ISTANBUL MARATHON (AKA EURASIA MARATHON) What Is It All About The only marathon (and 15k and 10k, and 8k Fun Run) in the world that straddles across two continents! One of the top ten “Must Do” marathons in the world. Since year 2011, every year, a group of Haverhill Running Club (HRC) members have travelled to Istanbul to run the Eurasia / Istanbul Marathon. 2011 Istanbul Marathon Group (from Left to Right: Terry, Sian, Paul, Natalie, Stephen, Trev, Yusuf, Noelle)

It is a “cheap” race to enter and you certainly get your monies’ worth! Usually works out about £18 to enter the full marathon when it first opens for entries in early January then the price goes up by small increments from July onwards. Even then you are not looking for much more then £25 to enter.

2012 Istanbul Marathon Group (from Left to Right: Ismet, Terry, Simon, Yusuf, Shirley, John, Dave, Stephen, from row Theresa and Eszter

As goodies, you get a football bag, a technical t-shirt, some years they also gave out cotton t-shirt (also branded with Istanbul marathon), a great medal and you get fed at the Expo – beautifully printed finishing certificates were also given out for a few years but not in 2015 

2013 Istanbul Marathon Group (L to R: Yusuf, Darrel, Ian, Mark, Jill, Kirsty, Nick)

The race is in mid-November (this year it is on Sunday 13th November) and flights open for the season in April. A return flight costs around £87, including all taxes, when they first open but steadily increase as the months roll on towards November – maximum paid fee as I recall is about £127. The only other cost is your spending money and I have often recommended around £80 for the 3-4 days’ stay to meet the transport, eating out and other incidental costs, e.g. for Turkish Bath (Hamam). So, you are looking at a total cost of about £220 for the whole experience – it is cheaper (and definitely better value) than any other overseas marathon. Details of the 2016 marathon can be seen at the following link; http://www.istanbulmarathon.org/en

The prize monies are good and therefore there is a lot of interest from international athletes winners of the race are often from Kenya or Ethiopia. You also get to see the run- they are running back as you are going out on the Marmara coast.

The Experience The whole weekend away is not just about running but to live amongst the Turkish people, see Istanbul as one of the locals; staying with a Turkish family, being guided around the city by Turkish friends, eat, drink, travel with them, having those unique chats in such a friendly environment that no organised tour or holiday could provide! We stay with my sisters (Yusuf’s sisters), get toured around by my university friends – some of them are close friends of the Club also. Most of these are runners themselves – it seems that the inaugural 2011 HRC visit inspired them to take up running.

I’ll conclude by saying that the maximum number of runners that my sisters can accommodate is nine – that’s including me. We take our towels and our sleeping bags, and crash out like students in their two-bedroom flat. As the flat has two bedrooms and a reasonable size living room, often the women were able to get the bedrooms and men take up residence in the living room, on the sofas and the floor – very comfy! My sisters do have mattresses (made in the traditional Kurdish way with pure wool), with clean sheets and all.

My sisters’ hospitality is free, they do not charge anything – they cook for us as well (all a favour to me, really). You will have the luxury of choosing between two types of toilets as well  ; A la Franga and A La Turka – one a sit on the other a hole in the ground, which is also good for stretching  So far for 2016, I have Alison Austin and Simon Wallis who has signed up and there is space for a maximum of six more. Non-runner are not allowed, well they can come but the space at my sisters is for runners only.

2014 Istanbul Marathon Group (Monty, Horace and Yusuf with Buckun brothers – uni friends)

2015 Istanbul Marathon Group (L to R: Necdet, Huseyin, Ismet, Yusuf, Jamie, Steve, Jack, David, Erol)

If you are interested, do message me via Facebook or my email [email protected].

