Congrats again to "Speedy Beatie" Beatie Deutsch on winning another [half] marathon, this time representing Israel in Riga...

Beatie kept Shabbos and put on a better show than Eurovision, and specifically Israel's representative at Eurovision...

Winner of the Tet Riga Marathon 21km race is BEATIE DEUTSCH 1:17:34! #RunYourGold pic.twitter.com/E3jU0XkFZZ

— Tet Riga Marathon (@TetRigaMarathon) May 19, 2019

Mohammed Al-Mohtaseb has put together a race in Hebron. It seems he was not as ambitious as some others who respectively put together the Gaza and Bethlehem marathons, as the Hebron race is being billed as a Half Marathon.

And, by the way, different from those 2 other Palestinian races, I am told that Israelis can participate in the Hebron Half Marathon (I cannot yet confirm that - I asked the organizers but did not yet get an official answer).

The event sounds nice. Only one point is questionable.

Here is the description of the event:

A half Marathon in the ancient city of Hebron for the first time in history! 
Hebron (Al-Khalil)
The second oldest city in Palestine and largest in the West Bank. A home of around 700,000 Palestinians and many historical landmarks to different religions and cultures.
With a wealth of stunning architecture , it is the hub of west bank trade and responsible for a third of the area,s gross domestic product. 
This half marathon has been organised by our Palestinian youth in an attempt to raise awareness of the Political and cultural situation of Hebron. We strive to be different from other marathons by making it the largest ever tour of Hebron, taking in the all aspects of the city.
Our half marathon will be held on Friday 19th of may and commences at 9:00am. It is an 8km run which will take the runners from the northern entrance of the city(Ras ALjoura)and will finish at the friendship garden near the Ibrahimi Mosque.

Activities at the finish line will include

1: traditional meal
2: presentaion about Hebron
3: interculture meeting with Palestinians
4: market of Palestinian hand made goods

Tickets are available from Nidal Abu Mariah at the Habibi Hostel.
Contact : Nidal.BYH@gmail.com
Tel: +972599099089
Ticket prices are 75 nis for internationals and 25 nis for locals.
Included in this price a traditional meal after run, and a donation to poor families in the old city of Hebron.
Activities at the finish line will include 
1: traditional meal 2: presentaion about Hebron3: interculture meeting with Palestinians 4: market of Palestinian hand made goods
Tickets are available from Nidal Abu Mariah at the Habibi Hostel. Contact : Nidal.BYH@gmail.comTel: +972599099089Ticket prices are 75 nis for internationals and 25 nis for locals.Included in this price a traditional meal after run, and a donation to poor families in the old city of Hebron.

Sounds nice.

Only three times does the description of the event call it a "half marathon", and then once it explains "it is an 8km run".

Needless to explain, a half marathon is 21.1km and 8km is not quite a half marathon.

While most of the time I hear from people things like "I am running a marathon" when they are running a 5km or 10km race I just ignore it, understanding that people don't pay attention and are not aware that "marathon" does not just mean "race" but is actually a specific distance - this is different. An organizer of a race should know the difference and get his terms right.

A friend of mine saw this and pointed out that this fits perfectly with the general Palestinian style of stretching the truth, or outright lying - like their claims of having had a country in this land or like claiming to be on a hunger strike and then eating when nobody is looking.

Anyways, the event looks nice, my one point notwithstanding.  

The Jerusalem Marathon is an absolutely fantastic event. Every single year. Sometimes the weather is better, and sometimes it is worse, but the Marathon event is always great - it is fun, it is inspiring, it is exciting and it is all in Jerusalem.

But I was not going to participate in it this year. I had decided to take the year off from running the standard Israel marathons, and that included Tiberias, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Even though I could have planned to run the half instead of the whole, I still felt like staying away from the major events.

And then HASC came calling.

A couple of weeks ago HASC asked me if I would run for them in Jerusalem, and I could choose to run either the half marathon or the 10km race.

When an organization like HASC comes calling, you can't just ignore them. I had an opportunity to help a great organization, without even needing to do fundraising, and enjoy the side benefit of participating in the most enjoyable running event in Israel.

So I said yes. I would run the half marathon for HASC.

I did not train for the run. I was recovering from a bout of the flu. I only received final confirmation of my participation the day before, on Thursday. I did not know anything about the weather forecast or the details of the route. I decided I would not even take my watch along. I was just going to run - slowly - and enjoy.

And I did.









