Taxpayers vs ticketholders

So where am I? Week 13, Day 1. #10krunner  @clearskyapps.

Sneakers, phone, dog. Check.

Surprisingly, this post is not about my reasons/excuses for repeating w12d2 a gazillion times.  Today is about a different kind of obstacle to fitness.

With three kids and a dog, Park Hayarkon is my tax shekels working for me. Arnona, Tel Aviv's outrageously high municipal property tax, is paying for playground equipment, acres of grass, a couple artificial ponds, exercise equipment for both people and dogs, and miles and miles and miles of paths for running and biking. This is where I have done weeks 3 through 13.

Today however, I hit a roadblock. A gate across the path and two burly guys in rent-a-cop uniforms telling me "This is a secure area, ma'am."

That's right, all those tax dollars don't buy me the right to get within half a mile of where the Rolling Stones will be tonight, not that they are there right now.

Is this standard practice for bigtime park concerts? As a Tel Aviv taxpayer and sometimes runner, I know the answer.

For instance, I did run through that section of the park four days before the concert. Hill sprints were out because of the amount of equipment and lighting towers already set up on the hill itself, but all the paths to and around the concert area were open.

That is an improvement over the week of Madonna's 2012 concert. Four days ahead of that concert, an entire swathe of Park Hayarkon around the concert area was closed off, so it was impossible to get from the Fairgrounds area to Bereshit Forest. Yep, four days before the concert and tax dollars weren't buying me the shadiest running paths in town.

Maybe they have to do this? Maybe it's the only way to set up for a megaconcert?

The answer is "no." How do I know? Because just ten hours before curtains-up for Justin Timberlake last week, runners could use the paths right up to the concert area. In fact, the security guards rolled back the gates between what would be backstage and what would be the dressing area for the star and his entourage so a running mom and her dog wouldn't even have to slow down.

I bet I'm the only @clearskyapps user to ever repeat w13d1 because of a Rolling Stones roadblock.