I will leave you with one of my itineraries from a past visit to Istanbul marathon, just so that you get a feel for the whole experience. Do speak with others who have come to Istanbul also to get that unique experience taste. Thursday 13 November: 20:30 Meet up in Haverhill (usually at the Leisure Centre) to get a shared taxi / lift to Stanstead. 21:30 check in desk 22:10 we are in the departure lounge, shop, have a drink or a bite to eat – sandwiches for the flight 22:45 at the Departure Gate 23:20 on the plane 23:35 take off, chat, try to get comfortable in the seats, snooze… Friday 14 November: 05:35 we land (15 min delayed landing - yes I can tell the future! ) 06:10 out of the airport 06:30 get the bus to Kadıköy (İsmet or Oya may come to pick us up, in which case the following will somewhat be different for Friday). My sister Zeyno may also organise a taxi to pick us up (taxi through Vodafone membership that she has – it is for VIPs!) 07:15 arrive in Kadıköy and get taxi to Zeyno and Aysel's (my sisters) place – if a VIP taxi or Ismet/Oya has not picked us up. 07:30 arrive at my sisters 08:10 have breakfast 08:30 shower / sleep if you want 12:50 wake up, have a drink of tea, coffee or anything else 14:00 walk up to Capitol (shopping centre to look around and to get TR lira currency, grab a coffee…) 17:00 get back home ready for meeting Aysel (Zeyno is likely to have the day off for us on Friday) visitors/friends and dinner. We may later go for a walk or a gentle run along the seaside by the Maiden’s Tower (Semsipasa) for the gentle 3 mile run. İsmet may also finish work early and join us for the run. Even better, a few other runners from Istanbul Masters Running Club may be there to run as well - İstanbul Masters is İsmet's Club. 19:30 have dinner or back from the run, shower and dinner at 20:00 21:00 friends, family visitors come to say welcome. We will have some Turkish tea/coffee/fruit 23:00 bed, sleep (this bit is tricky, as I will be up until 2 – 3 am Saturday morning) Saturday 15 November:

08:00 get up, shower and set off for breakfast in Ortaköy (European side of Istanbul) with a few more uni friends at one of my uni friend's family bakery (The guy used to box and used to look like Sylvester Stallone hence he was nicknamed “Rocky” – Horace renamed him as the “Godfather” – I can tell you the story behind that another time) 09:30 / 10:00 Sit at breakfast. Few other friends will join us – usually a great fun atmosphere and the food keeps coming – great, traditional Turkish breakfast! 12:30 head for the marathon exhibition for the number and the goodies 13:30 arrive at the marathon exhibition, collect numbers / tags, goodies, look around, have pasta and drinks, a bit of window shopping at the exhibition, take photos, etc. 15:00 having got the numbers, the bags for the race, killed time looking around at the exhibition we will head out for a bit of coffee and cake. We used to do a bit of sightseeing when we used to fly back early Monday mornings but now that we catch the evening flight on Monday after the marathon we do leave the sightseeing to Monday after the marathon. 18:30 we will head home for really nice home cooked food and an early night before the marathon. 19:30 arrive home, take shoes off, feel the weight and tiredness of the whole day, set yourself down on the sofa, bit of toilet queuing  OK, a small insight into the culture here, I must explain is the "cleanliness" concept in Turkey; shoes are never worn in the house, they are taken off at the door before stepping in, either left at the door or once taken off they are shaken for loose dust/dirt, they are taken in house placed on a shoe stall or on a designated mat. Anything that may have touched the ground outside e.g. suitcases, is carefully placed on a designated place in the house also usually the hallway, they are never brought in contact with bed, sleeping mattress, towels or anything one might consider important for personal hygiene. Basically you know how we in the West quite happily throw our wheelie suitcases on the bed, with wheels having beaten the pavements, that is a “No, no!” in Turkey. I do not want to scare you, my sisters are very understanding, tolerant and are used to both UK and Turkish life styles. Right, back to the itinerary; we were at 19:30 on Saturday 15 November; 20:00 eat dinner - there will be others around; friends family relatives etc. 21:00 have various drinks; usually Turkish tea and coffee but ayran (yogurty Turkish drink) other drinks will be available. 21:10 we were very lucky in the past and had couple of semi-professional singers, family friends, who would sign for us. We will have a number of the Istanbul Masters running club members – friends – there, most of whom know English pretty well and never short of conversation or some entertainment. 22:30 chit chat, music may come to a lull, second round of drinks and some movement in some guests raise our hopes that we can go to bed soon – you will be able to make your move to your beds - we finally get to bed around 23:15.

