Official Results:
Time: 45:40
Overall Place: 102 out of 629
Women’s Place: 9 out of 171
Category (35-44) place: 1 out of 82
Race Morning:
I woke up at 5:30, about an hour before I had to leave, enough for a quiet breakfast and getting ready.
Gear:
Brooks Pure Cadence 2, Pro Compression Marathon socks, Athleta Presto bermuda, Moving Confort Fiona sports bra, Athleta Double Take Tank, Ironman Commit sunglasses.
Traffic and Parking:
Because this race was on a Saturday, a quiet day in Israel traffic wise, I got to the race fairly quickly and was lucky enough to find street parking a block from the start/finish line. Great for going back to the car to leave my warm clothes before the race, and to pick up my water bottle and snacks after the race. Oh the perks of small races.
Weather:
The race fell on a warm day, about 16C/61F degrees at the race start time of 8:15, too late in my opinion. It certainly felt like a late start closer to finishing, when it was a few degrees warmer.
Pre-Race:
I arrived to the race site around 07:00. 1:15 hours before race start time is a bit early, but I like to take it easy, being stressed before a race goes against my beliefs. 🙂
The race was at the city of Ramat Hasharon, and start/finish was by one of the city’s athletic facilities. Bib pickup was at the stadium gym, so I did that first, and took the chance to go pee, better at the gym restrooms than at the porta potties.
Then I met a couple of friends, chatted for a few minutes, and went back to my car to put on my running shoes (I was wearing flip flops) and to leave my long pants and jacket.
Time flies when you are having fun and by now it was 07:45, so I sat for a few minutes, and then went to do my warm up, 5 minute walk and 3KM run at a slow pace, or about 17 minutes.
Start Line:
I made it to the start line with basically 2 minutes to spare, which is what it took me to find my way to the front of the pack, about 5th or 6th row of people. I wanted to use the porta potties by the start line, but that was out of the question, no time. I had a GU although I’m not sure I needed it, and we were off right on time.
Course and Running:
The best thing about this race, especially after running 2 large races, was that it wasn’t crowded. A few people passed me and I passed a few people, sure, but at no point I had to slow down because of others. Doesn’t reading this make you run small races only?
The course went through the city of Ramat Hasharon, nothing special or remarkable, streets, houses, a post office… 🙂 Blah at most. Oh add to that a couple uphills, and let’s blame them for a minute off my PR, thank you.
Not for the first time, I started out too fast and was beat by the half point. My splits are like one of those games for kids where you give them numbers in a random order and they have to arrange them in the right order… I should give my splits to my 5 year old and see how he does.
The 2nd half of the way had a relatively big uphill around the 8th KM, and it was getting pretty warm by this time. Excuses, excuses.
Here I am at the finish line, and look at the guy next to me, doesn’t it look like it was a hard race for him too?
Post Race:
Always the best part of a race, right?
They set up a nice post race area at the track of the athletic facilities, they had vendor booths, inflatables for children, and a band playing.
Later on there was a short race for toddlers, as well as a circus performance, and the awards ceremony at the end.
My husband and kids met me post-race, first time they came to a race, well actually post-race, there was no point in them coming too early and just sitting around.
We hang out for a bit while the kids played, and then we all ran the toddler race together.
The kids got a bag of snacks and candy for running, and they ate it all while watching the circus performance and the awards ceremony.
Since I got 1st place in my age category, they got to watch me go up the podium, which was nice for me. I do hope they become runners one day.
Organization:
They really have this right, everything went so smooth.
Almost no lines for bib pickup and restrooms, the course distance was marked perfectly each KM (according to my Garmin), lots of volunteers both on course and before/after, nice after race snacks (bananas, oranges, crackers, pretzels), nice after party, race started right on time… A+.
Race Bling:
Nothing-special-about-me medal, OK award (it says 1st place women on the bottom but it fails to mention the word “age category”, which is not OK). Best race shirt ever!!! Light and small and a fun color, finally!!
A bit of history about this race:
This was the 30th year anniversary of the Aviv race, which at some point in time became a race organized in memory of Gal Levinson, a 21 year old soldier who was killed during his service in the army (1994).
His parents are a big part of the race’s organization, and they also contribute to the city of Ramat Hasharon by sponsoring local young athletes, not something that is too common in Israel. To me that alone is worth running and paying for this race.
2 Cups 'N Run 