Thursday morning arrived and we had until about 10:30am to explore Nazareth before needing to catch the bus to Jerusalem. There isn’t too much to see and do in Nazareth and the number one thing we wanted to do was visit Nazareth village (which is a pretend village that is set in the time era of Jesus) but it was closed due to….the war.
We instead spent the morning going to a few different places which included, the Church of Annunciation. This is where a church had been built over the remains of Mary’s home. We saw a church dedicated to Joseph as well as a Greek Orthodox church which was actually really nice as we met someone who was so glad to meet us as because of the war he hadn’t been able to share in all the religious goodness with many people and that had made him really sad.
We grabbed what was the best bakery items of the trip on the way back to get our bags and head to Jerusalem! Which sounds exciting and it was. We just needed to get through the 2-hour bus ride. (Remember my total dislike and Nathanael being in even more pain to sit). Then transfer to a local bus which was 20 minutes, followed by a 1km+ walk with all our luggage up a massive hill to our 3rd story apartment with no working elevator.
The apartment we stayed in was basically a converted attic and it was tiny but still way better than Cairo.
We had a very short time before we needed to head out for our walking tour at 2pm. We were excited to do this tour because it was going to take us through Old Jerusalem and this would give us so much better context for the next few days as we explored and enjoyed Jerusalem. 2pm came and we sat in the freezing cold and waited. 2:15pm came. 2:30pm came and after making a phone call we were told there was never a walking tour and that the confirmation email etc I had gotten basically didn’t exist and due to the war they were not doing them until June.
Okayyyyy helpful! So, no tour. We decided we would head out about 20mins from the city to go and get Nathanael’s running kit. This was why we had to be in Jerusalem on Thursday as you could only collect your running kit up until 9pm Thursday as the race was Friday morning.
Nathanael was reluctant to even go. He went only to get his race kit and shirt because, well he had paid for it but he said over and over again he wasn’t going to be able to run the next day. All week Nathanael had been sad at the thought of not being recovered in time to participate. Having not had an injury that prevented him from running for over a decade it was devastating to him to have to miss this event. All week I had been saying “We are in the land of miracles and I believe you can have one too!”
We headed out and collected the bib. I truly felt he could have a miracle but even I was thinking we were running out of time for it to come. It had been almost of week of pain and no relief and in fact, it was still getting worse. I encouraged Nathanael to see if maybe he could do the slightest of jogs and after two steps he nearly fell to the ground in pain and it was evident that wasn’t an option.
Due to the race rules the allocated time to complete the half was only 3hours and 15mins. Which if you can’t run or jog at all was going to be a challenge. Instead of giving up, I started googling how fast you would need to walk to complete it in the time frame. It was about 9min per km. Which doesn’t seem too bad to do for a few km’s but over 21 of them is a lot. I spoke to Nathanael about it and said I thought he could do that and that I knew we needed to turn up and attend anyway and just see what could happen.
It would have been so easy to just give it up and not go. We could have actually fit in a tour that next morning but I knew how much this meant to Nathanael. A man who has dedicated his life to providing as a husband, being an active father and always giving of his time and talents to our church. Outside of a Saturday park run (which often he takes 1 or more of the girls to) he does absolutely nothing else for himself ever. This was for him and I had faith we could have a miracle.
Now to digress a little bit, I’m totally a miracle lover but I’m also what I would call a miracle realist. Having watched at the age of 16 years my 7yr old cousin not receive the miracle of healing and instead see him donate his organs and save 3 women in Australia I have experienced first-hand when a ‘No’ is the answer to a miracle request.
This was different for me. While I’ve asked for miracles over the years I’ve tried to also learn “Thy Will Be Done” along with those requests. But not this time. I was determined to fight for a miracle and it seems so silly to do it for a ‘race’ but it was more than that. It was my chance to fight for my husband.
You see Nathanael signed up for a life he didn’t know he was getting. When we married we didn’t know we would have children with additional needs. We didn’t know I would be diagnosed with 3 different types of autoimmune diseases, infertility issues, eating disorder, ADHD and hypermobility. But he constantly has taken it all on board and chosen to support me in every way he can and I wanted to feel like I could give back to him. I wanted to feel like I could do something for him and that was to hold onto the belief of a miracle when he was ready to let it go.
