It was super hot due to the sharav (or maybe chamsin, as it was also very dusty) aka heat current blown north from Africa, and a good number of people running the half-marathon got heatstroke/dehydration. One person died, inexplicably, despite having thoroughly trained for the race as well as being in general a very fit IDF officer. Several people are still in the hospital under medically-induced comas.
I ran the 4.2K course, which was just 10% of an actual marathon. A lot of people kept saying how amazing I was to be running after giving birth exactly two months ago. I'm glad I was able to do it, but I still don't see what's so amazing about that. It's only 2.6 miles and I basically jogged the whole way on a very flat course.
Many thanks to my sister-in-law for motivating me to run a few times up and down the hills of Haifa beforehand.
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| I ran it for the race atmosphere, in one of Israel's biggest running events. |
I saw some of the preparations when I was in Tel Aviv. It looked like a pretty big deal and if I was a runner I would have liked to do the course. But I only run when I'm afraid for my life.
ReplyDeleteOh cool! I guess it makes sense that they were already making preparations to the roads by then. Very good reason to run; maybe you could imagine different life-threatening scenarios and flee your way into becoming a runner. :)
DeleteHaha. Perhaps. David and I are thinking about doing the "couch to 5k" program once spring hits Paris.
ReplyDeleteWe went to the beach where it ends (begins?) and they already had the big billboard up and there were lots of posters showing the course etc. I didn't really pay attention since 1. I have never run a marathon and 2. I wasn't going to be there anyway.