Nader headed first to Cairo by bus for a week-long training camp at Egypt’s Olympic training facilities in the upmarket Maadi neighbourhood of the city.
“It’s only a week but it’s better than nothing,” says Nader. “It’s a chance, at last, to run on a decent track.
“This feels so good. On a track like this I can see my split times for every one hundred, four hundred and thousand metres.
“That means I know exactly how I’m doing and what more I need to achieve. It makes such a difference.”
He is also able to combine running with a bit of sight-seeing. The desert around the famous Giza pyramids provides an inspirational backdrop for a training session.
And to get to London 2012, Nader will need to be inspired.
He has just been told by the Palestinian Olympic Federation that he won’t be given one of two wildcard places awarded to each competing nation.
It is probably fair given that Nader was awarded such a wildcard in 2008 to allow him to take part in the Beijing Olympics.
This time two other Palestinian athletes will get the opportunity.
Now Nader’s only chance is to make it to London is to meet the Olympic qualifying time and that means knocking over 40 seconds off his personal best.
It is a tall order but he remains upbeat: “I am very optimistic, and I wish that God almighty grants me success to get a qualifying time. Only then can I go to the Olympics,” he says.
“If this happens I will be the first Palestinian athlete to gain a qualifying time. This will be a big achievement.”
After his training in Cairo, Nader heads to Doha in Qatar for this month’s Arab Games – he runs in the 5,000m on 20th December.
He hopes the higher standard of competition might see him make a breakthrough.
If not Nader has a plan B – he says he might try for the marathon where he feels qualification could be easier.