After the first couple of kilometers I bumped into a couple friends - the Sommers brothers, and we ran the next 5 or 6 kilometers together and had some great conversation.


this is a finish line photo taken by my friend Randy Zelcer. He had not even noticed me, and my face is blocked by the water bottle held by the guy in front me of. He was actually taking a picture of the motorcycle crossing the finish line. The guy whose image is blocked by the motorcycle is Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat. His finishing time was 2:22:47. Mine was 2:22:46. That's right - I finished the half marathon two steps ahead of Nir Barkat.


Truth is, I had run the last 5 or 6 kilometers with Barkat and his team right behind me. At some point I thought of slowing down slightly and approaching him to say how great of an event he puts on and slap him five. Then I thought that if I approached him during the run like that, one of his bodyguards and running partners would give me some sort of krav maga kick in the head and that would be the end of my run.. so I waited until after we crossed the finish line. After the finish line I did turn around and go over to him, after he and his team finished high-fiving and hugging each other, and I congratulated him and complimented him on the event.

Also, if you look at the picture, you'll see that I did not have my hands raised in the normal finish line style of raising your hands with V signs for victory. You can see that I was making some strange symbol with my fingers. That symbol I was making was the hashtag symbol - the pound sign, #. I was making the hashtag symbol to represent the "happylanche" hashtag created by my friend Ahava Emuna Lange, formerly known as Erika. Ahava Emuna is very not well with cancer and has just started a round of chemo. With Ahava going through so much and still trying to find every possible way to be happy and surround herself with happiness, I dedicated my happy event of the Jerusalem Marathon to Ahava's happylanche. An avalanche of happiness.

After the finish line, I made my way down to get my bottle of water and medal, an awesome clementina, and then to find the HASC booth again. I picked up my stuff from the booth and saw the other few runners who had run the half and the tens of runners who were getting to run the 10k race for HASC. HASC put out for them drinks and food, along with paraphanelia such as the HASC shirts and kippot and other things. And most of all there was great camaraderie and friendship and excitement among the runners and the staff at the HASC booth. They really are a great organization, they had a lot of great and dedicated people (including a few people I know) running to benefit HASC, and HASC was doing everything they could to support and help the runners.

I was proud to be associated with HASC, even if for just one Friday morning in Jerusalem.

Picture Of The Day

Picture of the Day today is from the Jerusalem Marathon on Friday. I debated between these two pictures sent to me by friends who ran:

1.

The Hail Marathon in Jerusalem, by Mordechai

2.

Marathons bring out all sorts..., by Noah

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I have been having a lot of pain recently on long runs. As I am running, I can feel it building up in my arch (left foot) and ankles. Eventually, after 18km or so, it becomes almost unbearable and I have to stop running for breaks or to walk a bit.

As I keep running, which I can do with taking breaks, I begin to feel pain in my hamstring and knees. Probably this is from compensating to minimize the original pain.

Because of this, I dropped out of the marathon training for this year. I just could not handle the long runs and saw no purpose in running in pain for 42km for no real gain.

I did run the Israel Half Marathon in Bet She'an last week, and ran it slower than last year. Between the 18km and 21km markers I had to stop twice because of the pain. I finished in a time equivalent to last years full marathon, but slower than last years half marathon. I was not disappointed because I had not really focused on training, especially after I had decided I was dropping out of the marathon training.

But because of my recent experiences, and because of the amazing book "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall that I am reading, I have decided to research barefoot running. From everything I have been reading, it looks like it really might be the way to go to run without pain, to run farther without problems, and to run faster.

I am going to continue reading about it, but I am already pretty sure that that is the direction I plan on moving in. If I do, this blog will see a new rebirth, as I will likely document my experiences with barefoot running.

The first decision to make is what type of shoe to go with. It seems funny to talk about buying shoes to run barefoot, but running barefoot worries me about destroying my feet - running pebbles, glass, screws and nails, etc. Vibram makes a shoe called the FiveFinger, and Nike makes one called the Nike Free. They both look good, and are pretty close to be considered barefoot, mostly just protecting the feet from being torn up.

I like the reviews of the Vibram better than those of the Nike, so will probably go with those, assuming I decide to actually do this.

I will keep you posted...

Today I ran the Israel Half-Marathon in Bet She'an.

My finish time was not great - I did not focus on my training, and I have not even run at all during the past 3 weeks leading up to it, but I finished, even though my timing was worse than last year.

I have been running fairly regularly for a bit longer than a year, though I still do not consider myself a "runner", and I am still amazed by what I see when I go out on the roads or trails to run. And it is especially magnified when going to an event, like the half marathon I ran today, where there are so many other people participating (there were 1700 people running today in the event).

