Headed to Israel for a Half Ironman

About 2 months ago, I was contacted by some people from Kinetis regarding the 2014 Israman Negev triathlon in Israel.

Long story short: they're sending me to Israel in a few weeks to cover the race! I just got my plane ticket confirmation a few days ago. I don't know our exact itinerary, but I know that I'll end up in Tel Aviv with 4 other bloggers after 3 flights. Then we'll spend a day or 2 in Jerusalem, stop back for a costal tour of Tel Aviv, and then take a quick (4th) flight to Eilat to do the race. After that, it's 4 more flights to get back home (Eilat > Tel Aviv > New Jersey > Chicago > St. Paul). You all know that I can't run much now (coming off a big injury from back in Aug/Sept), but I'm doing the swim portion (1.9K) IN THE RED SEA!

The race is in Eilat, Israel, which is at the southern tip of the country at the northern tip of the Red Sea. Just 2 miles east from the center of Eilat is Jordan, and about 8 miles west is Egypt:

Here's a video from the race website - Eilat is shown at 0:23, and race footage starts at 0:40:


Direct Link: http://youtu.be/OkuJPAVHpcA

I asked if I could do the swim and then just drop out, but the race director set me up with a biker and a runner, so now we have a TEAM! I found out (using Google Translate because some of the race info is in Hebrew) that I've been teamed up with a 56-year-old male biker named Ran from Tel Aviv and a 43-year-old female male runner named Sharon from around Jerusalem:

UPDATE: Someone who reads Hebrew contacted me told me that Sharon above is a man, so I'm sorry I just assumed he was a woman! Sorry Sharon!

One interesting thing about the relays is they are split by sex (which is normal), but then they are split up once more by age: if everyone's age added up is under 119, they're in one group; and if they're 120 and above, they are in another. They even have a relay category for families (parents, children, grandchildren, and in-laws).

I've been swimming more this winter than I usually do because of my recent swim-off against that pro-triathlete fella, and that extra yardage will hopefully be helping me out in a few weeks when I'm racing in the Red Sea. (See the swimmers in the video above between the 0:40 and 1:00 mark to see what I'll be doing, and to see how beautiful the water looks!)

Israman Negev has a half iron distance and a full iron distance. The cut-off time for the full is 23:15, which is quite a bit longer than the 17:00 cut-off at Ironman-sanctioned races - we'll see how long I can last at the finish line on race day and the next morning! Oops, their cut-off is 17 hours just like an Ironman - 23:15 is the time of day (after a 6:15 start). Their full iron distance race was named "1 of the 10 best iron distance races IN THE WORLD" in 2010 by Triathlete Magazine! So this should be good.

Stay tuned for more on this! I'm PSYCHED!! Thanks Kinetis for sending me!!