Jillian Petersen

The adventure to my first world cup in Eilat, Israel was scheduled to start at 10:00 AM on December 1st, 2:00 AM central time. I was flying out of St. Louis on November 27th at 6:25 PM. To make sure everything started off right ,my flight was delayed going to Atlanta for over an hour. It left me with only 30 min to get to my 11:50 PM international flight to Tel Aviv. The airlines apparently like you to be extra early, 3 hours early to be exact. I was very fortunate that Delta airlines let me on the plane, however due to extra security my bike was not as fortunate. Eleven and a half hours later I landed in Tel Aviv. I found out in the Tel Aviv airport that my bike was to be on the next flight out of Atlanta, 24 hours later.

I was accompanied by one of the other US athletes Mary Beth Ellis. We both had to get to the other airport in Tel Aviv, Sde Dov in order to get to Eilat. We were informed that it would be faster and cheaper to take the train to Tel Aviv University, which was most of the way. Then catch a taxi to the Sde Dov airport. Mary Beth dropped her bike off at bike transport and we got on the train for a 20 min ride to Tel Aviv University. When we exited the train, we were unable to find a taxi. We literally were going up to taxis in an intersection trying to get a ride. Luckily an innocent bystander on a motorcycle asked us where we wanted to go. He was kind enough to tap on this guys window and told him to take us to the Sde Dov airport. Normally I would never have got ten into a strange car especially in another country alone. But only because we were soo desperate, Mary Beth and I got into the car. He was very nice, a law student at the University. When we tried to pay him he refused. We got there safely, but I missed my flight by 5 minutes. I was able to get on the next flight just an hour later.

I arrived at my hotel King Solomon around 10:30PM, check in was rough because I had made the reservation through Expedia and apparently the hotel King Solomon had never heard of Expedia. I had already been charged for the room when I made the reservation, unfortunately I had to pay again, I immediately called Expedia and explained the situation, a talk with the manager and 30 minutes later, Expedia finally canceled my previous reservation. Luckily Sharone Aharon, who was one of the USAT coaches sent to Eilat, was there. Sharone is originally from Israel and was able to talk to the hotel, he later talked with airport security in order to locate my bike and find out when it may arrive and approximately what time it would get to Eilat form Tel Aviv.

My bike arrived in Tel Aviv at 5:30 PM, but missed the last flight out of Tel Aviv to Eilat. They sent in Friday late afternoon and it finally arrived at my hotel around 3:30PM. I had approximately one hour to put my bike together and get out on the road to ride the course before it got dark at 4:45 PM. Yoni Doron , who is very familiar with this course and a USAT triathlete originally form Israel as well and a good friend, road the course with me so I wasn’t alone.

The race was scheduled to start at 10:00 AM, air temperature was 75 degrees and overcast, a perfect day to race! We were swimming in the Red Sea a two loop course, exiting the water and running on the beach for a short 30 meters, water temperature was 72 degree a non-wet suit swim. I ended up swimming the 2nd pack consisting of about 20 girls, this number made it difficult when going around the buoy’s. Both times around the buoy’s was a little scary, a few times I thought I was close to drowning. I didn’t drown but I did manage to drink/ choke on a gallon of the Red Sea salty water. Exiting the water and entering transition with 20 girls was crazy, I stayed with the 2nd pack and ended up riding in the back for the 7 loop bike. The course was not very technical it had one hill about 5% grade for 500 meters, and at the bottom of the hill was a round-about. There were 6 round-about’s we went through each lap, the only one that was dangerous was the one at the bottom of the hill. On the last lap I went to the front of our bike pack to avoid at the girls entering transition at the same time. I came out of transition around 21st with a bunch of girls, I was very excited for the run and having the opportunity to run with a lot of people. Unfortunate, I hit a wall about 400 meters into the run! Ouch! That makes for a long 10k race. My legs felt like they weighed 100lbs pounds each and I believe I was dehydrated, possibly form the gallon of salt water I had consumed in the swim. Needless to say I faded back fast and it was a struggle to hold on.

I finished 39th out of 53 that started. I am satisfied with my swim and my bike, but I am disappointed with the way I ran. I did learn a lot from this experience and form the other USA traithlete’s there.

After the race, later that evening, Amanda Stevens (15th, her best finish in a world cup, amazing!), Heidi Grimm, Mary Beth Ellis and I went to ride the Sling Shot.

Later there was an after party for the athletes at the Monkey Bar!

On our travels home, Mary Beth and I were on the same flight back to the states. We were also accompanied by Timothy O’Donnel and Joe Umphenour at the Tel Aviv airport who were on different flights. While waiting we witnessed a bike transport, and learned what not to do with 3 bikes and a taxi cab!

Due to unfortunate events Mary Beth and I were scheduled to leave Tel Aviv at 11:35 PM. However we didn’t anticipate the great measures the Tel Aviv customs would go through to check to see if were terrorists. After they took apart our bike case and empted out our luggage and went though all our belongings, they only left us 40 minutes to get to the plane. Normally that is penalty of time, but they did not think so. In order for us to get on the plane they required us to pay $100 in cash for our bikes, between the two of us we had $50 dollars. They were not accepting our travelers checks or credit cards, and would not let us go to the ATM. Basically they did not want to let us in the international flight. We were stuck in Tel Aviv airport for the night. Lucky they didn’t not help so we had to attempted to get a hold of our mom’s in order to call Delta and get us on the next carrier out of Israel. Our mom’s saved the day and we were on the 10:40AM flight to JFK, New York airport. We pulled an all-nighter in the airport while sitting and eating Kosher Mc Donald and Kosher Mc Cafe. After 50 hours of traveling Mary Beth and I finally made it back!