We lived at the end of town, up on Mt Carmel, where the shepherds used to come with their sheep and goat herds to the hills by our neighborhood. I remember long days of strolling on these hills, trying to figure out the animals visiting at night by their tracks. Watching the seasons changing the colors, the smells, the texture of the soil under my feet. Walking these trails by our home and across Israel are my best early childhood memories.

This post is about what really matters, the journey. A journey of a child, as old as almost 55. A child who was lucky to have parents who never said you can’t. Who had the right orthopedist telling him that he will. Will be able to walk and run like everyone else. Just keep the discipline and use his left leg the way he is asked to… This same discipline is probably also behind the ~5,500 km ran and ~80,000 m climbed while training toward this race.It all started about 10 years ago when I started running on a regular basis a few times a week. I always loved it when I was running, but never got serious into doing it. So much been earned and learned along the many hours and miles on the way. So many cliché are said about long distance running, surprisingly, the more and longer you run you find out most of them are true. On the Gobimarch website it says “we refer to the 4 Deserts Ultramarathon Series as a series of self-supported rough-country endurance footraces which can be completed by running or walking.” My translation to this was more time out there, a new opportunity to explore my boundaries, and a new opportunity to win the inner competition. And it is also about comradeship of runners… I have this memory from my first half marathon, when I saw the winners back on the 19-20th kilometer, cheering for the runners. People like myself who took over 2 hrs to finish, and were simply happy to complete the run. That spirit is what I love in this sport, the brotherhood of runners, the mutual support, the appreciation of the personal effort – no matter if you are the winner, or the last person to cross the finish line (especially me being closer the second one… :-)).

So, as already said, when at the end of July 2019, I will be standing at the starting line of the GobiMarch, a 250-km race in Mongolia, I will prove myself that everything is possible, and this is exactly what thousands of Yadid Lachinuch volunteers do. This is also my message to Perthes kids and their families. Join me and support Yadid Lachinuch the the Perthes Kids Foundation, and enable us reaching more kids, show them that anything is possible, in tolerance and the love of man. And to support each of this kids in his own journey. It is that simple…

Simple (Raymond Carver)

A break in the clouds.

The blue outline of the mountains.
Dark yellow of the fields.
Black river.

What am I doing here, lonely and filled with remorse?

I go on casually eating from the bowl of raspberries.

If I were dead, I remind myself, I wouldn’t be eating them. It’s not so simple.
It is that simple.

If you feel like ‘like’ or ‘comment’ at the end of the post, then instead, go to Yadid Lachinuch Eng. / עברית OR PERTHES KIDS FOUNDATION and spend this short time to support and donate 1 dollar or more to these great activities.

Thirty (30) days to Gobi March 2019… wow!

So my head deals with “the plan”, how should I handle the race, each day, every moment of it. How to cope with changing circumstances and situations. Trying to predict all the unexpected. As much as I do so I understand that it all comes down to some very basic decisions based on the most important things for me when I first thought about taking part in this race. What really made me so excited about training and hopefully participating in it?

It all started with looking for something exciting that involves running, preferably somewhere I did not been to before. A multi-day ultra-marathon event was on the agenda, since I did want to cover more landscape and be more time outside while doing such a race. Googling things, brought me to the racingtheplanet website, and from there the way quickly indicated the Gobi March is the leading candidate.

So what’s the plan? 1st, Start; I guess this in itself is kind of an achievement, being there after the long training journey. Then, 2nd, Enjoy; why am I here for if not to enjoy the time out there, the unknown land, the heat, the night, the climbs… And 3rd, Finish healthy; critical point, keeping the race in the right proportion, pushing only to the extent that is needed to serve the “enjoy” goal. I bet that if i can only follow these basic rules – it will be a great race!

Will keep sharing the excitement and the preps in following posts…

If you read thus far, then please support: PERTHES KIDS FOUNDATION & Yadid Lachinuch Eng. / עברית

Some highlights of the 2018 race:

To follow up the race that starts on July 28th, simply go to the race “results” page, or update from the race IG of 4Deserts and Racing the planet or FB page of the RTP. Some updates may also show up on my personal FB or IG page.

The GobiMarch2019 is only 36 days away. As much as I was excited think of this race, planning, training, dreaming… 36 days feels like NOW. This journey started as a very personal one… and evolved into raising awareness for two organizations, Yadid Lachinuch and the Perthes Kids Foundation. Now, when the start line seems at reach, I wanted to take a look of the way to date.

