The number 18 has special meaning in Jewish traditions. 18 is of course the age when generally a young person becomes mature (some do, some don’t). When written with Hebrew letters it says: hai, which mean life or alive.

It is just coincidence that Jerusalem’s International Annual Half Marathon, the 18th, falls on March 18th this year. Participating in sports events of this kind is definitely being alive, and bringing more life to the city.

As in previous years participants come from all over Israel and all over the world. The route begins and ends in the Givat Ram Stadium of the Hebrew University and goes through some of Jerusalem’s unique and pictoresque landscapes. The route will take runners on a slightly hilly and challenging route and past the Shrine of the Book, housing the Dead Sea Scroll, the Israel Museum, the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, and the Jerusalem forest.

The Marathon is set with two lengths: half marathon of 21.1 km and the fun run of 10 km. There are 18 different race categories, split by gender and age, from below 16 to 73 and above. 6 prices will be given out.

Participants of the half marathon are invited to participate in a gala dinner of pasta the evening before the race. All runners will receive a t-shirt and a certificate and medal.

Price for participation is $25-$40. Registration can be done online through marathon page in English on the municipality’s site www.jerusalem.muni.il.

If you are lucky you may run side by side with Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem, and an avid marathon runner himself.

We here at Your Guide to Israel want to honor all the athletes participating in the 18th Maccabiah Games here in Israel, as well as their families and friends.

Many of you come from far away. Many of you are here for the first time, many of you may have visited Israel before. But to all of you, being here is always exciting, and for athletes and their families it must be double exciting.

One – how well will he or she do in the field?
Two – how much of Israel will we have time to see?

Since none of us here at Your Guide to Israel can do much on number one, we can only do a little on number two, and that is to offer a special discount to all athletes and/or their families or friends, trainers and other participants on touring services in Israel.

Our services are for guiding and our speciality is guiding in private luxury vehicles, specially lisenced for tourists. We cover the whole country, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and Masada. From Eilat in the south to Metullah in the north, which of course is also
the Galilee and the Golan. In short – all of Israel.

Our guides speak not only excellent English, but many of them speak other languages as well, so if you happen to be from a non-English country that should not stop you from receiving the best guiding possible.

Our special discount of 10% is on all guiding and touring services, no matter if you only order one day tour, or you want several days. No matter if it is now during the games, or if you stay on for a few days afterward. I will even extend it so that if you order touring services now,
but can only do them later, you will still receive that special discount.

As I said, this is our way of honoring your coming to Israel and participating or supporting participants in the Maccabiah Games. Please help us to honor you.

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