tried to lure the Führer to a base on the western front to arrest him. His plots were never discovered, but his anti-Nazi attitude was well-known and he was forced to resign; he died of cancer in 1943. The following summer, two of his sons—my great-uncles—played their own small role in the real-life Valkyrie plot. They were among the very few who managed to escape. Continue reading