Baday began to focus on road events and made his marathon debut in May 2008, finishing ninth at the Hamburg Marathon with a time of 2:10:59. In his second outing over the distance, he took third at the National Capital Marathon in Ottawa. He represented Morocco in the half marathon at the 2009 Mediterranean Games and defeated José Manuel Martinez to become the Mediterranean champion. After recording a personal best of 1:01:03 for second at the Rabat Half Marathon, he ran at the 2009 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships but was less successful as he finished in 49th place. In February 2010 he came third at the Marrakesh Marathon and improved his personal best time by one second. His season's best time came at the Yangzhou Jianzhen International Half Marathon, which he won in a course record time. He ran in the Bogota Half Marathon in August and took third place with a time of 1:04:47.