Thursday, March 18, 2010

Ten Mile Run at Hebrew University


Running has been something of a problem here in Jerusalem for a couple of reasons. First, there are not a lot of pedestrian friendly sidewalks--traffic is very busy and people tend to park on the sidewalks. Second, it is rather difficult to get places because of divided neighborhoods, walls, gates and deep ravines alternating with high mountains. What looks like a pleasant 3 mile jog on the map may in reality be a 3 hour ordeal of endurance requiring a bodyguard and a United Nations escort.

Today I decided to try to run around the gated student housing area of Hebrew University. It was a beautiful morning. I rained in the night and the sky was clear with large cumulous clouds. It was cool and windy but exhilerating. I found a large figure eight loop running through the housing area that took me about 7 minutes to run--let's call it 8/10 of a mile. I ran this loop continuously for 90 minutes--let's call that 10 miles.

Interestingly, in 3 weeks of running in Kharkiv, Kyiv and now Jerusalem, I haven't met another single runner.

1 comment:

The Trythalls said...

How cool would that be to run around the world! When I ran when I was on my mission in Switzerland, I rarely saw any other runners as well. I bet you are having the time of your life. I love reading your blog of adventures, Uncle Dan!