Jerusalem Travel Report

Shalom. is a Hebrew word meaning peace, completeness, and welfare and can be used idiomatically to mean both hello and goodbye.

Peace, completeness and welfare are traits that all runners possess.

Beth Agro and I instruct a Marathon Clinic at the Beaches Running Room in Toronto. Beth is an associate publisher with iRun magazine.

Last November at the NewYork City Marathon, I represented iRun magazine at the elite men’s press conference. When I was not actually able to speak with one of the elite runners, I placed an iRun hat on the table when I took their picture.

Fast forward to February of this year when the Isreali Ministry of Tourism invited one of iRun`s journalist to cover the Jerusalem Marathon, iRun thought about sending me and the iRun hat. So Beth brought me the proposal that I run the March 16, 2012 marathon.
How cool is that. I did not hesitate to say yes.

We all have a marathon destination we want to run.

I have run a 56km ultra Marathon in Laugavegurin, Iceland and the 56km Two Oceans ultra marathon South Africa, as well as marathons in New York, Chicago, Boston and London England as well as Big Sur in California.

The more I thought about the Jerusalem marathon, the more I became excited. What a destination race. On March 25 2011 the vision became a reality when Jerusalem joined the list of leading international cities that host a full marathon.

The Jerusalem Marathon takes runners on a route that tests not only the most experienced of runners, but also on a unique path through history; through the city so holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims around the globe. Participants run on the cobblestones of the holy and ancient city, through the beautiful neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and through the modern city center of Israel’s capital. The views alone are enough to take one’s breath away.

The 42.2 km marathon passes through the neighbourhoods of central Jerusalem, continues from south to north, through the old city and past the walls of Jerusalem.
The race this year featured a marathon, half-marathon and 10k, as well as two shorter races, and drew about 15,000 runners, including 1,500 from 50 countries outside of Israel. The highlight for participants is the scenic route, which takes runners past such major historical, cultural and religious sites as the Old City and the Temple Mount.

Other sights along the course are:

The Knesset , Israel Museum . The Supreme Court Building , The Gerard Bechar Center, Mamilla , Jaffa Gate, Zion Gate ,The Sultan’s Pool , The Israeli Cinemateque ,The Menachem Begin Heritage Center , The Jerusalem Khan Theater , The Residence of the President of Israel (under heavy security), The Jerusalem Theater ,Emek Refaim, The Armon Hanatziv Promenade , The Jerusalem Municipality , Ammunition Hill, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Mount Scopus Campus.

The race day weather was apocalyptic (or biblical depending on your view) as the winds were around 35km per hour, and rainy, but at times the sun came out and while I didn’t actually experience it, some of the runners reported hail. The rain began on Thursday morning and stopped on Friday after the race. Despite all that, the run was truly memorable and the k’s went by quickly.

The main attraction, of course, is the course and the highlight of that is the short section through the old city where you run through the Jaffa gate past the Tower of David and the streets of the Armenian quarter watched by clergy and monks and then past the site of the last supper to emerge through the Zion gate. The rest of the course rides the various hills of the city offering panorama after panorama of the spiritual centre of the world seen, finally, at 24 miles (37km) from Mount Scopus. It would be breathtaking if the hilly course had not already done that.

But let’s return to the beginning in Toronto ready to board the flight to Tel Aviv.

I met Ben Kaplan, one of the invited Journalists who writes for Financial Post ( whose first journalist love is with songwriters) While I did not know Ben, we had met briefly when we were part of the of the Marathon Flame torch relay for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in September of last year.

We flew El Al alongwith the junior Israelai/Canada Hockey team. They had been in Toronto and Ottawa for a tournament. Who would have thought there would be a hockey team in Israel?
We arrived in Tel Aviv and met our tour guide Irit Doron. We had a quick tour and met the other Canadian journalist, Sam Cohen, who is the publisher of Canadian Running (as well as Gripped Publishing. Sam’s first love was mountain climbing) The weather in Tel Aviv was pleasant and not overly hot. My impression of the Middle East was warm weather, but this was their spring.