Since the idea to participate in the Gobi-march came to my mind, and the actual start of the long term planning and training, it has been almost 18 months. Looking back I find that since January 1st 2018, I already covered run/hike of 4,944 km, climbing over 74,500 meters, in 365 activities.  These long hours and miles were accompanied by photographs of the great trails I explored (see some from June at the end of this post), and some blog posts, trying to reach as many people as possible. Yet, my plans for the race remain modest: Start, Enjoy, Finish healthy. 

Back to impact… so I took the time to analyze where did my words get to. The map below shows the coverage of the globe – yet many parts uncovered 🙂 . Nevertheless, so many people follow, including many unknown friends from Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, USA, UK, Ukraine, and Venezuela.

To follow up the race that starts on July 28th, simply go to the race “results” page, or update from the race IG of 4Deserts and Racing the planet or FB page of the RTP. Some updates may also show up on my personal FB or IG page.

Do not forget to support: PERTHES KIDS FOUNDATION & Yadid Lachinuch Eng. / עברית

Training for long distance runs requires allocating significant time, and people often ask “how do you do this?” or “why?” or “where do you find motivation?” and a bunch of other questions. There is probably no single and clear answer to this, and it is probably very different from one person to the other. To me, at least in part, it is the eye of the storm.

If you say that someone or something is at the eye of the storm, you mean they are the main subject of a public disagreement, or a least the heart of some conflict or unrest (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/the-eye-of-the-storm). This however does not really fit the real nature of the phenomenon.

The eye is a region of mostly calm weather at the center of strong tropical cyclones. It is a roughly circular area, typically 30–65 km (20–40 miles) in diameter. It is surrounded by the eye wall, a ring of towering thunderstorms where the most severe weather and highest winds occur (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_(cyclone)).

The Eye Wall, a hurricane’s most devastating region, is located just outside of the eye . This is the location within a hurricane where the most damaging winds and intense rainfall is found. … At the surface, the winds are rushing towards the center of a hurricane — forcing air upwards at the center (ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(gh)/guides/mtr/hurr/stages/cane/eye.rxml).

The eye is so calm because the now strong surface winds that converge towards the center never reach it. The Coriolis force deflects the wind slightly away from the center, causing the wind to rotate around the center of the hurricane (the eye wall), leaving the exact center (the eye) calm.

The long hours out there on the trails, the changing views, the different colors of the seasons, the lights of the day and darkness of nights, the music I listen to, the time to think and to not think, the focus on the next step, in and out of the daily rush – this is part of what running is for me. An eye in the storm, only me, challenging myself and pushing my boundaries, leaning how to listen to my self, plan in detail and change everything just to re-plan, focus and refocus at will, succeed and fail, keep on pushing forward, live.

Below are some peaceful shots from the runs, enjoy – and do not forget to support: PERTHES KIDS FOUNDATION & Yadid Lachinuch Eng. / עברית

When I started taking running seriously, I got used to train under any weather and circumstances. Under this change I did in my life, the idea was to avoid giving up training, not letting myself to find excuses for not running. Then, post marathon distances meant training for longer distances at least once a week, with quality training on weekdays.  But, training for 250 km stage race is something completely different.

Now it is all about accumulating time on my feet. So the training becomes a bit more then ‘part of your life”. It is now life itself – on top of demanding work, and the desire to spend enough time with the family. Net training time per week of over 15 hrs became a habit. Wake me up and I’ll dress up and go out for training. So the trails around our place became my second home, night and day.

Luckily, this time of the year everything around is green, and the wheat is high. The green fields open the heart and cure the soul.  So this post photos go to the roads I cover, enjoy – and do not forget to support: PERTHES KIDS FOUNDATION & Yadid Lachinuch Eng. / עברית

It is 120 days now to Gobimarch 2019, and as I complete all the necessary equipment (in a later post), it is time to ramp up the training program. March has been such a month… tens of training hours, night, day, mornings, evenings. As this time of the year is probably the most amazing time for nature here, everything is booming in the forests and the fields. The flowers, the smells, literally takes your breath away. So this post is dedicated to my companions for a 400 km training months: the sights of nature around our place.

Enjoy the images below, and do not forget to support: PERTHES KIDS FOUNDATION & Yadid Lachinuch Eng. / עברית

This one goes for one of the goals set towards my race: raising awareness to Perthes disease, and to the wonderful work of the PERTHES KIDS FOUNDATION. When I was 8 years old I was diagnosed with Legg-Calve-Perthes disease, a degenerative hip bone disorder (a rare form of osteonecrosis or avascular necrosis), that makes it painful to walk, run, and play like most kids. So over 40 years since the Dr said I am done with it, I feel fortunate to be able to function like anyone else, and most of all enjoy hours of trail running each week.

