I made my 10 days holiday coincide with the İstanbul Marathon which is known as the intercontinental marathon and the most famous one in Turkey. The marathon would be run on 6th Nov. I landed in the night on 4^thNov in İstanbul Airport. After I traveled from the airport to the Şirinevler district by bus, I took a cab to my home in İstanbul. Because of the less traffic which is not normal in the daytime of İstanbul, it was a nice trip and I made myself home about in 1 hour and 15 minutes.  

The day after on Saturday in very nice and warm weather, I went to the congress center in Yenikapı which was also close to the finish point to
take the bag including the running equipment such as a t-shirt, chip, and chest number, etc.. There was a kind of fair about the marathon inside too. It was full
of people esp. young people. Charity organizations kept a place to deliver their t-shirts to the people that were running for the charities and collected donations. I could not make myself to connect to one of these charities as I was not sure to be there in the right time, although I had to register for the marathon at least one month before. The marathon has also another subcategory about 8 km which is open to people and free of charge. Even for that, you have to register yourself long before. Among these charity organizations, I saw my high school there. Frankly, being there with the people who are excited to run
was a nice feeling. in the canteen (Beltur) of Municipality of İstanbul, I drank a coffee. By the way, if you go to İstanbul, I would advise visiting these
canteens. You can see them almost everywhere, especially at the Bosphorus and the prices there are relatively cheap.  

After traveling from the congress center to Eminönü along the Bosphorus with my mother, which was also part of the marathon that I would run the day after, we made ourselves home. In the evening, I watched the game btw. Galatasaray and Besiktas. Previously, I tried to buy a ticket to watch in the stadium. But it was impossible to buy as all of the tickets were sold out in a few seconds after they were put up for sale. The day before, I saw lots of people with Galatasaray shirts on the plane, who were presumably flying just to watch the game. Briefly, I watched a nice game and my team Galatasaray won which made a great motivation prior to the marathon. Literally, this was my first marathon and I was a little bit excited and could not sleep well.  

As usual, I woke up in the early morning at about 6: 00 am. For a breakfast, I ate milk cream together with mulberry syrup. Before leaving, I drank one cup of coffee and took my coffee thermos with me. I wore a soft jacket and jogging trousers over my actual running clothes: the t-shirt inside the bag and a black short. Of course, I took the bag including the stuff that I could not run without them. For the closest metro station, I walked about 15 minutes and saw a few people that have the same bag as me. A young person who was surprised to see people having the same kind of clothes and bags at a very early hour on Sunday morning asked me where we were going. Probably, he was going to work and got shocked even more, as I explained we were going to run the marathon. I was also a little bit shocked, as he did not hear anything about Istanbul Marathon before. Then, he asked whether they gave reward money to the winner. I said they surely give but I didn’t know the amount because I didn’t have any claims as a hobby runner. Later, he said he was playing football in a team and was bored of running and looked as if he was confused and didn’t understand the people who were struggling to run on Sunday morning. After I arrived at the last station in Yenikapı and got on Marmaray which goes through the continents btw. Asia and Europe like the marathon but this time under the ground. By the way except for Marmaray, all the public transportation was free of charge for the runners. In Marmaray, I saw even more runners as they all were ready or making them ready. By looking at them, I put the given chip through the shoelace and tied up my shoe, and pinned the chest number to the front of my t-shirt. The bag with the same number on my chest would be given to the relevant truck before the marathon and given to me after reaching the finish point. By the way, the traffic was totally closed including the Bosphorus bridge. I got off at Üsküdar station on the Asia side as did many others. First, I went to the public toilet before going up to the Bosphorus level. Above, there was a very long queue with the people waiting for the busses that would bring them to the start point. For reaching the back of the queue, I walked quite a long. In the line, I was hearing what people were talking about. They were mostly young people. Among them, I heard about people that were applying for visas. Leaving Turkey and looking for hope abroad has become a phenomenon nationwide nowadays in Turkey which I found very sad as a person who has been living for a long time in Europe. But it is a very important issue that I want to keep short of here. We did not wait long, as the busses were enough to carry all the people.  

