Qatar Foundation hosts ladies-only race on International Women’s Day
NT Bureau
Doha: On International Women’s Day, celebrated on Friday, March 8, hundreds of women from across the country participated in the ladies-only Golden Race at Al Shaqab in Qatar Foundation’s Education City. Organized by Athletic Edge, the event featured two distances: 5km for adults and 1km for children.
Rabaah Al-Musleh, a graduate of HEC Paris – a Qatar Foundation (QF) partner university – is the founder of Athletic Edge. Explaining the idea behind launching the group, she said: “I started running in 2019, and it has become my passion. As a female, I understand the challenges that women face when starting their fitness journeys. And it is for this reason that I founded Athletic Edge.
“We organize a host of activities, and the 5km program is one of our most popular initiatives – it is for people who don’t know how or where to start running. And the goal is to achieve a 5km run after six weeks of training.
“I am very proud of this program. The number of participants has steadily increased over the years. And some of these women who first started out with us, who couldn’t run for longer than 30 seconds, are now running half marathons.”
Al-Musleh explained that she started running for her mental health and was encouraged to find something that made her happy. So, she started to walk, and this eventually turned into running.
“Very quickly, I started to notice how running was affecting my whole life – my physical and mental health improved, even my social life. It became my therapy. I can’t even describe the feeling I had when I completed my fist 5km run.”
Al-Musleh explained that hosting a ladies-only run is very important for the local community. “Many women would like to participate in such activities, but they don’t feel comfortable. But the Golden Race has given them the opportunity to exercise in private, with other like-minded women.”
QF has been very supportive in hosting the event, Al-Musleh added. “Qatar Foundation is a very well-known institute, and it supports the country’s vision of creating a healthy population – and the need to empower more women.”
