Ultra-Runner Smashes ‘Israel Trail’ Record with 10-Day Marathon
Thanks to unitedwithisrael
PERSPECTIVES | A hike through Israel’s national trail can take anywhere between 45 days to 70 days. But this American ultra-runner accomplished it in a mere 10 days. Now, he’s the king of the trail. Our Daniel Campos has the story. Story: Michael Wardian is the new King of the Israel National Trail.
The American ultra-marathon, long distance runner has completed the iconic trail of 631-miles in just 10 days, 16 hours and 36 minutes — smashing the record previously set by Australian ultra-trail runner Richard Bowles, who completed the trail in 15 days, but spent three days in the hospital. Wardian made the journey from south to north, departing From Eilat, Israel’s most southern point all the way to Kibbutz Dan, near the Israeli-Lebanese border.
‘I just wanted to see if I can do it, so I took advantage of the downhills, and rolling hills with my leg speed; I just wanted to see if my body can handle it,’ Wardian said. The Israel National trail takes the average hiker between 45 to 60 days to complete and does not enter the Golan Heights or the West Bank, and in 2012, National Geographic named it one of the ‘holy grails of hikes’. ‘It’s been nice to go through the country getting to see more of it meeting people on the way,’ Wardian commented.
The risks in such a mission are plenty: wild animals, snakes, heatstroke, dehydration, desert flash floods and steep cliffs. There is plenty that can go wrong. Israeli tour guide Zoly Bihari, founder of Canaan Running Adventures, was behind the initiative of bringing Mike to Israel for the challenge. ‘The priority is Mike’s logistics; second is documenting everything,’ Bihari explained. ‘The first days are very challenging because they are off-road.’ Mike ran approximately a 100 km race every day for 10 days.
Throughout his journey, Israeli fans and fellow ultra-runners took the opportunity to take photographs and accompanied him throughout some segments of the trail. Just a few week before arriving in Israel, Mike took on the World Marathon Challenge, a logistical and physical challenge of running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. The challenge began in Antarctica and finished in Australia. He ran all of them in less than three hours, and for fun, he added three more when he got back to America. Running 10 marathons in 10 days in the fastest time ever. Now, Mike Wardian is regarded as the ultra-marathon king of the Israel National Trail, and all though records are made to be broken, this one seems unlikely to be broken for years to come.
