Professional athletes run for medals, residents of southern Israel their lives!

LOTL..
13 November '12..






From an excellent piece, "Sprinting to Safety" which can be found today at Batya's Shilo Musings:

When it comes to Olympics medals, many athletes are willing to risk their health by taking drugs to break records and win, especially in the sprints, which need such powerful muscles and time is so short. Professional athletes run for medals, fame and money, but residents of the Israeli south are running for their lives!

 - Israelis in the south aren't chasing fame and fortune; they're running to safety.

 - And instead of wearing fashionable running clothes, sometimes they are lucky to be wearing more than an old sweatsuit/pajamas or a bathrobe.

 - Instead of scientifically designed running shoes, they are wearing easy to slip on slippers.



 - Instead of their arms efficiently pumping to maximize speed, they're holding their valuables, an infant and toddler while trying to encourage the other children to keep up.

 - Instead of being encouraged by cheering fans, they hear the alarms.

 - Instead of the audience exploding in cheers, their home explodes from the missile before their eyes.

A sprint in Netivot and other southern Israel locations is not a game. And the finish line doesn't promise a medal nor a world record. The runners don't even know where to run to in many situations, because there's no way to predict exactly where the bomb, deadly missile will explode.

(Read full "Sprinting to Safety")

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