After lunch we had a tour of Jaffa, which is an ancient seaport and is also related to the narrative of Johna and the whale. We visited some excellent art shops. One gallery we stopped at by chance , met the owner/artist Ilana Goor (some of whose work is in the White House and on the wall there is a picture of her and Bill Clinton as well as other celebrities)

We paused briefly at one of the small restaurants on the the fishing dock, where I sampled my first Israeli beer- Goldstar- it is made by Tempo breweries. This beer showed up everywhere so was not able to sample a lot of the other 14 breweries in Isreal. My disappointment as it was not that great a beer. Oh well ,I guess you can’t have it all.

After we got back to the Herod hotel, Ben, Sam and I went for an 8km run along the beach which overlooks the Meditteranian Sea.
Later that day we met the two other journalists from the US . Jennifer Scroggins who writes for the American Catholic blog and Runners High in Cinncinati and Ross Forman a freelance sports journalist (Ross: Running a marathon) who is a sports writer and once met Mohammed Ali. Then we went for dinner at a very nice restaurant

The following morning, and before breakfast, we went for another 8km run.
In the afternoon, Irit took us on a walking tour of the open air Tel Aviv market, the Sea Shore Promenade, the Pedestrian Mall and wandered back to the hotel through some of the residential streets.
Then we drove to Jerusalem (and did have to pass through some armed checkpoints to enter Jerusalem)

Checking into the Kings Primas hotel in Jerusalem, the concierge was a young woman who was wearing a gun . Very cool. But it turns out that all hotel “security” carry side arms.

Despite the presence of guns (all the soldiers carry them) I was not afraid and felt no tensions whenever we were out and about.
We walked to the reception dinner that night with our hosts from the Ministry of Tourism and later went to a nightclub before our sound and light show presentation at the Tower of David.

As we approached the old City, I experienced a tingling sensation that although brief was due to being the presence of the 5000 year city and the “centre of the universe”

The fact that 3 religions co-exist within this 1 km structure is amazing. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all share an equal passion and claim ownership of the city that the Mayor wants to brand as Jerusalem.
On our way back to the hotel ,we walked through the luxury mall next to the Mamilla Hotel. This is almost like walking down Rodeo Drive with all the usual upscale stores.

The marathon course (start line and meeting area in the park was already set up). I guess when the Mayor is a marathon runner and wants to promote the marathon, Stuff happens. It was when he ran the marathon in New York City , he felt that Jerusalem needed a world class marathon event.

Later we had the walking tour of the Old City where we walked part of the Via Dolorosa (Stations of the Cross), and visited the Christian Quarter and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. For a touching personal experience see Jennifer’s post. http://blog.americancatholic.org/2012/03/suddenly-i-was-crying/

I donned a Yamaka and visited the Western Wall also known as wailing wall. The devout pray at the wall and visitors and worshipers place prayers on slips of paper and put them in the cracks in the wall.

Ben has written his child’s name on a piece of paper (he and his wife have 6 month old baby) and when he asked if I wanted a piece of paper I wrote my own children’s names and placed that in one of the cracks.

The section to pray at the wall is separated for men and the women have their own entrance and section
We walked through the market and entered the Muslim section of the Old City but did not get to the to the Muslim Temple Mount (the one with the gold dome)

We later went to view the Dead Sea scrolls in the new museum, and saw the Shrine of the Book. This is a replica of the actual Dead Sea scrolls which were discovered in a series of wilderness caves between 1947and 1956. Later that day we also toured the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane.

During our visit, I noticed a lot of soldiers carrying guns. Men and women must serve in the military for 3 years. They carry their rifles with them at all times. At the pasta dinner, we posed for pictures with a soldiers and his rifle After the marathon, we saw some soldiers in their civilian clothes carrying their rifles just like we carry our backpacks..

On Wednesday we attended the press conference where we met the Mayor, Nir Barkat and other representatives from the Ministry of Tourism. I presented an iRun hat and Mark Sutcliffe’s book “Why I Run” to the mayor and had a few pictures taken with him.
Also at the press conference was Kevin Lim ( Running the Sahara) as well as Russian Elite Kamila Khanipova( she came 2nd in a time of 2,49 and the Kenyan Pacer Andrew Kilonzi ( he ran 2:29).

On Thursday the 70 journalists from the various countries took a bus tour of the marathon course. Of the 70 journalists approximately 10 ran the marathon or half marathon.

Along the way we stopped in at a working kibbutz (which is also a hotel) for some hot chocolate.