Following a short time traveling accompanied by the beautiful views of the Asian side of the Bosphorus, we all started to walk to approach the start point. I mention here thousands of people who remind me of open-air meetings before the pandemic. People were finally getting to normal lives. Like many others, I took off the excessive clothes and put them inside the bag. I looked for a place to pee but I could not trust myself to make it alone outside in front of many people. But after a while, I saw many people mostly males running over the meadows and peeing near the trees. As I don’t want to be full during 15 km of running, I did the same thing. Finally, we approached the bridge. I found the place that I would start according to my chest number. Then, I gave the bag to the person waiting inside the truck having the number interval including my chest number. Everything was very well organized and I did not face any problems up to this point. My waiting place was quite away from the start point. But there was nothing to complain about as the chips on our shoes would track us and record the times as we would pass the start and finish points. Among the runners, I saw many tourists and spoke to one couple coming from South Africa. They were jogging enthusiasts that wanted to experience the intercontinental marathon. We said each of us ‘enjoy marathon’ and I tried to approach down to the starting point like many people. Last year in 2021, the marathon was not organized because of the pandemic. Even, there were more runners than the previous years that making the progress to the start line impossible.
 

Without much distance between us, we waited till the line come up. With a one and half hour delay, I passed the start line at about 10:30 am. Instantly, I was on the bridge without being in a car or public transportation. Behind me Asia, I was passing to Europe. The view was stunning. Many stopped and were taking photos instead of running. There were crowds of people that prevent the people from running. To be honest, it was the most difficult part for me, as I should past these people. Even some runners shouted at them to keep some areas free for the runners. But the experience to be on the bridge and enjoying the view was amazing.  

A few minutes later, I came to the end of the bridge. From here till to the finish point, there were continuously people yelling at us at the sides and musicians playing music. During all this time, I listened to different kinds of music and it was like a fest along the marathon route. Shortly later, I passed to the European side, and a gently sloping but steady downward path started. The next path was the long road called ‘Barbaros Bulvarı’ in district Beşiktaş which goes down like a ramp at some point. I passed this part seems like a ramp at a more rapid tempo like a stone rolling down. ‘Barbaros Bulvarı’ brought us to the ‘Beşiktaş Square’ and the crowd on the roadsides got larger and larger as we went further. Before I went through over this road mostly by public transportation and there was always many traffic jam. Sometimes I was walking too, as I like to walk but now I was running without any traffic and it was a strange feeling. On the left, ‘Beşiktaş Çarşı’ was located with lots of cafes and restaurants, you couldn’t walk easily at a normal time because of the crowd. While I was in the boarding school, we were coming here on Wednesdays for a few hours and turned back to school. I made a U-turn here like the others and changed direction to Kabataş along the shore road. Enjoying the view of Bosphorus on the left, I was running on the tram line and so far finished half of the marathon.  

Karaköy appeared with ‘Golden Horn’ on the right and suddenly we were on the ‘Galata Bridge. I could see almost all the historical places on the outskirts of the old city. Instead of the local people who were fishing and the tourists taking photos of the historical peninsula on a usual day, I could see now the yelling people who seem to me more cheerful than previous ones and the music was even louder. Frankly, it was the best moment far away I had in the marathon and I was not feeling tired at all. The photo in the background should be taken here. While the photographer was taking the photo, I saw him but I was not sure he was taking a photo of me. ‘Yeni Cami’ and ‘Spice Market’ were in front of me. Then, we turned right and passed the historical train station in Sirkeci and were running on Kennedy Road along the shore. On the right side, I saw once a stand delivering bananas and water to the runners. Some of the runners started to eat the bananas ad had to choke on what they ate. As we passed ‘Sarayburnu’ on the left, we made again a U-turn to the direction of the historical city gates called ‘Ahırkapı’ and ‘Çatladıkapı’. Above us, ‘Gülhane Parkı’, ‘Topkapı Palast’, and the other historical places were standing and the sun started to obscure my view. I always liked the blue tone of the Bosphorus here and thus, this area is one of my favorites in İstanbul. But slightly, I started to feel tired of the heat. Although it was in Nov., the weather was unusually warm and you can walk outside in a t-shirt. The day before, I saw people swimming near ‘Sarayburnu’ rocks. Over time, the number of runners was getting less and less.  

