One Day of a Marathoner’s Wife

Good day, community!

It won’t be actually me as the main hero of the day, but my husband who ran the Jerusalem marathon in the cold morning of March, 16th. I was used as an assistant and a driver. And yes, I am Marina, we live in Hod Hasharon, Israel.

I can never used weekends to have a good sleep. More than that, I often get up even earlier than in weekdays.

The first thing to do – feeding the pets.

Me in the bathroom

A bit of perfume

Time. The clock shows me that I learned to dress faster than for 45 min.

Someone’s eating laces

In less than an hour we get to wet Jerusalem

We have plenty of time till the start. We were afraid we won’t be able to find a place for parking as usual. In vain. Now we are sitting in the car and freezing…

5:26 Husband goes to learn about the place of the start

I stay with a book in warmth

But the driver of that grey MAZDA tries twice (!) to open his door against my car. Have to swear. The car didn’t have a single scratch before! I am sad.

But husband is happy

It stopped raining but it’s still dull

A super new bridge hid in the cloud

When we were approaching the start line it rained again…

Real sportsmen do not care and get ready for the start

Video operators may hide their heads at least

The guard would probably prefer to stand in a dry place now.

Start finally

Pay attention to the man with many cameras. He was shooting for some sports program and running at the same time! 42 km!

The first group

Sportsmen from Ethiopia and Kenya are the best as expected

The next after them is 2 minutes back! The huge lead for 4 km!

Girls with a boy

Potential winners ran away and here are ordinary people. The man in orange with a balloon is a pacer, he sets the pace for those who run the marathon for 3 hours 45 minutes.

Here appears my husband, he still has some power and can even speak something ))

Absolutely different people participare, someone even runs with bare feet.

The blue route is a full marathon distance, the red – its half, the green – 10 km.

I wanted to catch husband in the Old City and have a walk there.

Passing Saker park

In the park

Soldiers are warming up for a 10 km army run

I move on

My WAZE helps me not to lose my way

Passing the House of Arts

Churches

And the main synagogue

Then I realize that I am late to be in the Old City.. So I will catch the runner in another place…

Here are they are

Jerusalem is rather hilly. Some sportsmen stopped running and walked.

30 km mark, I have missed him again! So, I will go directly to the finish.

Soon I will see him

10 km is the most crowded race.

4 hours pacer, so the husband is near

Turned out he was not! He called me to warn that he’d sprained his leg and had to slow down. Then I saw a water battle.

Finally we meet and he still smiles!

When it’s close to the finish many relatives and fans join the runners.

The long-awaited finish line, here only the runners are allowed.

The moment of the day!!!

He’s done it! Can pose now)

The Jerusalem marathon is cnsidered to be one of the hardest ones. Time of the winner – 02:19:52, the world record – 02:03:38.

Finalists among women were a surprise for me. Second place belongs to a Russian woman, third to a Belorussian one. In the overall standings they were the 16th and 17th. An Ephiopian woman was only one minute ahead.