If you look around, you will be amazed what a person can do when he puts his mind to it. The words "I can't" or "it is impossible" should almost never be said, as almost always the reasons stopping a person from doing something are more often mental and psychological than physical. Of course there are sometimes where a person cannot do something for physical reasons, but I think most of the time the issues are more mental.

For example, today I saw running, and finishing:

• a guy with one leg - and he was one of the fastest people running - not in the top tier, but near the front.
• Extremely overweight people.
• Old people.
• very old people
• I saw one old man who was running and had to stop to rest/breathe almost every 3 minutes or so. Literally. He was keeping up with me (shows how slow I am) so I saw him for much of the run.
• People with various injuries (army injuries probably for most of them)
• healthy people
• men, women, teenagers, etc.

Running a distance of 21km, or 42km for the full marathon, straight is so unnatural and beyond the normal capabilities of the human body that it is not just amazing that a guy with one leg can do it if he puts his mind to it, or that old and overweight people can do it, but it is amazing that even young and healthy people can do it. If you put your mind to it, and train, it is doable.

The human mind can overcome most physical limitations. You just have to put your mind to it.

Another thing that I forgot to write in my previous post about the half-marathon is the first impression.

You walk into the grounds, to go sign in and it is like a festival, with sponsors booths, drinks, snacks, people milling about, people stretching, warming up, etc.

But you see people there in all sizes and shapes. Men, women, old, young, very old, skinny, fat, athletic builds, non-athletic builds, pretty much everything. You see all that and it is very motivating. I can do this. If that guy in the 70-99 age group category can be running 21km, I can as well. If that guy who looks like he is in much worse shape than me can do this, so can I.

Seeing the cornucopia of people who do this, despite the odds stacked against them, is very inspiring.

Also, there is a tendency to be familiar with your surroundings and think that they are what is basically normal all over the place. Suddenly you go to a place that is new, and you see well over a thousand people with other interests. All sorts of people. Religious, not religious, athletic, not athletic. And it is not just the marathon. There was also a bike race, and a "hand-bike" race with tens of people racing in them.

Life really consists of great variety, whether you see it on a normal basis or not. It is a mistake to think that what you see in your normal daily life is what is normal for everyone else and everywhere else.

What an experience. The atmosphere was electric. The excitement was almost tangible.

Today we ran our Bet She'an half-marathon. 21km. Our group was something like 30 runners from Bet Shemesh.

We got there and signed in, getting our pre-run packages including our numbers with tracking chips.

We got ready and then went out for a warm-up run. There were tons of people. I think they said 1300 had registered for this, but the results website (so far) only shows 1083.

I started near the front, because I did not want to be stuck in the back.

They give some instructions, letting us know where the water stands will be and some more details, and then he shoots the gun to start the race!

There was one section by the start where we turn left and run for a kilometer or so and then turn around and run the other direction. That is really the only opportunity to see the really fast runners, as they run by on the other side of the road.

The people in the front of the pack were a group of 5 or 6 Kenyans (or Nigerians - I really don't know), and they were already pretty decently ahead of everyone else... Those Kenyans ended up winning by a nice gap over the first "white guy"...

The race was pretty good. The track was pretty flat except for one section of uphill in the middle going through Bet She'an. The flat track was good because it meant you could really get a good rhythm going.

The weather was beautiful. That was good for us runners, but bad for Israel because we need rain. It was even a bit hot. There was one long open stretch where the wind was a bit strong and everyone was complaining afterwords that that had slowed them down.

About every 4 kilometers there were tables on the side with people handing out bottles of water. Runners would drink a few "shloogs" from the bottle and toss the rest of it into the grass on the side of the road. The grass and trees got watered pretty nicely I guess, but it seemed like a waste of a lot of water. Maybe they should have used smaller bottles (but maybe some people need that much water...).

There were people along the course cheering on their friends and relatives, and some just cheering in general for all the runners. Also, some school teachers took out their little kids to cheer on the runners.

All that, along with running with so many people, really give the runner a boost of motivation and help keep you going.

I finished the race at 1:51:07 at an average pace of 5:15/km. According to the marathon website, I placed #687.
People asked me before the race what goal time I was shooting for. I responded I am shooting to finish, and not for any specific time. I am expecting however to finish at between 1:50 and 1:55 based on my training and previous runs. So it turned otu I was right on the mark, as I finished at 1:51:07.

It was a great experience, and now I have to finish getting ready for the full marathon in another month.

Today I am going to be up north for much of the day, with no access to a computer. I am up north because I am running my first half-marathon today.
Wish me luck.

I will have a guest-post from a friend posted for you a little later.