Jerusalem, March 2011, first full marathon for the city.
Everyone had to pick up their bib numbers at the ICC building from Tuesday to Thursday.
Wednesday there was a terrorist bombing outside the ICC building. I was kind of hoping that they would cancel the race... 2 months ago, I called the marathon organizers and told them I couldn't run the 42.2km and that I would like to run the 1/2 marathon. Instead of cancelling and re-registering, they told me I could just change the race I was going to run at the marathon, day of. So that is what I did. Thursday I came to the ICC building to pick up my gear, asked them to change races and they said no. (I was kind of hoping that they wouldn't let me run...) BUT, me being the Israeli I guess I am turning into, decided to do what I want and run the 1/2 with my bib number covered and chip on my shoe and see if anyone will notice. (They did not.)
Friday, 6am, wake up. Was I nervous, yes. Was I excited, no. Did I show that I was nervous, no. Did I want to throw up, yes. Morning espresso, a banana - thanks to Yoel - a clif bar, some Nir Barkat sighting and correspondence - thanks to Danielle - and we were off to the starting point. The question we asked ourselves: "What the hell are we doing here?" was a good one but we didn't have any answer other than, "why not?". There was a good energy in the air, but who really wants to run 21.1km in Jerusalem on a cold and rainy Friday morning when you could be sleeping in a warm bed, especially when you didn't train enough for the distance, let alone the hills. The countdown began, we didn't hear a gun shot (which I think was smart on their part, we all would have ducked for cover, rather than start running), and we were on our way. Danielle, Yoel and I stuck together for the beginning. Up a small hill, down a small hill, up a BIG hill, down a small hill, up a hill into the Old City, down hill to go back up another big hill... you get the point. The course was historic, not for the places that we ran through, rather for the hills that we ran up and up and up, each one harder than the last. After the Sultan's pool I let Danielle and Yoel go ahead of me, my hip needed to go slower... All in all, it was a nice route, running through the Old City, running past places I see on a weekly basis, seeing all those people cheer me on, Deena with her sign (thank you!!!) really helped me get up Rechov Yehuda, running alongside Nir Barkat and his whole entourage for a while going to the Tayelet and the UN building. The worst hill was Kovshei Katamon at kilometer 18. It was nice to see some of my clients out cheering me on but I was happy to be finished. Thank god I didn't miss the finish line like the winners of the marathon did. Apparently they got a little confused at the end and ran 200 meters longer than they had to and finished at the 1/2 marathon finish line and not the marathon finish line. They gave them their prizes anyway... I finished the half marathon in the same time it took them to finish the full marathon... It was said that this marathon was one of the hardest international marathons in the World. I agree. I was more sore after this race than when I finished the marathon in Venice. Maybe one day, 20 years from now, I will run the full 42.2 km here in Jerusalem.
It was nice to see my school mates at the end of the race giving massages to the finishers. I just cut the line to say hi, I didn't have the time/need to get a massage, but they did help a lot of people who were sore and whose legs were cramping, thank god that my legs didn't cramp up. Here is an article from Runner's World about how to prevent muscle cramps. Now it is time to rest up in-order to make sure I can run the marathon in Berlin come September time. I know that resting up will be as hard as running the marathon, probably harder, but I will try and not run as much and do more cross training and leg muscle building exercises.
Since I didn't "finish" the marathon rather the half marathon, I was not photographed at the finish line and I was "disqualified" from the race. They did record my half marathon time, however, so I know my time, faster than the last Jerusalem Half, 3 years ago, and same timing more or less as Tel Aviv, last year, which means a lot. 1- if I trained, I would have finished a lot faster, 2- I wasn't as out of shape as I thought. 3- if my hip heals properly, I could definitely finish the Berlin marathon in under 5 hrs.
The only pictures from the race I have are Danielle and Yoel finishing:
and me and Yoel posing with the blow up bears for Nicki (will be posted soon)'Till next time.
Peace.
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