Shalom !
After a small (ahem) hiatus, it is maybe appropriate that it’s taken a visit to a very historical set of places (Tel Aviv and, even more so, Jerusalem) for me to dig out something else which was being lost to history: this blog.
It’s not like life has been quiet in the last (wow) 18 months: the launch of a major athletics event (Pippa and me), building a company (me), starting a new job (Pippa), creating a new life (Pippa and me). Throw in various covid-related lockdowns, an injury that kept me out for 9 months (it was about time the body gave in), various rounds of Covid, a general them for last-minute cancellations of international races, a general lack of form and fitness related to all of the above and … well, it has proven hard to be entiiirely motivated to a) run and b) write about it. I do, also, feel a bit conflicted about writing a travel blog when we are meant to cut down travel and I work in the industry telling everyone to do so. This said, I’m so far down the hypocrisy path by now…
It wasn’t like I stopped running either (for the whole period). During lockdown number 17603, I set myself the target to run every street in a 1km radius of my house, which I managed.
It did, however, cover a staggering 69km which says a lot about the density of housing/roads near ours.While I would like to pretend that we only did eco-friendly camping trips within a few kilometres of our home, that would be lying: we still travelled a fair bit too, I just didn’t obsess about finding something interesting to run around while away.
And while I did take a 3 week break which turned into a 9-month break linked to damaged knee cartilage / ligaments (moral of the story: never let an old lady past you when climbing a mountain, you’ll suffer for ever), I did squeeze some races in. One – despite being possibly the worst organised event I’d been to, involved setting off ahead of Kipchoge and trying to finish your 5km before him.
They screwed the times up so badly that almost no one beat him (a one-minute lead over 5km is not very useful, surprisingly enough), so they decided to select by default a load of runners afterwards and, tadaa, I got my ticket to run in the Olympics marathon (mass race) in August 2024. A marathon in August in Paris, what could be better and healthier? This said, that could be a very reasonable conclusion to the 80 runs blog, which means that I need to get 15 ‘interesting’ runs in between now and then.
So, I’m back.
And I am in Israel. First in Tel Aviv, then in Jerusalem.
The first thing which struck me was ohmygawd it’s nice and warm. Going from 3°C in Paris to 23°C in Tel Aviv was … nice. I also couldn’t read any of the signs, which doesn’t happen that often. Other than that, and other than the incredibly thorough and strict check-in process (I even got taken to another room to have all my bags checked again, that’s a new and unwelcome experience), my first impressions were that the city is, like many cities in the world, very modern, very westernised, very lively, tons of young people and … has amazing houmous.
Tel Aviv sea front
What was more unexpected was that I genuinely think this is one of the best places I’ve ever been to for runners, which says a lot considering the number of places I’ve been to! This is even more of an unexpected statement as I managed a sum total of .. 650 metres of running in Israel.
I had hurt my calf at training a week prior and had assumed that I would be OK running as I was entirely pain free a week later and walking normally but, in just over 3 minutes, it was pooped. Massive contraction, totally inability to take a step: how appropriate after two years of running screwed over by injuries that I’d get another one just as I hoped to start this blog up again. But, so be it and screw it, I’ll never get to 80 if I don’t write this up.
Once I got over my frustrations, I still explored. This is the tour I had planned : a trip from the hotel down Rotschild Avenue south to Jaffa (the old city), followed by a long run along the promenade and a tour of the big local Hayarkon park. 16km, a nice hour and twenty minute or so at a gentle pace. Or not: it takes a LOT longer walking!
But this is why I think Tel Aviv is great for running:
- Rotschild Avenue has a large cycleway/walkway lined by trees all the way down the middle
- The promenade is not far from 10km long and beautiful: white sand, relatively few people (basically the Med but without the tourists) and wide paths
- The riverside and parks are lovely too, with regularly changing scenes, shade and/or sunshine depending on what you’re after
- And, in between those, the pavements are extremely wide and well kept: after the hell hole of our local town and Paris, this is very refreshing.
Hayarkon Park, which doesn’t quite feel like “what one thinks Israel looks like”
Miles and miles of peaceful sea front to run along
Hayarkon Park & Jaffah (Old Town)
Overall, close to 10/10 in terms of running potential: even the weather was perfect at this time of the year (this might not be quite so nice in peak summer, I recognise that!)
Jerusalem, on the other hand, is a different challenge (at least insofar as the Old City, which is where I stayed for a couple of days): cobbles, huge amounts of tourists and pilgrims, narrow streets which all look the same at first sight, stressed out taxi drivers when you’re out of the labyrinth: probably one to keep for the history books, not the running ones.
And, with that, I’m off to my next adventure: fixing this god damn body!
Injuries 5
Scenery 5
Effort 0
Around the world in 80 runs 