I saw the sign showing that 4 km was left to finish. The
remaining road was getting longer in my eyes but I didn’t have the intention to stop for a rest. I could barely watch other runners and they might feel the
same way. At somewhere between ‘Ahirkapı’ and ‘Çatladıkapı’, my right kneecap started to hurt. I forced myself, but running was getting more painful. About
one or two km left to finish, I stopped for one second and tried to stretch my muscles. At this instance, a girl behind me pushed me. Later, I passed to a silent side to stretch. But it was not easy, as the legs couldn’t be stable. Despite all the hardship, I tried to run with the pain. Now, the last 1 km to arrive at the finish point in Yenikapı was becoming like the longest path in my life.  

By losing speed, I made myself pass the finish point. I could barely remember these moments, as we passed through a tunnel with the lights waving over us before the finish. Right after I went to the medical tent to get ice to make cold therapy on my knee. The lady inside the tent taking personal information asked me how old I was. Due to the high adrenaline, I answered as 32 instead of 36.  

After getting cold, the pain was not that bad anymore and I walked to the open place where runners are allowed to rest on the meadows. I took the food and beverages given. Later, I approached the container that has my bag. The officer congratulated me first and gave me the bag without asking anything as he saw my chest number. With the bag, I entered the public toilet. Suddenly, I saw next to the toilette an abdesthane kind of lavatory where people wash or at least some body parts before praying. Before, I was the only one inside. I took almost a half-shower and changed my clothes. Seeing me, other people came and half of the room was full before I exited. My trouser was wet because the can of energy drink that was given after the marathon was blown inside the bag.  

With the smell of the famous energy drink, I went back to the meadows where people were laying. Luckily, I found a pillow to sit next to an older couple and I took off my shoes. Soon after, the concert of ‘Yüksek Sadakat’ started. There were people who were stretching around. A heavy cramp suddenly hit my right foot after sitting. It was very painful that I could barely stand. After resting for a couple hours and chatting a little bit with the couple next to me, I left. A young girl grabbed instantly the pillow I left.  

Before I was leaving the area, I saw a stand that was giving a free massage service to the runners which seems that it was worth waiting. There was also an Uruguayan girl in the line with her country’s flag on her back. At first, the flag seemed to me like an Argentinian one and asked her with my little Spanish whether it was an Argentinian flag. She said it was Uruguay. It was strange to see a person from Uruguay except for football players in Turkey. Even, I didn’t remember that I saw an Uruguayan abroad, although I have seen people from many countries. Once I saw a person from Madagascar that shocked me too. After waiting about an hour, I gave up. They also announced that they would do just 15 minutes more. I took the last mineral water and I exited from there.  

Next to this place in Yenikapı, there was another event called ‘Diyarbakır Tanıtım Günü’ which was organized by the people who come from Diyarbakır, the largest city in South-eastern Turkey. I have been before in these region-days. As I entered the open area through an iron door, I got first the heavy smoke smell that came from many barbecues around. Diyarbakır is famous for its kitchen relied mainly on meat esp. liver kebab. I did not eat anything as I was not hungry yet and the lines in front of the stands were very long. I entered the buildings where you can find local products from Diyarbakır and bought cheese for home. Then, I went to Kennedy Road located on the shore to take a bus and was not sure to go home. From there, I could go to Bakırköy or in the reverse direction that goes to Eminönü. I decided to go back to Eminönü where I run through today. As I approached the stop, I haven’t seen anybody waiting. A single car with an advertisement for the energy drink was waiting on the road. Later, I saw a person who was still running for 42 km, and the road was not open to traffic yet. Once more, I thought about how a 42 km marathon seemed as unimaginable.  

Although I had muscle pains esp. when I was going down or up the stairs, I did not want to go home early. I decided to walk from there to the Marmaray Station which was about 2,5 km far away and passed to the Asia side to meet a friend of mine. By the way, I got the text message that I finished the 15 km in 1 hour and 25 minutes. On the way, I thought about how so many memories I had accumulated in such a short time.