Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Running on Faith

In a moment of pure insanity and overestimation of my physical abilities, I signed up for Jerusalem's First 10k. But guess what?

I DID IT!
awkward self portrait on a street that was part of the course

And it only took me about an hour and 15 minutes, despite Jerusalem being the Hilliest City in the Holy/Hilly Land. Since I've gone running...um... once since I've been here, I was rather pleased with this time.

It was a beautiful run on a sunny morning, taking us all over West Jerusalem and even through a bit of the Old City. Jewish families, Muslim men on their way to morning prayers, and tourists from around the world lined the streets to cheer the runners on as we passed by. Along the way, huge speaker towers blared Hebrew hip-hop; the excitement was infectious.

Unfortunately, walking the 3 miles to the starting line (all the roads were closed down, so we couldn't take a cab), running the race, and walking the three miles back, all on Jerusalem's lovely but slightly uneven limestone pavement, did some slight damage to some of the muscles in my left foot. Glory wound!
I may become a professional sport injury wrapper yet. Stylish, no?

But life is GOOD.

Because I got this super cool neon green/yellow adidas jersey shirt thing for my participation in the marathon. You'll never have to worry about losing me in a crowd again.
modeling my Jerusathon Jersey (tm) by the Herodian ashlars that would have formed the gateway to the Temple Mount at the time of Christ. typical.
  
AND...my hair is getting sun bleached and my face is getting tan

one of those rare occasions when my hair is behaving itself & I get to look like a girl
bliss.
LISTEN UP: highlights from my 10k playlist: "Uncharted" by Sara Bareilles, "Parachute" by Train, "I Believe in You" by Vertical Horizon, "Time & Confusion" by Anberlin, & "You're All I Have" by Snow Patrol.

2 comments:

Kristen said...

Nice work!
And I'm so glad I'll never lose you in a croud... ;)

Jaynan said...

whoa! your hair looks really light in that pic.
good job on the race--i'm really impressed by that time after not running so long!