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.

Bouldering in Haifa

I've put online one more recent set of pictures. I've taken Michael to bouldering (at XPark in Haifa -- "kir Yoav") and it seems that we'll be doing it more. He enjoys it enough to get back even with sore hands and fingers.

Desert @ full moon

So it did happen: I could not resist the temptation and ran official race which was held in the Dead Sea area. It was a 30K night run in the beautiful desert with landscapes illuminated by the full moon.
Many runners still used headlights, while others, including me, enjoyed the natural moonlit surroundings. I did not really "race" it -- the purpose was to enjoy it as much as possible.

The group of fast runners even honoured my tradition of getting lost on the trails and of course I've followed them, but not the whole way -- I am not the fastest. My route from garmin can be found at MotioneBased.

Nice video from the event can be found at flix.

Michael won one more competition!

Michael got his next gold medal in judo competition that took place on the 16th of November. The pictures are @ kodak gallery.
There are also 2 videos: first fight and the second.