Report from Stefan in Turkey

Hi Everyone

First I must apologize for what will be a million typing errors as the Turkish keyboard is a tad different than at home!!! I hope everyone is well and congrats for those that ran the half or 10km this weekend (pops) and I will have to check the results soon! Congrats also to Mike ... great news and we will have a beer over that one soon! Have a great trip to Maui!

The trip so far has been great with one huge hard run in between! Things have been pretty smooth so far, but we have also had a few glitches with Ceri’s bag never arriving and a so called shuttle leaving us a little unsure how to get to the race site, but it has been a great experience and all the team/people have been fantastic.

The race was ... well ... it was friggin hard! Ceri ran the open race in the morning and she did wicked and ended up second. Not bad for trails with no contacts and shoes that did not fit! Poor girl ... such a trooper though and not one word or complaints there!

Our race started at 12 so it was a hot start. I was nervous about the course ... all of a sudden 12 km uphill seemed very hard, especially after taking the tram up and down a mountain for a few days, each time seeing how high and long it was! The race started so fast , on the pavement, and up a grade of about 20%. I couldn’t believe how fast it was but just stuck to a pace that I hoped would be not too hard. My running has not been exactly stellar these last few months so my big goal was to run the top 3 km strong, which was also the toughest part of the course. It was pretty tough, with people breaking stride very early on, but I feel good in that I was never passed and finished really strong in the last section. However, it just goes to show how fast the start was but I hoped to finish in the middle of the pack and I was pretty much smack in the middle in 60th.

It was cool to see an African country win the men’s title because that is the first time in a number of years that Italy did not win the men’s title. Also, for the first time in a few years Johnathan Wyatt did not win the men’s crown which was won by a guy from Columbia. So all in all, it was good to see the sport growing and things changing as apparently this was the most competitive year ever.

The after part was a shocker ... can’t say much more about that! Runners with a drinking problem ... wow ... but of course we were really well behaved and had a great time!

This morning we made a day journey to Selcuk and are staying at a pretty cool backpackers and just finished a great Turkish meal. The people are really friendly and although things are very foreign, in no way do we feel unwelcome but rather the exact opposite. Tomorrow we are taking in the ruins at Ephesus and then after that I think we will be having our first day at the beach!

Other notes:
Wow ... the smoke hear is crazy! You just have to ignore it because you can not escape it!

Travel with toilet paper ... it is a must!

Toilets cost you ... never travel without 50lýra in your pocket!

Drivers here are nuts! We caught a bus to the opening ceremonies the other day and the bus could not make a narrow corner due to a car on the street ... solution ... pick up the car and move it on to the curb! No problem!

12km of uphill is brutally hard!

Ceri is living off next to nothing and doing just fine. I therefore packed way too much! Bad packer that I am!

We are looking to do a 4 day sailing trip in the next few day’s ... forced R and R that we are both very excited about!

Johnathan Wyatt who was second was attacked by wild dogs 3 days before the race and had to be taken for rabies shots. That might have affected his race.

Juniors ... I forgot how hard Juniors party!

Runners are skinny ... never have I felt so in place wearing split shorts. The only problem was mine were too big, not split enough, nor did I pull them up high enough. I will change that if there is a next time.

The Africans were super cool .... awesome people.

All in all it has been a fantastic trip and the vacation component is just starting. Thanks for everyone at the shop and congrats to all those that ran and helped out at the events this weekend!


Miss you all ...
Will write more soon,
Stefan and Ceri