We also toured the City of David where we saw a working archival dig which uncovered parts of the Western wall. While it was intriguing to decend 20 feet underground in a passage 3 feet wide and about 7 feet high, the footing was a little sketchy and not something I would normally do the day before a marathon.

Then we were off to the registration to get our bibs, timing chip and at the same time the elite runners arrived, so we took the opportunity to get more pictures taken with them.
Once of the photographing company was able to link your bib number to Facebook and the pictures they took were automatically sent to your home page. Caution some of those pictures were not pretty.

We attended the expo, where due the cold weather I bought tights and a long sleeve shirt and gloves (sheesh)

We were getting tired, but still had to attend the expo and the pasta dinner. The pasta dinner was the same types of pasta you get here, but with a lot more salads, bread, fruit and desert.
There was an extremely loud band playing, and there was no actual seating, just stand up tables.
The Mayor and race director were not due to arrive until 8 pm so, collectively , we decided to leave.

We took a cab back to the hotel to get some much needed rest for the next day.

I did post events from my marathon experience in my blog Running Groupie

http://irun.ca/index.phprace-recap-jerusalem-marathon-march-16-2012/

Friday afternoon and Saturdays are Shabbat (or holy day) and the City shuts down.
except for certain locations. Even the elevators are on automatic, so only one is available and it stops automatically at each floor.
After the marathon we walked bacvk to the hotel to shower , write the blog and then have a nap. We had a quiet dinner in the Hotel’s restaurant.
Saturday morning we drove to Masada and for a dip in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is at lowest part of the world.
Massa is about 1 hour outside of Jeruslem. And a ½ hour drive outside of Jeruraslem the desert begins.. However we did drive out there on a modern 4 lane highway.
Masada is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in the Southern District of Israel, on top of an isolated rock plateau, Masada is best known for the violence that occurred there in the first century CE. In the final accords of the First Jewish–Roman War, the Siege of Masada by troops of the Roman Empire led to the mass suicide of the Sicarii rebels.
How they built a castle up there is amazing and how the Romans laid seige and built a ramp to the top is even more astounding.
Peter O’Toole starred in the 1981 mini-series movie Masada. That movie was used in the screening for tourists before they go to the top.
You can take the cable car up or walk the 1.88 km distance (900 meters straight up).
I had to walk. Sam decided to join me for the trek.
It took us about 23 minutes (including stops for pictures) . When we arrived, Irit was waiting for us. Before we started, Ross and Jennfier said they would take the cable car, but later decided the trek would do their legs good. (Remember we ran the Marathon the day before, but then we are athletes,.eh)
We took the cable car down though.
Then off to the Dead Sea. Because we made some unexpected stops to view some other spectacular gardens, and a working kibbutz, we ended up at a public beach at the Dead Sea, rather than the scheduled spa. The Dead Sea has some of the most saline water on earth; as much as 35% of the water is dissolved salts! That’s almost six times as salty as the ocean!
And much to my chagrin, the proverbial McDonald sign was rotating, except on one side was written in Hebrew.
This picture of me in the Dead Sea almost looks as though I am sitting on an air mattress that has sunk below the surface, but I’m literally just floating without having to hold my feet in that position! If you think this is easy, try floating like this in a freshwater swimming pool. This was truly a unique feeling but don’t get the salt water in your eyes. The water was not cold, sort of like you first dip in the lake during the summer.
Then we rinsed off for the drive back to Jerusalem (and again going through a couple of military check points) The Dead Sea is shared by Jordan.
Just the 6 of us for our final meal (last supper?) Isreali meals consist of putting a number of appetizers on the table, with bread and dips, then bring more main course, then desert which we all share.
Sunday morning, our limo took us back to Tel Aviv, passing through the Gaza Strip check points because the driver said it was faster. Again more armed check points, but we were simply waived through.
The flight home by Tel Aviv (where I was subject to a security bag check. Apparently the testing they do is to sniff out gun residue) takes about 11 hours.
Arriving in New York and a then a $50 cab rider from JFK to LaGuardia (where I was randomly chosen again) and home to by Air Canada to Toronto.
This was the trip of a lifetime and I would recommend this destination race to all. The Ancient City combined with a marathon. What could be better?
Shalom.