Few pictures from Desert Challenge 2009

Yes, I did it again this year. The weather was perfect the landscapes mesmerizing... I was injured... Probably it was not the smartest move on my part but I do not have any regrets...

Few my pictures are at KodakGallery. Those were taken by the event organizers
Many more pictures can be found at Flickr.

Judo Competitions, Nov. 08

Michael has won two (of the two) sparrings and has earned his next gold medal. Videos from the competitions are online (the first and the second fight). The pictures are as usual at KodakGallery.

Full Moon on the 4th of October

This is a view from our window. Explains a desire for a night run ;-)

Late update for our vacation : Russia

Here comes the last update from our vacation. In Russia we first were taken to a beautiful place, called Veles which is located close to several towns from "The Golden Ring of Russia" -- Vladimir, Suzdal, etc. There we spent 3 days, lucky with beautiful weather and, of course, the pictures are on-line. The last 4 days we were in Moscow (well, close by, in Mytishci) staying with the family and seeing friends. Here is the slide show.

Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe! and more Switzerland

Next day after marathon we took it easy -- a train trip to the Jungfraujoch with a few hours on the site were enough for the day. The pictures are online.

After that we hiked to Bussalpen and visited friends in Zurich, leaving Switzerland for Moscow on the 10th of September. More pictures are here and there ;-)

Jungfrau Marathon Summary

It was beautiful and I really loved the experience. Being unable to push it as much as I wanted (because of the injuries) I enjoyed it also as a scenic hike and had plenty of time to look around enjoying the views.

I even have 3 pictures of me taken by marathon-photos.com (with some pictures shot from the train back -- see the slideshow) and two video clips: official finishers clip and encounter with Michael at ~11km.

The results are online too (mine is 5:33.09 with the bib number 4704).
Now if you want to read the detailed report...

Marathon Splits Info

I uploaded my marathon data from Garmin into SportTracks software, there is plenty of interesting statistics available there.

Here are my 1km time splits for Jungfrau Marathon, 2009.

Jungfrau Minirun

Jungfrau Minirun was held a day before Jungfrau Marathon. Michael decided to try it out and it worked out really good: he managed to enjoy himself even in the rain (he was lucky to have no wind, though). The results are online too (5:02 time for bib number 1466).
The slideshow is online as well as two video clips: mine and official one.

Back from vacation!

We are back! The vacation was intensive: we traveled to Switzerland and Russia.
First stop was for Jungfrau Marathon were I participated in the marathon (race report will follow) and Michael ran "Jungfrau MiniRun" -- 1km in 5:02! Then we hiked in the region (also going up to Jungfraujoch -- "top of Europe") .
After that we stayed for a couple of nights with our friends in Zurich and left for Russia.

The next stop was "Veles": a fairytale location in the woods in the area of the Russian "Golden Ring".
Finally we had just 3 days in Moscow to see family and friends. Time flied...
More details and the pictures will follow soon (hopefully!)

Climbing at Mazok Nir (near Manara)

We had a wonderful day rock climbing on the north of Israel.
Michael was rather successful and managed to enjoy himself.


The KodakGallery slideshow is on-line.

Amazing running video

This video was posted (and created) by Matt Hart from Montrail team on his blog for his presentation.

I watched at least 5 times... and I believe I'll watch it many many more, it always brings a smile out from somewhere:


UltraRunning from Matt Hart on Vimeo.

Saturday run

Weekend morning run this Saturday was kind of special, so I'll leave a note here even nobody but me will look at it twice ;-)

It was a slow and long run (45 km, which took me almost 5 hours) that began a half hour before the sunrise and was finished with sun shining and temperatures well above 20 degrees (celsium).

The plan was to have a relaxed run with some noticable elevation gain, but I've changed a route a bit to visit a nice looking trail I have not tried. It was well worth the trouble: a couple of doe was crossing the trail, probably going to the creek close by and I had pleasure to watch them disappearing into the forest. I've slowed down (as if I were fast before :-)...) and studied the place they disappeared at...





Just a few minutes after, I was surprised by a different couple: this time they were short-toed eagles! they were really close to me, not more than 5 meters and I had a chance to have a good look at them... I saw more of their kind later and also the reason they were out: hunting snakes. The snake I met (well, it just crossed the train and I jumped over it, even without saying hello) was not a small one and luckily it was not interested in me.

I had a few more encounters which are more or less common in our area: cows, bulls and calfs running from me; red fox; and a lot of white storks... oh, yes and after 8 oclock there were cyclists and hikers...

On my way home it was getting hotter and I was out of water with 4 km to go, so I stopped by the stream (a beautiful part of Nahal Shofet near Ein HaEmek) and cooled my feet in the water...

Thus I have got home tired and happy after 5 hours out ...
The link to the route can be found on MotionBased site.

Pictures from Ultra

The slideshow is online, thanks for race organizers for providing the pictures!

First Ultra (80 km) done! 27th of March, 2009

Just for the sake of change it is going to be a loo-o-ong post and not really family oriented -- feel free to skip it ;-)

This is my first try at a race report that covers my second official race (here is the first one) and my first ultra -- 80km run. It was a trail running event (defined as a "cross country adventure race") organized by Carin Goldblatt and her company Pro-sport. The elevation profile of the race looks far from boring (see below).

11km walk along HaShofet Stream

This Saturday we had a very beautiful walk along the stream near our place ( see pictures at KodakGallery ). The weather was hot and sunny -- real summer! and after two weeks of rains there was plenty of water in the streams. Flowers were plentiful and colors were well represented... In a few word we enjoyed it a LOT!

One more judo competition, one more gold to Michael!

Congratulations again to Michael, he had won one more competition on the 1st of March. Pictures are again at KodakGallery.
Video of the fist and second fights are online as well.