(Courtesy of Our Place) Having started with a fledgling team of 40 runners in the 2016 Jerusalem Marathon, Team OurPlace skyrocketed from 120 runners in 2018 to 337 runners in this year’s event, including over 300 gap-year yeshiva and seminary students—the largest number of any charity participating in this year’s marathon. “It was truly incredible to see such rapid exponential growth,” explained Rabbi Aryeh Young, executive director of OurPlace.

On Thursday night before the race, Team OurPlace runners enjoyed an all-you-can-eat, pre-run pasta party at Café Rimon on Ben Yehuda Street, where the entire restaurant was rented out by the team’s runners. Even the meat side of the restaurant had to be converted to dairy for the evening to accommodate the overflow. While enjoying scrumptious pizzas, pastas, salads and desserts from the internationally renowned eatery, runners enjoyed the upbeat music of DJ Kay and received their exclusive OurPlace swag collection. The highlight of the evening was when OurPlace Runners gathered outside the restaurant for the annual team picture, and subsequently, broke into spontaneous dancing, singing “Mishenichnas Adar” in the streets, in spite of the light rains descending on Yerushalayim.

Team OurPlace is already planning for its fifth year of participation in Jerusalem and is counting down the days to Jerusalem 2020!