Joys and Pains on the Run Across Palestine

Nine Michiganders from the Traverse City region are running across Palestine to raise awareness around issues facing West Bank olive farmers. Glen Arbor Sun editor Jacob Wheeler is with them, and submitting dispatches.

Cultural differences, confusing politics, military checkpoints, consoling worried family back home.

Think that’s tough? Not compared to a five-day ultra-marathon across mountainous country with roadsides often strewn with loose rocks or garbage, and cars not used to seeing runners.

By Day 4 of the Run Across Palestine, the American runners were battling physical adversity that may have surpassed the other variables at play here during this 129-mile trek across the West Bank of Palestine — a region vying for statehood. Claire Everhart was turning around and running the downhill descents backwards to avoid pressure on her sore knees; Randi Lyn Stoltz’s kneecap swelled to the size of a ripe fruit, and David Gardner just kept his mouth shut and ran.

Watch some of the physical adversity here in part 5 of Aaron Dennis’ and my “The People and the Olive” series: