Nostalgia Sunday

August 17, 2008 - 4:17 PM by Rachel Neiman · 8 Comments
Filed under: General

Today I’m nostalgic for last year, and the first Tel Aviv Night Run. It was a great event – the biggest run in the history of Israeli running events so far – and this one promises to be even bigger and better.

The Night Run is being sponsored by Nike who are going all out this year. The TA Night Run has been consolidated into a worldwide event, the “The Human Race 10k”, touted as the World’s Largest Running Event, which it probably is. On August 31st, 2008, Nike is hosting race events in 25 cities around the world and even though Tel Aviv is mysteriously not listed among the 25 on the official Nike international site, the Hebrew site says it is part of The Human Race. So there.

I won’t be in the race this year; I’ll be on vacation, so I can’t really complain but I do regret having to miss it – I love running with my crew from the Holyland Hash House Harriers (and our splinter group, the Thirsty Knights Hash House Harriers). Plus, I love the energy, excitement and sense of limitless possibilities that’s always in the air of this city at night. Also, night time is the perfect and pretty much the only sensible time to run in Tel Aviv in August.
Nike Night Run Human Race 2008 shirt
But of course, the biggest bummer of all is that I won’t get a T-shirt, and unless you are actually running competitively, getting a shirt (and any other swag they’re handing out) is the only real reason for doing any race. The Night Run shirt will be particularly coveted as the organizers are insisting on uniformity; everyone must wear the same shirt or risk being booted out at the starting line! It’s pretty nice and features a day-glo component which will photograph nicely under the ultraviolet lights.