Running in Israel and Jordan

Tel Aviv


Not much time. But in my quest to run at every location, I need to get out and do something. Anything. All I can manage is to run around the block, which is decent sized, for a grand total of one and three-quarters miles. It’s all tall buildings and expressway overpasses. This is all too bad, since there may have been some nice running along the seashore. The seashore that I couldn’t get to.



Haifa


This time I am indeed able to get to the seashore. It’s right outside the hotel you see, and there’s a nifty bike trail. For two different runs, I go north and south about as far as the trail will take me, which is 7-ish miles one day and 5-ish the next. I don’t know how the running will be the rest of the trip, but this here is pretty darn good.



Jerusalem


After an orientation run, I think I’ve learnt where to go. We’re here for four nights, and I plan to run each day if possible. This day I do get to a small park that’s near the hotel, but the paths are all curvey and not entirely runnable. Okay, now where to go? Back to the hotel, which seems surrounded by busy streets and freeways, and out the other end of the complex. I’m on a busy road that isn’t too very busy due to Shabbat and I turn into the Hebrew University area. The running here is great – long roads in park-like settings and no traffic. I get nearly two hours in this time, but my Garmin only registers 8 miles. I think there’s something wrong with it (not really). I get a couple other slow easy runs in, and manage to get out each of the four mornings.



Amman


We’re only spending one night here, and as usual, I don’t have much time. This will be yet another orientation/exploration run. I find a) a parklike boulevard that’s not as long as I’d hoped, b) another cultural center that’s okay to circumnavigate, c) every taxi (and that’s all there are on the roads at 5:00 AM) wants to pull over to give me a ride, and d) the call to prayer.



Petra


I can see for miles and miles. Villages are lit up like groupings of jewels in the vast dark desert. They’re interspersed with the mountains that are nearly invisible in the darkness. I hear the 5:00 AM call to prayer coming from several of them. After beginning my run at a high point, I travel down – way down – and eventually wind up in one of said villages. Of course it’s bigger than it looked from afar, and I don’t want to get lost, so I just turn back. Until this point, there had been only the one road.

Now the moon is setting in the west, the direction of the villages I’d been admiring. The sky is getting lighter, and now I can see the distant mountains and desert floor better.

The run, and the one the following day were not great, or even good. But they sure are memorable, nonetheless.



Dead Sea


I hadn’t made it to ten miles yet. Today, my last on this trip, would be the day. I turn North out of the Movenpick and run on the service road (for resorts and stuff) that parallels the four-lane that parallels the Dead Sea. The street lighting is good, and there’s almost no traffic on this road.

I encounter a pack of wild, or at least loose dogs. I keep my distance, but I do need to yell at them a bit. At times I stay in the playpen area of the sidewalk. Yes, it’s barricaded in, for reasons that I don’t quite understand. Other times I’m back on the road.

The full moon is setting over the Dead Sea. It’s surreal. I run about three miles and notice that the service drive ends. I figure it’s time to turn back. I later learn that this is exactly as far North as the Dead Sea itself goes. It’s beginning to get light as I pass the Movenpick and keep going South.

There’s a lot of construction here, because heaven knows you can’t have too many Dead Sea Resorts. I turn back and stop in the room to let Debbie know that I’ll be later than planned. But I simply have to get those ten miles in. She is not amused.

I finish up, successfully getting those miles in. Finally.