Most people will say; “I have never seen anyone with LCPD, or met one”. Well, this is the thing: unlike many other disease, LCPD is not visible, unless you meet a child in the midst of the active state of it. So below are some facts about LCPD, and one photo from my runs – I feel blessed I can – with love to all LCPD kids and their families.

So, to our educational piece, here are some facts about LCPD:

Legg-Calve-Perthes disease (LCPD) usually occurs in children aged 4-10 years (mean age, 7 years). It occurs more commonly in boys than in girls (male-to-female ratio, 4:1). The condition is rare, occurring in approximately 4 of 100,000 children.

It is not curable because we don’t know the cause. However, it is a self-healing disease, meaning the body is able to heal the bone in the femoral head that is affected. The healing process and the duration of the disease vary from patient to patient. Signs and symptoms of Legg-Calve-Perthes disease include: Limping; Pain or stiffness in the hip, groin, thigh or knee; and/or limited range of motion of the hip joint. Below is a scheme of “what and where” & a photo of a girl with the kind of brace I had to put on for ~3 years.

Legg-Calve-Perthes can be treated without surgery, or with surgery, depending on the child’s particular case and severity. If non-surgical treatments prove inadequate, your child may need surgery to hold the head of the thigh bone in the hip socket (containment). Surgery involves reorienting the affected bones (osteotomy) and stabilizing the realignment with screws and plates.

Recovery also takes a long time – rarely less than 18 months, and sometimes longer than two years. This may seem an unbearably long time, but if considered as a part of a whole lifetime, it is worth some sacrifice of time and effort if it achieves a useful, instead of a permanently damaged, hip joint for your child.

Do not forget to support: PERTHES KIDS FOUNDATION & Yadid Lachinuch Eng. / עברית

Sometimes you have to simply let it go… of all the runs and the training, got injured while trying to be the best student during a Pilates session, would you believe it? It has been about 6 weeks since I stopped my running training. It all started with a needle pain at the top of my left hamstring – that “bad” pain that signals – “do not run today!”. So I did not. Stopped running for a few days – but it did not really go away… and so this feeling of frustration begins. Tried to do some power walking instead but things only got worse… As someone that runs 5 time a week, adding a Pilates session on top, it is not easy to move to “no training” phase. Especially with the goal I set to myself. Everything changes: schedule, body response to movement, you even miss the post training pain, and most of all- the long hours on the trails. Clearly, I realized, its time to go to a deep-tissue therapeutic massage. And so I did.

“It seems like you injured your Semimembranosus and Semitendinosus, which also affects the Biceps Femporis” she said (for those of you interested in anatomy an image below shows the specs of my damaged machine.). All I could think of is that I could not care less what it is as long as she is right and I can be back on the trails fast. Not surprising, treatments are no fun at all and hurt like hell. But week after week, very (very) slowly my symptoms improved. Slowly I started walking, then power walking, and now power walking for over 40km per week, with some good time on the trails, using some of it to hike with Lilach.

Finally, this week, I will start to train again on a regular and planned manner. The idea is to increase the running portion of each training week by week. Also, every week I will increase the volume of training time and distance. It is a good lesson in being humble, listening to your body and respect the limits. It is also good to learn again how to be patient, accept the set backs as part of the journey, and keep positive. Something to remember during the race this summer.

New photos from past month trails. Do not forget to support: PERTHES KIDS FOUNDATION& Yadid Lachinuch Eng. / עברית

When I was a child I had a dream… to be a shepherd. Something ignited by the goats and sheep coming down the hills behind our house on Carmel mountain. I loved the sounds of the bells and the calls of the Druze leading these herds. Going out there to the hills, at any season was an integral part of my childhood, and probably it is then when I fell in love with nature.

From the day I started seriously running, about 7 years ago, it was clear to me that going on a dirt road or a trail feels much better to me than urban-running. So I started exploring the area around our Kibbutz – the unbelievably beautiful Ramot Menahse bios-pheric region. As seasons changed, so did the running conditions. From deadly heat and humid summer to muddy trails, blowing winds, and horizontal rain. Pretty fast I realized that one of the parts I love the most is the water crossing of the running streams, and the running through thunderstorms.

Recently, during a nigh walk with my youngest son, we were caught by a thunderstorm, pouring rain and hail. Passing the first few minutes, to finally get fully wet, we both ran through the hail, with so much laughter and fun! thinking of these moments reminds me of a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince: “All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it.”