I finished the Istanbul Marathon
One of the big reasons I actually decided to travel to Turkey in the first place was to run the Istanbul Marathon. I had only done a half marathon in the past and wasn't sure if I was actually ready for it but I decided months ago I was going to do everything I could to finish. I trained relatively well, going up to 18 miles 2 weeks prior to the race. I wish I had gotten in more miles during the week, but I did alright. A week before the race I strained my achilles tendons slightly carrying heavy boxes down a flight of stairs so I decided to just rest my legs until the race. I knew it was going to be tough jumping from 18 to 26 miles going in.
I thought I'd be able to register at the last minute but once I finally did the website said the registration had already closed on September 30. I decided I was going to try to run in the race even without a number but luckily they did allow me to register the day before and get a packet.
I also planned on carrying a small camera with me while running. I got the Canon S95 that had just been released before I left. I was hoping I wouldn't regret having it on the the whole time. It turned out to work great. The little running pouch I had could carry a few gels and and the camera without bouncing.
The night before the race I could hardly get to sleep at all, probably 3-4 hours max. It was the same factors as the previous night, hard small bed, thick blanket and hot temperatures, outside noise, etc. On top of that just thinking about the fact that I was going to try to run farther than I ever had in my life on less than adequate sleep in a foreign country and were my legs actually healed enough to run. Somehow I finally went to sleep. I woke up at 5:30 the next morning, we were to leave the hotel at 6:30am for a bus that would leave at 7am for the race.
Once I got all my running gear on I felt pretty good. My legs definitely felt as good as they could feel under the circumstances. However, I didn't get my usual oatmeal breakfast that morning, just some random fruit and juice and some cliff bars. Also, the night before I didn't get the spaghetti dinner I would have preferred to get. The bus came just before 7am and we rode to the Asian part of Istanbul. They say this is the only marathon in the world that goes across continents. This was my first time every being in Asia, within hours of being in Asia I would be running over 26 miles back into Europe potentially doing permanent bodily injury to myself. Fortunately, for several reasons the end of the race was right by where the hotel was located.
Here's a map of the race:
I felt pretty good up until about 16-17 miles. The lack of sleep and energy started to catch up with me. They didn't seem to have quite enough water stops. Also, instead of gatorade or gels they just had sugar cubes. I called it the "ghetto gu", gu is the common gel you usually see around. From mile 20-26 it was basically pain for an hour or so. I was running/walking along the side of the Marmara Sea. I thought about quitting a few times at the very end but I decided the fastest way back to the hotel was just to keep going towards the finish.
At about 34km or so I saw a guy walk/running near me. I wanted to finish before 5 hours and we weren't sure if that was the deadline or something. I started talking to him and asked him if he also wanted to finish, he said yes but he was in pain. So I said, if you do it I'll do it and he agreed. I told him I was from New York, and he kind of laughed a little when he said he was from the Gaza Strip in Palestine, his name was Mohammed. We kept pushing each other to run further and finish. However, he had to drop out at probably about 39km, he thought that if he didn't make it before 5 hours it wouldn't count. However, it turned to be 5 hours and 30, which I did end up beating. I just knew I was going to finish no matter what.
. Walking back, some guy stopped me and said he had just seen me on the local news. He said something about me waving to a guy with a camera which I do remember. I never saw it though. Luckily my legs feel great now a few days after. No permanant damage to my body and I'm so glad I did the race. That last 1-2 hours of the race was just very hard, I knew it would be going into it