Holidays are over, few pictures are online

I must say that the pictures do not make justice to this cave, life is just much better than you can see it on the best photographs.
We have eventually visited the Stalactite cave (in Jerusalem area: Avshalom reserve). This cave is considered relatively small but it's still one of the most beautiful stalactite caves around the world.

Few pictures are online at KodakGalery.

Vacation 2010: Davos

First part of our vacation we spent in Switzerland, Davos: a very beautiful town in Swiss Alps. There was plenty of rain during the 9 days we stayed there, but I would not complain that we did not have a chance to enjoy the area. In a few words if you think of a beautiful place for vacation, this place gets a high score.

There are plenty of pictures are at KodakGallery.

Swiss Alpine 78K, 2010

This race was on my mind even before I ran my first race...  A race in the mountains, not too long (fits in one day with a full night rest before and after), not too short (to care too much about speed) and amazingly beautiful! The pictures from the race are at KodakGallery, and there a couple of videos online: finisher clip and Michael's video.
The data from my FR 310 is at Garmin site.

I approached it in well planned (even if in a bit odd manner) stages:
1. 80 km race in Israel;
2. Mountain marathon in Swiss Alps (Jungfrau);
3. the goal (?) race: Swiss Alpine 78k,
    78.5 km race with ~2300m of elevation gain, also in Swiss Alps.

Back from vacation!

We are back from a 3 week vacation!

Short summary is as follows: first day we stayed in Zurich with our friends, then spent 10 days in Davos, where I enjoyed SwissAlpine k78 race a lot (race report to follow complete with pictures). Finally we went to Russia, smoke filled Moscow with 40 deg. celsius heat to visit my relatives. Pictures from all stages will be on-line in a few days!

Weekend trip: Nahal Amud

We had been lucky with the weather, so we used the opportunity and had a very nice walk along Nahal Amud (the Pillar stream, called this way because of the pillar like stone near the stream).


The pictures from the trip are on-line.

Judo competition, on the 20th of May

 Michael has won his three fights at the competitions that took place in Menashe Regional Center on the 21st of May.

Video of the final fight is in YouTube, pictures are at KodakGallery, as always.

Marathon Tel-Aviv 2010

This was my first road marathon and now I am wary of such: I just never ran on asphalt and now I can confirm that it is much more painful than running trails.

First of all I should say that the organization of Marathon Tel-Aviv was close to perfect, there was water more than every 4 km, there were 4 points with electrolyte sport drinks and three tables with apples/oranges.
I ran with a hand held bottle and had two gels in it's pocket, which in retrospect should have been 3, but this should remain as memo for the future. Otherwise, all went nice and easy until the sun got up and then it got hot! Every time I passed water station I poured another bottle on myself and from time to time refilled my bottle. The most challenging part was in the open sun after ~27km, but I were not chasing records -- just doing a long 4 hour run, so I slowed down and it was almost fine...

Actually my legs did not a bad work, but kept scaring me from time to time, as paranoid as I am nowadays, I walked every time I felt a familiar twitch in the calf, but who cares ;-)
The route can be seen at Garmin Connect, and there are some pictures at KodakGallery.

Judo belt exam 2010

Both Vitaly and Michael had their judo exams on the 25th of April -- just before Vitaly's birthday and got new belts.
I've shot a short video while they played around before changing the belts, and, of course, the pictures are on-line.

Passover (Peisach) walks in Carmel

We had a couple of nice walks in a good weather during this year Peisach holidays. The first one was a trip to Sumak ancient settlements (pictures online) and the second to Etzba (or "finger") cave also in Carmel.
This place was first visited by Michael with his school and he liked it enough to go back there with us.
So, thanks to Michael! pictures are uploaded and ready to viewing!

Jerusalem Half 2010

I've gladly accepted an invitation for a nice training run: Jerusalem Half Marathon 2010. I did treat it as a training run: running every day more than 10km before it and trying to feel comfortable all the way. It still took 1h51min instead of planned 2 hours, so probably the atmosphere had its effect...

The weather was just perfect: not too hot and not too cold (around 10 deg. Celsius), perfect visibility; and Jerusalem is a beautiful city!

BTW, now I have the elevation profile and the route available! see more data at Garmin Connect site.