Tarsus (No-Train) Half Marathon

Last Saturday afternoon I was talking with my buddy Pete. He told me that earlier that day he had signed up for the Tarsus Half Marathon. I had heard about it, but I hadn't trained at all. In addition, the farthest I had ever ran was a 10K and I only went over 4 about 5 other times in my life. But we were talking and he said it was free and you get a free t-shirt, so I figured what the heck. He hadn't trained much either. He was running 5 miles pretty regularly, but he also had never gone over 10K.

We started talking about how to prepare. The main discussion was about whether to use vaseline to keep your thighs and gluts (butt) from getting rubbed raw. Of course all of my other friends were encouraging Pete and I to lube up. Another question was whether to tape up our nipples so they didn't get chaffed. I basically got too lazy to get the stuff together, so I decided that if everyone else was doing it the next day I would just borrow.

That night I started thinking about what I should eat/drink. I didn't know what you were supposed to do except drink water, so I drank water and just at normally. I think I had some meat and vegetables.

The next morning I had an omelette and bought some peanuts for a prerace snack. That was the extent of my preparation.

I met John and Pete to head out at about 0750. John was going to watch. I told him that by the end of the drive we were going to guilt him into running so he better bring some running shoes (he had on hiking shoes). I had stashed some extra shorts and a shirt for him just in case. He didn't change is shoes, but on the way we reminded him that this was Turkey and there would be people running it in dress shoes, so he didn't have an excuse. Then when we pulled up some of the kids with numbers on had shoes almost exactly like his, but he wouldn't be talked in to it.

Here are the runners warming up. (Me, Pete, Kimberly, Paul, Jessica)



Jessica is a regular marathon/half marathon runner. Paul and Kimberly had been training for a month or two. Pete and I work out regularly, but no long distance training.

Here we are signing up and getting our numbers.



Pete and I strething before the run.







Here are the pictures John took at the start. It was pretty cool. They played the Turkish National Anthem and said a bunch in Turkish before firing the gun. I think there were about 700 runners.

















You can see us to the right of the flag. Paul has a blue shirt and a camelback. Paul and Jessica were the only ones with camelbacks on that I saw.

This guy did the 10K which started right after the half marathon. Two guys in wheel chairs did the half marathon...one of them smoked me.



These guys were the pros. There were people from all over the world there: Kenya, Ethiopia, Germany, Greece, etc. I think the winner did it in just over an hour.



During the race Pete and I ran together. We had a pretty good pace going and were at the front of our group. Most of the people around us were older guys from the running clubs. The race went by St. Paul's Well and Cleopatra's Gate. Then it went to a long straight away. It was cool because you got to see the other runners, but it made it a little difficult. There were a bunch of people at the turn, so I shouted "MERHABA!" (HI!) and the 20 people there all started cheering.

Pete and I were going good until about mile 8. His legs just completely died. While I wasn't dead, mine weren't doing that great either. I did get to slap some of the Turkish kids hands as we ran through the neighborhoods. They were very friendly and Pete got some offers for his sunglasses. Some of them would put out their hand and then pull a "too slow" move and I was like come on man I'm dying, but it was cool.

At about mile 10,(I didn't know it at the time. The only time I had a clue how far I had gone was when a lady told me 2K left. Nothing was marked that I saw.) I turned a corner thinking we were almost done and then saw another huge straght away. At that time I was thinking "screw it, I'm walking", but Pete didn't stop and a there was a band playing around the corner. The band really kept me going.

A little after that Jessica went cruising past us. I like to joke now that she kicked dirt in a face and talked some trash, but she gave us some encouragement and kept going at her steady pace.

At mile 12, we hit cobblestones which were a pain to run on (see picture of pro above). This was the low point. I think we were going slower than a walk, but we kept running.

Here is Jessica coming in for the finish.











1:52!

Pete and I coming in...












Here we are with our medals...top 3?!? That's what I'll tell me kids:)



Both of us already had monster blisters on our feet.



Here is Paul and Kimberly. Paul ran it in like 1:39 last year, so this year he was running with Kimberly for encouragement.



Paul had his little cheering section. He talked to them before the race and then they were waiting for him at the end. One of the girls asked him for a kiss...right in front of his girlfriend. He declined..Pete offered to take his place, but there were no takers.



Here is my little clan.



After the race there were a bunch of booths to buy food at. No deep fried twinkies, but a lot of good turkish food. It actually felt like a fair back in the states.



Once the race was all over, the Turkish kids were running around popping the balloons.



Here we are taking off...everyone had finished! Here is a link to the results. You have to scroll down to 428. The second list is the females. Jessica ended up getting 26th.




Pete and I successfully did the No-Train/No Walk Half Marathon. It was a good time. I finally got over my soreness on Thursday. For a while I could barely walk with my blisters and sore calves and quads. I had a great time. I'm going to have to train for the full one of these days. I think the no-train full marathon might be a little tough!