Jerusalem Marathon

No, I didn't run the marathon.  But two of my friends did!  We took the long way around trying to find the finish line to meet them, and we got there early.  While Jemma, Jeff, Jake, and I were waiting for our friends to come in, we saw some interesting things.  We saw people that were blind, disabled, professional runners, IDF, mentally disabled, and with groups.  There was one man who came in relatively early compared to the rest; he was no younger than 80 years old.  Soon after a younger man came in and was immediately surrounded by camera crews.  We saw that he had some kind of disability, but he was quickly swarmed with people so we couldn't see much more.  Our friends came in after that and we went home almost right away; the weather had been changing too quickly to risk staying out longer.

When we first got there, we heard a helicopter.  I looked up and thought, 'oh look, a news station,' but when I saw the writing on the side, I found out it was a police copter.  Reality then hit me: this is a massive gathering of Israelis and Jews.  Most of Jerusalem was there, and many others from different places were there as well.  There are so many groups and peoples that are trying to harm Israel right now, this would be a perfect opportunity (Operation Cast Lead, anybody?).  The sheer amount of policemen present began to mean much more than crowd control.  It was comforting seeing that helicopter flying so low, but troubling that it was needed.

Seeing all the MDA rigs gave me crazy bad fomo, though.

In other news, Lady Gaga, Barack Obama, and Madonna all crossed the finish line as well today.