Istanbul half marathon – new PB

Race report from Istanbul half marathon

Running race season is on. My last run with a bib was in November. A nightly half marathon in Bangkok. After that I have not had any races to attend. I wanted to do Bratislava marathon one month ago but it got sold out just hours before I signed up so I went to Arosa skiing instead. But now it was time for Istanbul half marathon one of the flattest ones according to the ad’s and my first race at Turkish ground. I signed up about two months ago when I knew I would be in Istanbul for work. Training has progressed quite well and I have tried to squeeze in a half marathon every two to three weeks. Istanbul is a great city for running. There are 60K of beach paths where you can go without stopping for red lights. However, the half marathon was not held on these beach paths but on regular streets. 15 000 participants had signed up and I noted many from abroad.

Preparation

Race pack pickup was far from the start and it took one hour from our hotel to reach there yesterday. A bit waste of time. Saturday I had a relaxing day with an easy gym session in the morning and then not doing to much. A little bit of walking and dinner at the hotel. Then Netflix and a good nights sleep until a thunderstorm woke me up after midnight. Breakfast at 07 and then a metro ride to the start. It was for once a lot of toilets so zero minutes spent on waiting for the very last visit before the run.

First half

09:15 was the 21K start. One hour earlier the 10K race had started so we could see them reaching the finish line when it was our turn. I entered my corral and the 1:40 pacer was just in-front of me. Sub 1:40 has been my goal for quite some time and every race I start aiming for PB and then see how it goes. If the legs feels good I keep on going otherwise not. Today they felt good so I thought I would try to join the balloon guy as long as possible. The race course was very flat and it was raining a bit. Perfect weather for running but not ideal for cheering. One of my colleagues got up early this morning to join for support in the rain so I had to run fast so he could suffer less. The course passed by all famous sights like the blue mosque and over the bridge to Karakoy where the Galata tower is. At the bridge there was a lot of cheering crowds but apart from that there was not a massive support out this early Sunday morning. Running wise it felt good, I had a steady pace around 4:45 when I checked my watch. And it was fun to run.

Second half

10K passed at around 47 minutes and the feeling was still good. I kept on going, had a sip of water when I passed the stations and then kept on running. Somewhere here we were meeting the elite runners. Damn. They are fast like leopards. No chance to even keep their pace during 1K. I was happy I still could see the 1:40 balloons and they were not flying away, they were constantly around 200 meters in-front of me and I knew I could catch up that during the last kilometers if I needed. At 15K I was pretty sure I would manage 1:41 but still some kilometers to go and you never know what happens. Then 18K and 19K. At 19K I decided to pace up and reach the 1:40 pacers. I was so close and looked at my watch and thought it would be possible to finish sub 1:40. Then I saw my cheering colleague which gave some extra energy and I just had the finish left. Nothing to save on. One of few entertainment spots in a tunnel was approaching and also here some extra energy got into my legs. Shortly after that a sign of 500 meters, then 400 m and so on and I felt I still had a lot of energy left and margins on my side so nothing to hold back. And it worked. 1:39:51 and finally sub 1:40 and new PB. Sweet! One more deal to the collection and a ride back with the Marmaray train to a hot shower at the hotel. Yes, this was it. The story of my first running race in Turkey.

Let’s hope the coming months will include many fun races. Next out is Götebergsvarvet in mid May. The worlds largest half marathon. Thanks a lot Maratonpetra for the bib.