Despite the rising sun and clear blue sky, the early morning air chilled the city on the day of the marathon. the heat that the day’s sunny disposition promised still refused to permeate when, at seven o’clock in the morning, thousands of runners crossed the start line. But the temperature rose quickly and the hilly course, at even the five kilometre mark, began to take its toll.
Runners worked their way up to The Old City; through the ancient Jaffa Gate they poured where hundreds of years ago travelling pilgrims arriving from the port of Jaffa on the Mediterranean Coast came to pay their religious respects. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall are still visited today by the pious and the curious.
To run through Jerusalem is to run through history, intrigue and conflict.