Nike Human Race 10k Marathon Here I Come

Posted by Ms. Babble

August 4, 2008

When driving back to Tel Aviv from Rishon Le’Zion last week, I noticed a massive billboard recently erected announcing the world-wide “Nike Human Race”.

My exact words were, “What the hell is that?”. I took a mental note of the website and checked it out the next day.

WELL…. 25 cities around the world will participate in a group run sponsored by Nike on August 31st. I was a little surprise Tel Aviv was included but then again, it’s an amazingly vibrant city that (I think) is quickly finding it’s place in the world as a leader in the Middle East.

At any rate, I saw immediately that Chicago is a member of the 25 cities who are participating which gave me even more initiative to participate here in Tel Aviv. Chicago represent!

As some of you may or may not know, I’ve done a bit of running in my time. Since I quit smoking last year, I’ve fallen in love with running all over again. Unfortunately, I haven’t run a marathon since my army days. The last marathon I finished was a 15k (9.3 mi) at the sprightly age of 22. Well, add a few years, knock off a few kilometers, and here we are facing a 10k (6.2 mi) in a month.

Since arriving in Israel a few months ago, I’ve been running 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) 2-3 times a week along the Mediterranean without too much effort. My motivation was mostly for stress release and absorption of the beach’s beauty. But now I’ll have to push myself harder if I want to survive a 10k. My plan is simply to run 5 day’s a week at progressively longer distances for the next 4 weeks.

Why am I doing this you ask? hmmm… well, I’ll get a race day t-shirt (cause God knows how much I LOVE wearing corporate logos), Nike will donate a few bucks to one of three charities I chose (Lance Armstrong Foundation, The UN Refugee Agency, or, World Wildlife Fund), and most importantly, I get bragging rights for running a world wide marathon in Tel Aviv!

They’re supposed to have live feeds of each city online on race day. I’ll keep everyone posted with my progress and more info once the day gets closer….

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