Grapevine: Marathon impasse

• Published date: 16 March 2024
• Author: GREER FAY CASHMAN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

By 11 o'clock on Friday morning, not a single runner could be seen along the streets of Keren Hayesod and King George or some of the other main arteries

Yet buses did not start running until 1 p.m., and even later on some routes.

However, cars, bikes, and scooters were traversing those streets and adjacent side streets as early as 10:30 a.m.

At around noon, large clusters of people were gathered at bus stops, but there were no buses. At close to 1 p.m., the sight of an Egged bus gave false hope. It was empty of passengers and didn't stop: obviously "not in service."

Yeshiva students and English-speaking girls from seminaries could be seen wheeling suitcases to the places where they would be staying over Shabbat.

Elderly people walking slowly with the aid of canes or shopping trolleys were laboriously wending their way to or from the Mahaneh Yehuda market.

Many shops were closed, with proprietors anticipating very few, if any, customers.

Indeed, the sparse coffee shop clientele proved them right. Last year, coffee shops throughout the inner city were doing a roaring trade, and at some of the more popular venues people had to wait in line for a vacant table.

There were many vacant tables this year, and far fewer people downtown. The large contingents of Border Police were superfluous.

Perhaps Transportation Minister Miri Regev and Mayor Moshe Lion could put their heads together with a view to making more places accessible to people who are not running in the marathon and who have no real interest in it.

Complex life interests

■ NO ONE has just one interest in life. We are all complex characters whose attentions focus on a number of sometimes disparate subjects. For instance, a neurosurgeon may also be a long-distance runner, as is the case with Dr. Leah Kahanov, a senior neurosurgeon at Hadassah Medical Center who competed in last Friday's marathon.

In recent months, together with members of her department, she operated on soldiers wounded in Gaza and treated them for weeks in the intensive care unit.

Between complex surgeries, she managed to find time to go for long runs, which she says strengthens both her body and her mind.

Yet even while running, she could not stop thinking about her patients. "There are no more exciting moments than meeting our soldiers after many weeks when they are already beginning rehabilitation and their cognitive abilities are improving, proving that overcoming even the most complicated and difficult situations is possible."

Even...