Interlaken Trip, 2012

A very late post... but better later than never...

following the marathon route: day 1

We had our family vacation together with 20th anniversary of Jungfrau Marathon. I had done double version (both on 8th of September and on 9th of September) while Michael and Vitaly played a role of a perfect support team.

We also had a few days for beautiful walks in the area, pictures are on-line.

a Jungfrau background picture

Haute Route 2012

Fenetre D'Arpette, 2665m

The route was done in "fastpacking" style in 5 days, from July 23 to July 28.
Some pictures from the route in a Shutterfly photo book form (press "view photo book" and go to full screen option).
Few highlights (in pictures, of course are below):

Michael's Birthday 2012

Michael turned 11 this Sunday and he celebrated it first with his friend at Boulder Climbing Wall (Haifa).

As all the kids he invited are his friends from judo team, instead of usual games they were treated to the introductory training session of 1 and half hours with Ben Emergi, and then had the place for themselves for as long as they wished.

Of course, Birthday Cake, some Pizza and snacks were included and some pictures taken...

Heard from Michael that kids enjoyed the party, although were a bit sore the next day, hope that some of them will get back to the place and we have new climbers there...

Happy Birthday to the big boy and good luck to him in everything!

Dolev, Michael, Rotem, Daniel, Omri, Amir, Tal and Mayan with Ben behind the group.

First Haifa Stair Race (2012)

This actually is an "old news" post... thanks to Shvoong service uploading pictures to FB automatically...

Anyway... this was really a pleasure to join the run. Most stair races take you on a trip up the building stair well, not this race! The race started at sea level, Haifa Port and lead us to Carmel Center (near Dan Hotel) via Haifa streets and 1075 stairs for 3.4km.

The organization was just perfect and though I had a slow result for the short race (28 minutes) I loved every minute spent on the course.

Mountain 2 Valley 2012

Mountain 2 Valley is a relay event covering ~215km from Tel Hai in the North to Timrat (Izrael Valley). It can be done in the teams of 8, 6 or 4 runners or as either long (215km) or "short" (129km) ultra run.

This time I coerced 3 colleagues from Intel Jerusalem to form a 4 team and to enjoy the consequences.

We had a mixed team: two fast guys: Jonathan Maresky and Tsion Vidal and two "slower" ladies: me and Clementine Haddad. The race took us 20 hours 35 minutes of running + driving the "fresh-tired" runners to the next section. It was new experience to all of us, Jonathan &Clem done the race in bigger 8-team a year ago and it was first relay for me & Tsion.

International Flower Exhibition in Haifa 2012

This year the international flower exhibition was back to Haifa. The only downside was that it was way too crowded, but that's understandable, considering the quality of the exhibition...

Pictures from the exhibition are @ KodakGallery.

Tel Aviv Marathon 2012

Although finishing time does not show it (4h 10min) it was a good run. This time the weather cooperated, it was really perfect for the run: a bit overcast most of the time with gentle sun during the last hour (unlike Jerusalem Marathon two weeks ago).
I started it saying "easy" to myself and in a few minutes felt like during one of nice morning outings, enjoying the city, the weather and the feeling moving comfortably along... I did slow down gradually but was able to run comfortably till the end... first time in marathon! well, I know I was injured during two of 4 previous versions and recovering after 100k once, but still it did feel good for a change...

The route with the splits info is at Garmin site. The pictures are at KodakGallery.

Second Jerusalem Marathon (2012)

I did run it again, had fun and finished almost with the same result as a year ago... although a story was different this time. The route and organization were again as good as they get, the weather was... ...not boring: we had wind (up to 70km/h), rain, hail, sun... The views that would be great were covered with the thick mist most of the time...

I must admit, that though I was not trained enough for it, I was ready to enjoy the special run... Life interfered during the last week and I had minimal rest/fueling and plenty of stress along. I even was lucky I had a set of running clothes + shoes in my car, so I was almost geared up ;-)
Nevertheless, I am thankful to this run (race?) for reminding me that life is beautiful and full of surprises... and that I love running even if I do not race ;-)

This picture was taken at finish line:

Videos from Judo competitions in Tel Aviv, March 3

Michael has won this time and all three fights are on-line: the first fight, the second fight and the final.

Winter in Israel

Winter in Israel is very close to Spring/Summer in Europe: we have rains, cool mornings, plenty of flowers and beautiful sunrises (well, this we have all year round).
I have uploaded few pictures, most of them taken near my place, on Carmel Mountain on December and January mornings.