After picking up the pack and his gorgeous salmon coloured event shirt they had decided would be nice for the event this year we went to a recommended local market on the way home. This was fun to see spices and food sold everywhere. We ended up with a massive hot chip and falafel wrap to eat on the way home and headed back to our loft. Me constantly sharing how I thought Nathanael could walk all that way in the morning.
Friday morning came and we prepared to get to the race. This was different to Cairo. Firstly, it was insanely bigger. I’ve never been to an event of this size before. Secondly being in the city there were many roads blocked off and buses not working. Thinking we would still be okay to catch a bus to the event as the app was telling us we could, we were wrong. Nope. About 40 minutes before the race started, we found ourselves needing to walk 2-3km to the event. This was our test, after Nathanael reluctantly wanted to go and me basically setting alarms and getting everything ready as if it wasn’t even an option not to go we started walking.
I used this time to see if Nathanael could walk at the pace required in general but over a sustained time and it seemed like maybe he could. The whole way there I said to Nathanael it didn’t matter how much he completed that I was super proud of him for giving it a go and giving it over to God for a miracle. He was still in the same amount of pain as he had been all week but I told him (because we had no way of contacting each other as we had only paid for my phone to have internet) that I would be waiting for him at the finish line at 10am. This was after the allocated time to finish and if he was asked to stop along the way or was injured along the way he would still have enough time to arrive there at that time.
We arrived at the event and it was insane. You could only enter through one place at the top of the hill. The rest was completely gated off and full of security. Due to the war, they were taking extra precautions and each bag was checked as you entered. We then had to walk 1.5km to the start line. Yes, 1.5km. How ridiculous. For myself and before this trip I hadn’t due to my hypermobility issues been able to walk 5km in a day. That was beyond my limit or I wouldn’t be able to walk and here I was already clocking up almost 4km just to get to the start line.
Due to all the walking, we were late, which didn’t seem to matter as there were thousands of people and lots of them were late. I wished Nathanael luck and off he went walking. It was funny to see him cross the starting line, turn his watch timer on and then see him walk. He had old people moving faster than him for the half marathon. Haha.
I then couldn’t return into the event space as spectators had to go around again so I walked 1.5km back to where the finish line was and I waited. I was exhausted from walking over 5km before 7am. I would have really liked one of those medals everyone else got because man that was hard for my hips.
So 10am was the cut-off time. I didn’t know how strict they were going to be with it. Sometimes it’s really strict and other times it’s more of a formal guideline. Not knowing when or if he would arrive I decided at 9:20am that I would head to the finish line with my camera and wait. I had believed all week that a miracle would happen and I needed to be ready to capture it if it did. It was hard though.
Usually, he has his phone and I can track his GPS through his watch, or even if he had his phone and something happened he could call me. But I’m in another country. I don’t speak the language and I have no idea where Nathanael is and what has happened over the past 2.5 hours.
About 5 minutes after arriving at the start line I had the thought to get my phone out ready to record, well sure enough just seconds later I saw Nathanael SHUFFLING slowly to the finish line. Not only was he SHUFFLING but he was under the time limit and he was alright. I burst into tears. Relieved to see him safe and well. He couldn’t see where I was so I found him after he crossed and I bawled my eyes out. I was so proud and I couldn’t wait to hear the miracle.
Nathanael shared that he tried to stick with an older man who was tracking his pace. He figured this man wasn’t going to race if he couldn’t finish it in time. When he needed to start a slow jog he tried and it was okay. He wasn’t able to run or even jog but something happened with his injury where the mobility increased and he could move just enough to shuffle the whole way.
We grabbed his FINISHERS medal and headed down into the event area. For such a simple thing to run in a race, I was so grateful we had been blessed with this miracle. Nathanael turned to me and said that if it wasn’t for me he wouldn’t have even considered coming and that collecting his bib was all he would have done. This touched my heart and I felt like I had done something for my husband and that we had our miracle in the land of miracles. Due to there being more races after Nathanael’s the roads were closed so we had to walk the 2km home again. What a day and it was only 11am. 7km+ for me and 30km for Nathanael.
To continue reading what we did the rest of our day and trip, click here for Part Three.
Love Sarah Kay, xx
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