GALWAY, Ireland, 14 July 2006 — Since its inception in the 1980s, Saudi Arabia’s Saad Track Club has had hundreds of members — both Saudis and expatriates — who have joined together to pursue their sport.
That camaraderie was evident when the club recently held a reunion in Galway, Ireland, that drew more than 120 current and former members from Europe and as far away as the United States and Australia for a weekend of visiting, reminiscing and running.
Ian G. Wilson of Saudi Aramco’s EXPEC Network Customer Services Division was one of the founders of the club and organized the reunion with the help of his wife, Theresa, who works as a systems analyst with the SAP Medical Project Team. Saudi Aramco’s 250-member Dhahran Road Runners Club is affiliated with the Saad Club, and many of the participants were former Saudi Aramco employees.
Most of the events took place at the Radisson SAS Galway, which is run by Manager Tom Flannagan and hospitality chief Larry Kavanaugh, both of whom worked at the Radisson Diplomat in Manama, Bahrain, and knew many of the participants. Runs were organized every day with the National University of Ireland-Galway Track reserved one afternoon for a distance relay event.
“Between 120 and 130 people took part in different events over the weekend,” Ian Wilson said. “They came from all over the world. The earliest runner was a fellow from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals who started in 1976. The running groups were organized all over the Eastern Province, but the largest number always came from Saudi Aramco.”
When contacted about the upcoming event, Aramco Overseas Co. and Saudi Aramco agreed to sponsor one of the reunion dinners. Mazen I. Snobar, executive director of Community Services and a longtime member of the Dhahran Road Runners, hosted the event on behalf of Mustafa Jalali, vice president of Saudi Aramco Affairs, and spoke to many old colleagues and friends.
“Saudi Aramco truly appreciates your contribution to the success of the company and for your help in making Aramco what it is today as best in its class,” Snobar said. “We also appreciate your contribution to the community. Running has become a popular sport in Saudi Aramco, and it all started with you.”
He also praised the organizers and hinted that a regular European company event might come out of the track club reunion.
“Ian and Theresa Wilson have started a very memorable event, and we should capitalize on it to ultimately organize an annual or biannual Saudi Aramco annuitant’s reunion for all European citizens similar to what annuitants have in the United States,” Snobar said.
For the people who left the Kingdom some time ago, it also was a chance to hear about the incredible changes that have occurred in the country and even their former communities.
“Some of you might not believe it, but our golf course is green now,” Snobar said, describing the Dhahran Hills Golf Course now sodded for two years.
Just as interesting for the reunion participants was to find out what each other was doing now.
“This event has been first class — excellent,” said Bob Orlowski of British Aerospace Systems, Australia, who started working in Saudi Arabia in 1989. “I would say that I know about 75 percent of the people here.”
There were people long retired and others who returned to their homes many years ago. There were even second-generation participants
“It was very nice to see so many of the people who were in the running club during the short time I was in Saudi Arabia,” said Noel Phillips whose father, John Phillips, worked for Saudi Aramco from 1982-1992. Noel, who now works for a software company in Seattle, Washington, got involved with the Dhahran Road Runners during summer visits to the Kingdom as a university student.
“My father would have loved to be here, but he couldn’t make it this time. He was quite the runner,” Phillips said. “I’m sure my father will be calling and wanting to know how everything’s going and who’s here — all the latest news.”
Also among the participants were the first women to take part in track club activities back in the 1980s.
“We used to go over to KFUPM and watch the men run,” said Mary McGuinness, a former SAMSO nurse supervisor who worked in Dhahran from 1985-1996 and founded the women’s section of the Saad Track Club. “That was serious stuff. We felt that we would like to run — but not so serious — so we approached Ian Wilson. None of us had any running experience at all — we didn’t even have the proper footwear. But he got us up and going, and before we knew we were getting competitive — training and racing. We’d come a long way.”
McGuinness now works as a community nurse in Northern Ireland’s County Down, but she still has a soft spot in her heart for Saudi Arabia.
“I just loved it, and it was very good for me,” McGuinness said. “I had the best years of my life in Saudi Arabia. We used to dive and run with the club. We’d go back and forth to Bahrain. It has kept us together. It was probably the best thing that ever happened to us.”
A common theme in conversations between old friends was how running had kept them fit and become a lifelong pursuit.
“There were some people here who I hadn’t seen since I left 11 years ago,” said Liz Ross, who lived in Belfast, Northern Ireland, before spending 10 years as a secretary in the company. She now resides in Brussels, Belgium. “Everybody looks so great; they’ve obviously kept up with the running.”
“I never ran until I came to Aramco and joined Ian’s group,” said Kate Giblin, who now lives in Roscommon, Ireland, but worked as a SAMSO nurse from 2000-2003. In the last year, she ran in the Chicago Marathon and in Ireland’s Connemara Marathon. “I’m still running. It was great to see my old friends. I got a chance to go to Jeddah earlier this year and made it over to Dhahran twice. It made me realize how much I miss it.”
Some of the runners have aspired to even greater heights.
“I started running in 1989,” said Mary Hoey, a SAMSO nursing shift coordinator who’s been with the company for 22 years. “I took a break last year so I could climb Mount Everest. We went up pretty fast, but we came down faster. This was a great opportunity to get together with old friends. I haven’t seen some of them for 16 or 17 years, but I still recognized them.”
The indomitable spirit and determination of these early runners also affected the company culture of Saudi Aramco.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for folks to get together and work out and run,” said Saud Al-Ammary, a Saudi Aramco attorney on assignment in London who has participated with the club since its beginnings. “Saudi Aramco has some of the best recreation facilities in the world for its employees, and running and workouts have become part of our company’s traditions — even our executive management are very good sportsmen, and I hope that tradition continues.”
On the third day of the reunion, some of the participants traveled to Aran Mor, an island of the Aran chain where motorized conveyances are prohibited and that retains both the history and charm of old Ireland.
“The reunion for us was a chance to see people who we haven’t seen in 12-15 years. It was wonderful,” said Al-Ammary’s wife, Helen, a native of Newcastle, England, who worked as a SAMSO nurse and began running with the club in 1987. “The highlight for me was the trip to the Aran Islands where we got to ride bikes and have fun together.”
Even as the boat was pulling out of Galway Bay to steam toward the island, the reunion was coming to an end for some who checked out of the hotel to head back to their current home ports. The next morning, the few runners remaining set out for one last run together — until the next time their paths cross.
“There was so much that all just blended together,” said Janet Madsen, who has lived and worked in Dhahran and Saudi Aramco for 19 years. “It was easy to fall back in with friends I hadn’t seen for 10-15 years. For me, I think the highlight was the relay that Ian put on. We’ve done it a few times in Dhahran, but some people who left Arabia a long time ago hadn’t experienced it. It just shows the camaraderie between the runners — from the really excellent ones who are internationally known to the ones who haven’t run in a while. They all just pulled together. It was a lot of fun.”
