Spartathlon 2018… How to start, where to begin? Five days after the race I sat in front of the computer for 1.5 hours but couldn’t write more than a few sentences. Whether you have a good or a bad race Spartathlon triggers your emotions like nothing else.
As I said in previous reports, I started writing these reports for myself. This may seem selfish but it forces me to be honest to myself and analyze the race not only with my emotions but also with a certain degree of logic. At the end of the day these reports are a tool for me to better understand my strengths and weaknesses. If they also help somebody else, great. Thus, I don’t put myself any limits in terms of length and the level of detail. There’s a short note that I posted immediately after the race on my social media accounts, if you prefer to read that.
I’ve written three detailed English reports in the past, which you can access via the Spartathlon tab on the top right. I’ll therefore try not to repeat some of the basic info about the race. But in short, the Spartathlon is a 246-kilometer (153 mile) ultramarathon from Athens to Sparta, held annually in Greece since 1983. Based on Herodotus’s account, it represents the historical run of Pheidippides, who ran from Athens to Sparta before the Battle of Marathon in a day and a half to seek support against the Persians.
In 2014, I became the first Turkish runner to run the Spartathlon. I finished also in 2015 and 2016 but was unlucky at the 2017 ballot. A friend of ours, Mert Derman, represented Turkey last year and also successfully finished the race.
Who knows maybe it was for the better. In March that year, I had managed to break my arm during a night trail run. After that I focused on finishing my book “Ultra”, which became the first ultramarathon running guide book in Turkish. After that I ran a few races to get into form, including the Sri Chimnoy 50-mile in Canada and the UTMB-CCC in France. More importantly, I was in Chamonix to help and witness my brother Aytuğ finish the UTMB. 6 weeks later, I ran a good race at the Salomon Cappadocia Ultra Trail in October 2017. I was feeling stronger and stronger as the year progressed. Now I had the biggest challenge of the year in front of me: the Barcelona 24-hour track race. It was going to be my first 24-hour challenge.
I set myself three goals: 200K (a good round number for a first 24hr), 212.5K (the Turkish national record) and 216K (Spartathlon auto-qualification criteria). I wrote a detailed report (in Turkish), so I won’t go into much detail now, but I finished with 225.897 km (140.365 miles). This was beyond my expectations and topped my highest goal for the race. I wasn’t aware at the time that this race would later play a crucial role for me at this year’s Spartathlon. Let’s just put it aside for a moment, but I’ll be coming back to it further down this report.
