Jerusalem Marathon

Today I ran a 10K!!!!!!!!!!!

If you know me, you know this is a miracle.

If you know me, you also know I walked 9K of it. ;)

But it was so fun! A bunch of us did it, and about 14 did the half-marathon. We didn't have any full marathon runners... but it's like, impossible to train here without treadmills/a decent running track. So yes. I'm amazed that people even did the half!

Also, because I like to be depressing, today is the halfway mark. I am halfway done with this amazing Jerusalem semester.

Cue tears.

Okay. Funny story. So last night, we were informed that the time to get on the vans to drive to the race was 9:15 AM. Well, my roommates and I skipped breakfast (some intentionally, some unintentionally *cough meeeee cough*), and so we didn't see the new SUPERRIDICULOUSLYLASTMINUTE sign posted outside the Oasis about the vans leaving at 8:45. So at literally 8:42... we're all awake and are slowly getting ready... takin' our sweet precious time... when we hear other girls running down the hallway. And we're like.. Huh. I wonder why they're hurrying. So we poke our heads out the door, and are informed that the vans are leaving in 3 minutes. And you guys.. THE VANS DO NOT WAIT FOR ANYONE. THEY JUST DON'T. In fact they often leave a couple of minutes before the departure time for some reason  that I am still totally not okay with. It's surriously insane. Well, obviously we FREAKED OUT and turned into crazy people and flung our bodies all over the room trying to grab things and put clothes on and tie our shoes on and grab shekels and we ran all the way up the 10 bajillion flights of stairs to the vans. (I should seriously write a blog post on the stairs. They are cray-cray.) I got on that van with no makeup on my face, no food or water in my belly, and my hair without a hair tie. It was glorious. I never got fed or made up before the race, but a gracious friend did offer me her hair tie! ;)

Aurbeigh and Ashley... my 2 amazing roommates that BOTH got their mission calls last week to side-by-side missions in Brazil!! They'll even be in the Brazil MTC at the same time!  SUCH HAPPINESS! They randomly found this flag lying in a bush before the race this morning.. kind of awesome. :)

BYU before the race! Pfft... open eyes are so 10 years ago.

So many people!

I CAN PRONOUNCE THAT ENTIRE PHRASE IN YELLOW. Yeah. I take Hebrew. It's whatevs.

A few minutes in!

These rooftops were so pretty.

Oh my gosh. This sweet old man was the cutest thing I've ever seen. He was jogging with his back all hunched... it was adorable and he was so spirited and smiley and into it with his arms all swingin'. I died. 

Pretty streets. ♥

Running buddies Erica and Anne!

Anne being the fierce woman she is. Pausing for a picture on top of the world in Jerusalem. Yeah the view is kind of nice.

I love how totally normal it was to run past a little sheep herder. Like, duh.

Pretty West Jeru street. ♥

I basically need to eat here.

WE DID IT!!!! And no, I did not lose 50 pounds. But let's pretend I did.. because that's fun!

Alright, I think I'm going to do something crazy.. and ditch my paper for my bed. And get 9 hours of sleep. I just.. I just cannot even imagine how good this will feel. I wish I could explain how tired and achy I am... always. It is time to love my body. Goodnight!