Sunday 16 November – “The day” 06:30 get up, race morning routine for each one of us getting ready the way we each do in our own ways. There will be plenty to eat but if you have a particular routine and diet on the race morning then take stuff from here in UK to have it there e.g. porridge. My sisters don't have a microwave but have an electrical kettle. 07:15 leave home walk to the race start. On Saturday when we go to that shopping centre called Capitol I'll endeavour to point out the race start point. It is 25 – 30 minutes’ walk from my sisters. 07:45 we are at the start line where the buses are for our bags. We give our bags according to our race number to the appropriate bus and the buses meet us on the other side at the end of the race. Buses leave at 8:45 hence bags must be given in before 8:45! 08:15 take photos, queue for the toilets / run off into the bushes for a last wee, enjoy the crowd the camaraderie, nervously wait for the race start at 9:00. 09:00 marathon and 15k races start. We immediately cross the Bosporus bridge (the first ever Bridge built over Bosporus). As we run across the bridge, Black Sea and Russia are to our right, and Marmara Sea and the islands that are part of Istanbul will be to our left. 09:05 we are in Europe! 13:00-15:00 we meet friends and family at the finish, collect the medals another goodie bag 15:30 cross the Bosporus on a ferry to the Asian side to get to Aysel and Zeyno’s. 16:15 go to Hamam, a classic Turkish Bath built in 1640s - it is nearby, within 5 mins walking distance and will cost about 50 Turkish Lira (£12) 18:30 get home, get ready for a meal out. İsmet will organise where we go to eat out. Most of the restaurants he has taken us have been fantastic. 19:30 sit at evening meal with a number of friends and family members. A nice social and a great meal to celebrate the day. The cost of this meal varied over the years from about £15 per head to £35. I would set aside about £35 just in case (included in the £220 total cost I mentioned). 23:30 finish meal head home in a taxi. 23:50 arrive home, sit and relax may be have a drink, bit if chit chat. 00:30 or 01:00 go to bed, sleep. We have had late nights some years and didn't sleep until 2, 3 in the morning, chatting, drinking, just enjoying ourselves. Monday 17 November 09:00 - 09:30 Wake up, chat in bed (yes, compulsory!  ) 09:30 get up, may be have breakfast at home or decide to have something out - plenty of options 10:00 - 10:30 Go out may be to European side on a ferry and do sightseeing. See Blue Mosque (where the marathon finishes), see Grand Bazaar, the Egyptian Bazaar, or the Maiden's Tower, which

is on Asian side. And then may choose to go to Kadıköy one of the historic yet very modern part of Istanbul. We may have Zeyno or Oya taking care of us on Monday. 17:00 arrive home from sightseeing and prepare to travel back. Pack bags 17:45 leave home for the airport 19:00 arrive at Sabiha Gökçen Airport; go through security check, check in desk, passport control and into the lobby waiting for the gates to open. Sit in a bar have a drink or two. 20:15 Get to the gate 20:40 Board the plane 21:10 (this is for 2016 flight) 23:25 (local time) land at Stansted 23:40 get through passport control and collect luggage 23:50 out of the airport and on the way to the car 00:07 we are at the car (see hire precise I am?) 00:40 Tuesday 15th November, we are in Haverhill In the following few days, after the marathon, you write a paragraph for me to get across to our HRC press officer to get it into the Echo!