Hejaz Ultra Committee members

Nesreen Ghonaim is an Advancement Manager at Effat University with a bachelor’s degree in Business administration. She will be 5 years old in November, that’s in running years of course! She was introduced to running in 2015 seeking a life-changing action toward a healthier lifestyle.

“From a chain smoker to a passionate crazy runner – that’s my story.”

She joined Hejaz Ultra’s events since the beginning and was blown away by the amazing experience of Trail running. In fact, she discovered the beauty of Jeddah city from an entirely different perspective.

“Hejaz Ultra did not only give me wings to pursue many adventures and challenges like my 1st marathon in 2018 which I never thought would be possible. It also allowed me the space to become part of this exciting and unique world of organizing and planning for races.”

Founding member of Hejaz Ultra and cornerstone of the Committee, Nesreen joins all the different events of Hejaz Ultra since it’s 1st Hejaz50 and will continue with the enjoyable sweet torture that she gets from the wild and crazy challenges which introduced her to self-discovery and open possibilities.

You can reach her on nesreen@HejazUltra.org

Mishaal is a Jeddah-based Saudi athlete. He is a forensic accounting and financial inspection and oversight professional, working in both public and private sectors. Mishaal was educated in the US, and further trained with UK law enforcement agencies.

His sports career started during high school in the US when he took home two golds, a silver, and two bronze medals at the New England Winter Track & Field State Championship in the 400, 800, 400 relay, long jump, and high jump. He continued to compete during his university years, winning a stream of medals in different disciplines, most notably the javelin gold at the 1998 California State Invitational Championship.

In more recent years his competitive drive has led Mishaal to discover the tremendous benefits of trail running.

“My love for trail running was born in California’s breathtaking foothills, but my hometown trails have made it my obsession. l am a firm believer that training on trails makes you stronger and faster. Not just physically, but mentally”.

Mishaal is married, with four children,
and is currently training for his first Ironman race, so don’t be surprised if you run into him somewhere on the trails, training hard.

Since 2007, Fabrice Laborie has crossed the finish line of half a dozen Marathons (42.2km), numerous 10km and Half-Marathons, but his love for the outdoors turned him into a Trail Runner while he was in the U.A.E. He is a certified Fitness Instructor / Personal Trainer.

“Who wants to run on tarmac when you can run up a mountain? Why be constrained by streets and traffic lights when the Dunes are endless?”

Fabrice has completed a few Ultra-Marathons, pushing his limits beyond the traditional 42.2km marathons. Two times finisher of the Oman 72km Wadi Bih race, finisher of the 250km Marathon des Sables in 2014 in Morroco in 2014, of the 195km lake Balaton Supermarathon in Hungary, the 130 km 3xtreme UrbanUltra in the U.A.E, he also joined the 2014 Insomnia race where he completed 126km in the 24hours allocated for the race.

After being on the Committee of the ABRaS AC in the United Arab Emirates and Dubai Creek Striders running clubs in Dubai, he started joining and then helping organize runs in Jeddah where he met like-minded Ultra runners.

In 2015, he finally decided to create the Hejaz Ultra running club to organize training and Ultra Trail races. You can reach him on fabrice.laborie@HejazUltra.org

My name is Rémi.

I come from France and I am currently a student at KAUST and an outdoor enthusiast. I started running in 2012 after a failed summer due to an ankle injury.

After my first race (that I did not finish), I decided to run more seriously and I have been enjoying it like crazy ever since, mostly on long mountain trails.