Sunday 5th November - Istanbul Marathon 2006 (Fun run)
Weather: Bright, sunny, a slight breeze
Temperature: 4 C
Distance: 8 km
Time: 60 minutes
I was so disappointed. Based on my experience of running round the school road, I was expecting to clock 40 minutes, 45 at most. So why the big difference? In short, hills. The campus road is pretty flat. the only incline being a set of steps near the elementary school which extends up to the Lojman heights. A combined distance of about 200 m.
Running across the Bosphorus bridge was amazing. This event is the only time that pedestrians are allowed to go across, otherwise the less jolly of them have been known to throw themselves off. Running across does give you a better appreciation of the structure of a suspension bridge such as this. The upward incline as you get onto the bridge is actually quite steep, but you hardly notice this in a car. Of course there's then a downward slope as you crest the bridge, but there was a stiff cross-wind (wind chill was probably - 3 or so) as I was now a couple of hundred metres above the Bosphorus. Again, something you don't normally notice in the confines of a car. After the bridge there's a long pull, 3 km or so, up to the turning to Mecediyekoy. I think this was where I lost most of the time. After that the rest of the route was either down hill or on the flat, apart from the last 300m uphill to Taksim.
It was good fun, but I then had to make my way back to Kadikoy for the service bus, while wearing shorts. A little chilly. I also had to suffer the astonished glances of people wrapped up in their winter woolens.
Tuesday 7th November
Distance: 5 km
Time: 25 minutes
Thursday 9th November
Distance: 6.5 km
Time: 33 minutes
Saturday 11th November
Distance: 5 km
Time: 25 minutes
Temperature: 6 C
Total distance: 24.5 km
