Run Fire Salt Lake 40Km - Race Report

Date: 19^th August 2023

Location: Tuz Gölü, Turkey

Race Distance: 40Km

Everything started on what was supposed to be a usual Friday afternoon at work, on the 28^th July 2023 to be precise. By that time, I had already changed my summer plans at least 3 times and on that 28^th July, in the morning, my upcoming working travel planned for August got cancelled. Well, I was (again) in the typical “Chiara never has a plan” situation. I was about to get my flight tickets to go back to Italy, I thought of spending a couple weeks in my home country, but then my friend Yunus called me.

Before telling you, what happened during that call, I will spend a few words talking about who is Yunus as he played a huge role in this adventure (and much more). Well, now it’s hard to be concise, but I promise I will do my best. Before I met him, I used to run half marathons and back in June 2023 I had just signed up for my first full marathon (that I still have to run on the 19^th November 2023) – what a spoiler. Yunus is THE crazy runner who has made me fall in love with long distances and ultrarunning. Since forever he has always challenged me to (literally) run the extra step. Together, I have run my farthest distances, my most beautiful trails, and my funniest runs with him. He believes I can do much more than I think. However, although I am always sceptical, he has always been right.

Now, it’s time to go back to that Friday afternoon. During our catch up, I shared with Yunus my “no-summer-plans” situation. After he had listened to all my super long monologue (yes, I do talk a lot), he threw the ball and asked me to crew his 100 Miles race he signed up for on the 18^th August. Of course, we are talking about Yunus, and this means that he did not sign up for a “typical” 100 Miles race. He wanted to run 100 Miles, on Salt Lake, in the middle of Turkey, in the middle of August, with an average temperature of 36 degrees, under the burning sun that you can now picture after this short description. NGL, this idea sounded very exciting for me, but I didn’t want to take a too impulsive decision. Hence, I went for a run, and when I came back, I booked my flight to Turkey and signed up for the 20Km distance.

London, 9^th August 2023.

Chiara has had double thoughts on her race choice for the whole week. I was thinking that 20km could be either too easy for me (I used to run at least 20km easily every weekend), or very hard, because I’m not used to heat or spongy surfaces, especially when put together. What I did was very simple, I asked Yunus to give me advice. Of course, he said I could do something more challenging. Now I was extremely confused, excited, and positively scared at the same time. From one side, I was curious to try something longer than my usual, and test myself to see if I could run 40km; on the other side, I had never run farther than 25km before, the race conditions were not idea to try my first 40km, and I was not sure if I could get to the finish line. Hence, I decided to send am email to the organization and ask to change my registration to 40km. Good news, there are still available spots in 40km, and the game was now ON.

Until race day I kept on running my usual daily km and I didn’t change anything in my training. I thought there was no point in tapering, carb-loading, and following all the traditional pre-race recommendations. I was so last minute that I believed that nothing would have changed the outcome of the race as I was not following any plan. I kept my nutrition unchanged until I flew to Turkey one week before the race. For the entire week, I did the full gastronomical tour of the local cuisine between kebab, Turkish breakfast, baklava, and of course A LOT of yoghurt (yes, I did not properly carb-load, but I definitely gained a couple kg! – 100% worth it).

Istanbul, 17^th August 2023.

It’s mid-morning, Yunus and I hit the road with destination Ankara. Yunus’ 100 Miles race starts on the 18^th August at 18:00 sharp. The plan is to drive to Ankara the day before his race to get some good night sleep, and then drive to the Salt Lake the morning after (~1h drive). The road trip is going smooth until the end when I started having some stomach movements (not great news). I quite ignored them and with Yunus we go for a short 4km shakeout run in Ankara that will soon end up with some desert-style rain and me at the bathroom (could have ended worse lol). Anyway, we ended the day with a well-deserved spa session and an “early” goodnight.

Tuz Gölü, 18^th August 2023.

