Israel Matzav

Jerusalem's marathon in the rain

15,000 runners ran in Jerusalem's full marathon and related races on Friday. The weather was overcast at the beginning and there was occasional rain all day with some heavy downpours in the late morning hours. The Africans seem to have won all the prizes.

More than 15,000 runners participated in the second annual Jerusalem marathon on Friday.

The winner of the marathon was David Toniok Cherono from Kenya, who finished with a time of 2:19:52, breaking the course record set last year.

The runners, representing more than 50 countries from around the world, braved poor weather conditions to take to the streets.

Police deployed approximately 400 security personnel along the course and set up a mobile command center after an IDF soldier was stabbed on the light rail Thursday morning.

Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat ran the half marathon, finishing with a respectable time of 02:07:42.79. "Jerusalem is on the map of international marathons. This impressive and exciting event is not just a sports race, but is also an economic lever for Jerusalem, drawing large crowds of tourists to the capital."

Mihiret Antonios of Ethiopia was the the first woman to cross the finish line in the full marathon, finishing with a time of 02:48:38.

Onesmus Serem took first place at Jerusalem's half-marathon (21 km) on Friday, finishing with a time of 01:05:55.

Second place in the half-marathon went to Feyisa Lema with a time of 01:06:03 and third place went to Alex Chepkwik Saekwo with a time of 01:06:41.

If they'd had this in the early '90's, I'd probably still be running. I ran marathons before we came on aliya - I had a best of 3:24:22 ('marathons' are only full marathons - 42 kilometers or 26 miles, 385 yards). My half-marathon best was around 1:31 (I'd have to look that one up). Of course, that was 20 years and a lot more than 20 pounds ago. I'd be scared to run a marathon in Jerusalem. Too many hills.

Labels: Jerusalem Marathon

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:39 PM