WOOHOO! I did it!
On Friday, 2/2, I completed the Dead Sea Half Marathon. Wow, what a "chavaya" (experience) *that* was! I left with my running partner Libi, her 11 year-old daughter and two young friends at 4 in the morning and returned home at 2 pm.
What kind of things does one see at a marathon in Israel? First off, a parking lot minyan ("yeah, we're right by the Lamborghini. Look for the guys davening--you can't miss us")
Then, upon entering the race area there's, of course, Chabad of the Dead Sea busy with a tefiillin stand
There were the usual cast of characters one finds at a marathon (guy running in a dinosaur costume, a few people in tutus) and the Israeli legend himself: "The Pineapple Guy", 70 year-old Moshe Lederfien who has run marathons around the world while balancing a pineapple on his (very still) head. Which, given that pineapples here are CRAZY expensive (like $10 for a very small one), I don't quite understand. Because if your head bobbles and your pineapple falls, you are out a chunk of change AND a nice snack for after the race.....
The course was really interesting. The area is GORGEOUS (truly one of my top places in Israel) and we were running in an area that is off-limits to civilians 364 days a year. Since we ran straight out towards Jordan, I could see why....The area most of the race is run on is a breakwater and a natural sea border between Jordan and Israel.
I had read that the course had "minimal asphalt" but hadn't really stopped to think what the alternative was: SALT. A lot of salt. Imagine running on the soft sand of a beach, except change that sand to salt--chunky, hard salt. At times the salt even got deep and started shifting around. Since the last time I ran on a beach I was a kid and running with my sister and cousin, I was not quite prepared for this:
But it sure was pretty:
The temperature was pleasant to run in (about 60F), but there was some drizzle and REALLY strong winds. As we were running out, I had hopes that it was an "out and back" race and we'd end up with a tailwind, but, nope, it's an "out, turn left, then back" race so once we were in the middle of the Dead Sea the wind was a side wind. Here's a picture I took on the drive home:
Friday was the secular date of my sister-in-law Hilary's death....
Lots of people ran with shirts, flags or other decorations for the hostages and/or the Israeli soldiers. I ran behind this guy, who ran while holding a sandwich board for Hersh Goldberg-Polin
I carried an Israeli flag over the finish line with the names of the people I was running in memory of (darn that wind!)
It was all worth it for this photo (insider's hack: I am not, truth be told, leading all those runners. Note the difference in the color of our race numbers: I am in the back of the pack for the half marathoners and the full marathon guys are gaining on me. But it makes a great photo!!)
A HUGE thank-you to everyone who supported me in my fundraising for Lema'an Achai (it's not too late!). I loved each and every supportive note and thought of them when I was slogging along :)
And when you see my car, you'll know I worked darn hard for every meter of that run and every centimeter of this sticker:
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