It is around midday when we arrive to the famous Salt Lake “Tuz Gölü”. This lake is literally in the middle of nowhere, there is only a small town 10’ driving distance with nothing much around, except for wonderful mountains and a semi-desertic landscape. The race location was easy to find, there is only one road and there were flags from the organisation pointing to the parking entrance. Once we parked the car, we set up our tent in the camping area, picked up our bibs, and explored the surroundings of the race fair. The organisation was way above my expectations and I really appreciated how they thought to provide all what you need. There were clean public toilets always with toilet paper, showers (with no hot water, but it was fine given how hot it was outside!), and sinks open 24h. The camping area was big enough for everyone and there was space for campers or caravans as well. In the start/finish area there were the sponsors’ tents/shops, food trucks, tents to chill relax, and free water bottles, ice cream, and yogurt available for runners. A couple useful tips if you decide to camp during the event are to make sure you fix the tent very well to the ground as it gets very windy during the night, and if you have a choice between a tent and a car maggiolina/caravan, go for it as it is very dusty for the wind and those solutions may be a better alternative for your crew.

Let’s go back to the interesting stuff. After the pasta party, it was time to act like a crew for Yunus. Only 1 person is allowed to crew each runner and pacing is not allowed. This is my first time crewing so I had watched some video tutorials on “how to crew” before to get some basic info. We started packing all the necessary stuff for the drop bag CP and then chilled a bit waiting for the race to start.

It’s 18:00, Yunus and the 100Miles + 100Miles Relay race participants start their adventure attempting the first 40km loop. The weather is getting windier, but the temperatures are still high. Good news is that the sunset is approaching and the colours have started becoming magical. The Salt Lake has just turned into a mystical place. The soft light blue sky is slowing getting dark, the warm orange tones of the sun are reflecting in the salt and painting the lake with pink colours creating a unique and magical atmosphere.

It’s 18:30 and it’s time to listen to the 40km & 80km race brief. For non-Turkish speakers, there was a girl translating everything into English that was super helpful. Overall, race conditions for the morning after were expected to be good with some softer terrain in the first 6-8Km of the lake due to the salt melting with water. The checkpoint (CP) is located in the middle of the course and I have to pass through it every 10km (3 times in total). Past the 10^th Km, there are 2 wristbands to collect in each triangle and show once back to the CP.  Now that I have all the information I need, I’m ready to join the pasta party, make some new friends, and wait for Yunus to arrive to the drop bag CP located next to the start/finish line in a few hours.

It’s around 23:00 when Yunus finished his first loop. I was waiting for him at the CP where only 1 person/runner is allowed to support and crew. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in a good physical condition to keep on racing, his gastrointestinal virus made hard for him to drink and eat, hence it wasn’t safe to continue. Around 1am we went to our tent, I set my alarm for 5:30am and tried to get some sleep before the race.

Tuz Gölü, 18^th August 2023.

It’s 5:30am, the sun is rising, and I have just turned off my alarm, but still too sleepy to get up. I go to the toilet, drink a small bottle of water and go back to bed until 6.

It’s 6:00, now I have to get up and ready, Yunus is sleeping too well to wake him up. I go to the car, drink another bottle of water, take 1 Salt Stick with lime flavour electrolytes, eat 1 banana, 1 toast with hazelnut spread, and 1 energy bar with caffeine. My breakfast is done and now I have to start getting dressed. For the race I chose to wear my favourite bright blue shorts and a red sports bra (bra: lululemon Energy Longline Bra), Salomon socks and running vest, no t-shirt. On my feet I decided to wear trail shoes that turned out to be a great choice for that terrain (shoes: Hoka Challenger 6 GTX). After spreading a ton of anti-chafe body balm and anti-blisters foot balm, I prepared my running vest. In the front pockets I put 3 Honey Stinger energy gels, 10 Salt Sticks tablets, 1 pack of facial tissues, lip balm, and phone. In the back pocket, I put the mandatory equipment and some extra tissues. I woke up Yunus at 6:45, he helped me spreading sun cream everywhere and filling up my water flasks.

