Back in November when my friend Shira told me that she was coming to Israel to run the 10k with her family and that I just had to join her, I thought, sure why not, January 7th is really far away. I don't think that it could have arrived any faster than it did. Not that I wasn't physically ready for the distance, I had trained well and I knew what time I was aiming for, I just never imagined the time would come. After some debate, I travelled to Tiveria the night before and hung out with the family in town, enjoying the atmosphere of the night before the race. I have always read that runners can be spotted from miles away but I never noticed it before. The participants who were running the marathon all just screamed "I'm a runner and I know it". I don't think either of us slept well that night, every hour I woke up thinking it was 7am, looked at my watch and went back into an anxious sleep. I woke up that morning at 6 and twiddled my thumbs for the last hour and then after getting ready, headed down to breakfast. Before making my way to Tiveria the night before, like every female, I debated what to wear that next day for the race. Its not like it was such a big deal, I would only be wearing the same shirts that I had been training in the past 3 months, but for some reason, it was a big deal. I decided on the bright pink shirt. Why? I just knew that Shira would appreciate it much more than if I just chose a boring one. I associate bright magenta pink with Shira Peleg, that's just the way it goes. So dressed in my bright pink nike running shirt and my Brooks Dyad 5 running shoes that my mom sent me the month before I was ready for the race. Inside I was awake, but you should have seen the black rings under my eyes... When we got down to breakfast, it was evident who was running that day and already we could feel the excitement in the atmosphere. Some eggs and turkish coffee and I was ready to go. After at least 6 bathroom breaks, we all headed out to the start of the race, but not before taking a group picture:
Please take notice to the order, we couldn't find 2135...
The day for the race could not have been any nicer. Granted it was a bit hot for a marathon and especially for January, even if we were in Israel. There was not a cloud in the sky and all the hills around us were so green and the Kineret was so blue. I love the whole area, so it made the run so much more enjoyable. When we finally got down to the starting point I started to get antsy. Everyone there was warming up, doing laps, stretching, drinking water, waiting to use the toilets. One of the most important rules of running a long race is, when you see a free porta potty, use it. Even if you don't have to. So, we joined the long line to the women's bathroom when in the time we were waiting, Shira's brother got to go twice...
When we finally were ready and made sure that we had everything right, we started to make our way to the line up for the 10k. The marathoners and cyclists had already started but there were still so many people waiting around. Apparently another 1699 people were running this race with me. I would like to say that I came in 40th in my category of 103 women (!!) although, it did not seem like there were so many of them out there on the road with me. We made our way pretty close to the starting line and found ourselves surrounded by hardcore runners and elite army units. That was extremely intimidating and ennerving, but when that gun went off, and we were all shuffling along to find our stride, all I had on my mind was getting to the end. I'm glad I wore the pink shirt, it was a way for Shira to keep tabs on me. We started off together but then drifted to running at our own paces. I should have brought my music with me, it can be boring to run alone for an hour, but I'll know for next time. Without the music, however, I got to listen to my breathing and the breathing of those around me. Once we found our stride they let the elite army units loose. All of a sudden I was being passed by huge sweaty soldiers in their unit shirts singing their songs, it was like dodging traffic, I didn't know where to put my elbows other then them being glued to my sides. The route was 5k out and 5k back, which can be annoying when running a route that you are familiar with, but in this case it was equally as nice. Instead of the water being on the left, it was on the right and somehow it still looked different. When I was at the 6k mark two soldiers decided to turn around without making it to the halfway point and then turning around. I wasn't that annoyed since they weren't even registered and they were just running the race for fun but I decided to say something to them anyway. Their response: "why do we even need this, its not like this 10k is going to make a difference in our level of fitness, its not like we don't run this distance every day". I still consider them cheaters...
I forgot to mention that January 7th is my mom's birthday. If all had worked out she would have been running with me, or she would have tried to train for the distance. In the end she is coming to Israel in February, a month before the 1/2 marathon and smack in the middle of finals. So while I was out there on my own, my mantra was: "I'm running this for my Mom. I'm running this for my Mom." It worked, I didn't stop, just once to take a drink from the water bottle at the turn around point, but I kept on going. For the last kilometer, Shira caught up to me, thanks to the pinkness of my shirt :) and we finished the race together. When we saw the end and heard Shira's dad cheering for us, we both picked it up a few notches and sprinted to the end. Since I do not consider myself a competitive person, when Shira passed me, I thought about racing her to the end, but I let her pass me and finish 2 seconds before me.
It was over, we were winded and ready to get our medals. When we finally found the table where they were supposedly handing out the medals we get hit with the shouts of an angry and frustrated crowd. "How can there not be enough medals?" "Don't you idiots know how many people registered to run the race?" "You are really going to mail my medal to Germany?" Since the army units had obviously finished before most of the runners, they had decided to take medals for all their participants even though they hadn't signed up for the race. So we are still waiting for our medals to arrive via snail mail... I hope the guy from Germany gets his.
Shira's dad finished in time to get a medal so we all decided to pose with his pretending it was really ours:
And of course we had to take a picture after we were done...still missing 2135.
This whole week I have been asked how the marathon went. I keep on saying, "it was only 10k!!" and people keep on answering, "that seems like a marathon to me". Lets hope that when I run the marathon, they don't ask me how the 10k went, then I'll really be annoyed.
To answer everyone's questions, it was great!
Now its time for the 1/2 marathon training to begin...
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