Taper Time

I finished my last long run today, 12 miles, and I am now in the last 2.5 weeks of tapering off before the half marathon. I've been having some ups and downs during training which has left me a bit uncertain about how well I am going to do in the race. The first hurdle that I overcame in training was the decision to stop running up the big hill from my apartment and instead to walk up the hill and start my runs at the top. Here is a picture of about 1/3 of the hill. I live a mile down in a valley, and to start long runs off with 1 mile uphill is really just stupid, I have come to realize. The only problem is this certainly isn't the only hill I encounter on my runs, especially on my long runs.

Today I ran all but 2km of the Jerusalem Half Marathon route for the race next weekend. (So you're not confused, I'm running the Tel Aviv half marathon, they're 2 weeks apart, good planning Israel). Serious props to whoever the hell is running the Jerusalem marathon, I barely made it through the half marathon with those hills! Granted I have been sick all weekend, but excuses aside, it was a tough 12 miles. Can't argue with the amazing views and history of the Jerusalem marathon route though, I guess maybe that's why people are crazy enough to do it.

Yesterday I ran a beautiful, FLAT, 6 miles down the shore in Tel Aviv to the new and improved Yaffo port. There is a new park in Yaffo (southern city of Tel Aviv) and it is gorgeous. Jaffo is the oldest port city in Israel but is very run down now. A few years ago they started tying to rebuild the port and the boardwalk and I am very impressed with the progress! I wish I had a picture. Anyway, this run made me feel a little better about the race because, although I was tired due to being sick this weekend, I was able to run at a much better pace than I do on the Jerusalem hills.

I ran the Hartford half marathon in 2007 as training for the Boston Marathon in 1:56 and some odd seconds. Ideally I would love to finish the Tel Aviv in 1:50 but I will have to decide if that is realistic over the next few weeks as I do shorter, quicker runs to finish training.

Also, if anyone is interested, the meat eating thing has gone no where since I last posted. I have yet to have a meat meal in the dining hall both because I haven't wanted to try them and because the lady hooks me up with the veggie option every time I get in there before I have a chance to speak. I'm going to have to tell her soon that I want to try some meat, I think she'll probably be happy, but I have to admit I do like the special treatment.