The Aqaba marathon was...small. At the start there were about thirty westerners, a dozen Jordanians, and 100 half marathoners toeing the line. We all charged out of the parched mountains together then the marathoners turned out to the desert: A long and lonely sand filled stretch to the airport...without a fan, a farmer or even a tree for miles and miles. Surprisingly, it led to one of my fastest finish times. Even more surprising were the intestinal events that made me thankful for the solitude. But no need to go into that here. An 8th place 3:08 finish made me feel better about my battle with the bowels in the desert.
Mercy and I went for an Ultra Marathon day; the first leg - a 42 Kilometer race in Jordan, the second leg - a couple of border crossings into Israel and Egypt and the final leg - a 6 hour bus to Cairo.
The transition from Aqaba to Israel is stark. The red sands and palm trees were consistent across the border but the anthropological world changed entirely.
Our last moments in Jordan we exchanged money and shared dry dates with an office full of men smoking and joking with us in Arabic. We left Jordan's white-washed concrete bunker and hefted our packs past the barbed wire into the no man's land between the borders. Within 200 yards an Israeli guard came into view wearing chinos, short sleeves, and an Uzi slung casually from his shoulder. Passing him we were greeted by a smiling women in a similar uniform welcoming us to Israel in perfect English. She led us through metal detectors and into a new pavilion where other women worked the x-ray machines and stood guard with big weapons. After spending the last two months almost completely surrounded by men in these roles it was refreshing to see women in playing the same parts. Even though they had guns, we found them oddly comforting.
After about two hours of questioning and security checks we left the serene environs, functioning plumbing, music, and garden art of the Israeli check post. We crossed the resort city of Eliat, Israel, before plunging back into the Islamic man's world of Egypt.
We loved Cairo, enjoyed Luxor and we're now in sunny cool Dahab doing a bit of diving. Hopefully we'll be able to tell you of all of our mis-adventures in Cairo and Luxor soon.
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