1’ before the start (7am) I was almost ready, I put on cap and sunglasses and we run to the start line from the bottom of the crowd and… 3 … 2 … 1 … the race is on.

I start running and I was in my perfect racing mood, relaxed but aware of the race, my only goal was to finish 40km before the cut off and with no walking unless really necessary. The first kilometres were harder than I expected. The heat wasn’t too bad, but the terrain wasn’t solid until I reached the 8^th km around 7.54am, and as typical of me, I had to pee but I knew there were no toilets until the end of the race (now I learnt my lesson: don’t arrive last minute at the start line and keep some time to queue for the toilets before the start). Well, I’m at km 8^th and I start updating Yunus and my family on how’s the race going (yes, there is phone reception on the course). Apart from the unexpectedly hard terrain at the beginning, and my physiological needs that kept me from drinking more than 1 flask, my legs were feeling great and I could see the CP not too far from me.

8:15am I just passed the first CP at Km 10^th. Here I spent too much time (at least 5’) between asking Qs on where I could find a “toilet”, filling up my flasks, eating a banana, and trying to remember the wristbands logistics that I had completely forgot. I received bad news for the “toilet” arrangement, hence I had to choose the naturalistic option in the middle of the lake (the race course was not crowded; hence it wasn’t a bad idea to just run a few extra metres away from the course and find my favourite white spot). Finally, I am BAACK and ready to keep going. During the first triangle I met a few people and collected the wristband (only 1 of the 2 because either they were finished or they flew away for the wind, but that was not a problem). Before the 20km CP I had 2 salt tablets, 1 honey gel, and 1L of water. I arrived at the CP that I felt strong, my legs were feeling fresh, and I was having fun. I stopped for 2-3’ to have some coke, refill my water, eat a couple salty snacks and last, I took with me a half cheese toast to eat on my way to the 2^nd triangle. On the 2^nd triangle I started feeling the heat and the wind a bit more, I had met only a couple people, and my body was telling me I could keep going for a lot more. I had another honey gel, 2 more salt sticks, and 1L water before the 3^rd CP. Here I took a couple glasses of coke, half a cheese toast, and filled up my flasks. Now the game was getting serious, I had 10km left and I had to face the worst part of the terrain one more time for the last 8km until the end. From the 32^nd Km on, it was hard. I put some Dido songs playing in the background to relax and I slowed a little bit my pace to keep running smooth and steady. My feet fingers were a bit in pain and I was feeling a bit dehydrated. My only thought was to reach the finish line asap which was no easy game mentally as I was seeing people walking and stopping around me.

It’s ~11:35am, I cross the finish line, and I am SO HAPPY to see Yunus and random people cheering. In the finish area I loved that the organisation gave me some fresh “water showers” to cool down and right after picking up my medal, I couldn’t wait to hug my friend after such an adventure.

12:00 – ~30’ after the race I am finally relaxing with my legs in the fountain/pool that the organisation filled up to clean up your salty gears. My legs are surprisingly fresh, my ankles are sore, my feet fingers are in pain and I won 3 blue toenails together with the 3^rd place in the women category podium 😊

In a nutshell, I loved this race, everything was epic, from the location to the run and the full experience. If I decide to join again, I would probably pay more attention to a few things:

• 
  Hydration before and during the race – definitely drink more the days before the race and more than 2 cups of water/coke at each CP,
• Remember to re-apply the lip balm with SPF more often as I got sunburnt on my lips and nose area (I blow my nose very often),
• Definitely bigger shoes. For this race I was wearing trail running shoes of the same size of my road running shoes but my feet got swollen for the heat and the intense activity and my feet were not happy with less space,
• Try the night experience. The night sky is wonderful and with the darkness all around you can see the milky way…hopefully one day I will be able to run the 100Miles!

Video: https://youtu.be/urQMuLCv8lc 

Organization website: https://runfiresaltlake.com/ - https://uzunetap.com/EN/