I thought it was a dessert challenge… Where is the creme brulee?

We rode 74 km on Saturday! Sounds easy, right? Only it wasn’t 74 km on the road, it was 74 kilometers on a mountain bike.  It wasn’t just any mountain bike either; it was a borrowed one that we weren’t used to.  Also, it wasn’t just a ride; we ran beforehand. Not a short run either, a 30 km run.  It wasn’t running on the pavement, it was in the desert. Not so flat either. We also didn’t sleep the night before because we started at 2:30AM.  It didn’t take 4 hours, or 5 or 6… It took almost 9 hours to complete the challenge. 9 freak’n hours…. Nine… hours… freak…

Here is what went down on a cool night in the desert in the lowest place on earth. You might think the lowest place on earth is a place like Ashdod because if I were to tell you that I lived in Ashdod, you would say “Man… that’s low”; but that’s not the kind of low I’m talking about.  I am talking about the real physical lowest place on earth – the Dead Sea.  There is no point in asking what motivated us to sign up for this grueling race but we did and we went.  Here is a timeline of events of that faithful night… day… whatever.

Friday
8:00 Ride road bikes for 1:30
11:30 Bring mountain & road bikes to Igal to get them fixed up
12:00 Dentist   I ain’t doin’ no race with no hick teeth and neither is my bo!
14:00 Lunch
15:00 Back to Tel-Aviv and to get Tamirs bike from Guy the guy.
16:30 Dillema
We just weren’t sure if we should go right away to the Dead sea or take a good long nap and show up for the race. We decided to go to sleep and see what happens (I’ll let you guess)
19:30 Wake up and order some pasta from Hashdera 34
Get ready….
22:30 Not sure what took us so long but we had our friend Yaron and off we went.

Saturday
0:30 Arrive at race start
1:00 Sign up and place bike in storing zone
2:30 Go for 30 km run *
5:40 Finish 30km run
7:30 Start 74 km ride
~10:20 Approach the half point. Not sure weather to continue or not **
~13:00  Finish 74 km ride
14:00 Tekes & drive home

*30 km run
Imagine a sea of black, with white pocadots (head lights) and green lines (stick lights) dancing and bouncing around; the sound of feet hitting the gravel and other than that… the silence of the desert… except for two idiots.
“I see here in your resume that you were a stick light operator in the Desert challenge in Israel. What makes you think you’re qualified to navigate cars into parking places?”
“Well sir, ever since stick light school, I’ve always wanted…”
You get the point.  It was a bull shit party and everyone was invited to listen whether they wanted to or not. I think we were alright though. We had the Sleep Deprivation gods on our side, a full moon to show us the way and tasty Christmas edition GU Gingerbread Vanilla gels (Yumm).

Side note: Ever notice that the only difference between tasty and nasty is the T? Too bad that you don’t pronounce nasty as nay-sty because then those words would rhyme.

** Half point
Tamir casually mentioned that if we decide to stop at the half point, it’s ok. I can’t say that I didn’t think about it but I knew that I was the only female doing this distance. Also, what is the point of a challenge if you don’t finish it? (Rhetorical)  Finally, we reached the half point and hear the announcer say “Anat & Tamir on their way to a second round”. If I were to stop there, it would have to very dramatic. I would have to throw my bike to the ground and kick it and cry for it to make sense to stop.  We plowed on.

Overall, an interesting experience and more of a confidence builder than anything else.  Most importantly though, Tamir got us home without falling asleep. I tried so goddamn hard to stay awake and somehow Tamir was able to keep his eyes open. Otherwise, it would be lonely Raanan in IM Brazil… wishing… yearning… munching on our abandon Clif Bars… Bastard …

Just kidding Raanan, we both love you and can’t wait for the next 3rd wheel ride. I think that the two of you need to do some fat burning from all those wedding chocolates that you shovelled down.

Tamir will post our route and some photos. I only have one photo on hand for the post but there are more photos of the both of us to be posted soon.