Salomon Cappadocia Ultra Trail 63Km CMT - Race Report

Date: 15th October 2023

Location: Ürgüp, Cappadocia, Turkey

Race Distance: 63Km

…THE BEGINNING: Spring/Summer 2023…

Before jumping into the report, I will share the behind the scenes that took me to this unforgettable run. For every race I sign up for, there is a story behind, and this one started at the end of April 2023 when I met Yunus. I already knew who he was, but that was the first time that we met in person. After re-introducing myself, my first thought was “he seems an ok guy”, my second thought was “I love his jacket!”. You may not know Yunus, but one thing is certain here, he’s not famous for his highly fashioned outfits. However, that day combined with his typical WWF t-shirt he was wearing the Cappadocia Ultra Trail finisher’s jacket. Of course, that detail didn’t go unseen, and – very typical of me - I started asking questions curious to know if Yunus really ran the race. I discovered that he did for real and that he will run 3 more big ultras of >100km each this summer. The first in Switzerland (July), the second on a Salt Lake in Turkey (August), and the last one was still pending for October (maybe - Cappadocia again). When he shared with me all these upcoming adventures I though “wow he is a real pro, maybe in 5 years I may attempt something similar, but now, I can barely finish 21km without fainting”. Thinking about that time, I can say I was (and I still am) a newbie at running. As such, earlier that month I had just completed the second half marathon of my life in Vienna. That was my biggest running achievement, and I was so proud that I could cut my previous - and only - PR of 30’. After Vienna I was already thinking of a new race, and I ended up submitting my first marathon registration for November 2023 in Canary Island with plenty of time ahead to properly train.

Early July 2023 I was in California on a road trip with my friend Yunus. During that time, Yunus and I did lots of runs together from Venice Beach in LA listening Ocean Drive, to Yosemite trails enjoying the silence of nature. During one of those, he was telling me that he finally decided to sign up for the Cappadocia CUT with a friend to attempt 119Km. Obviously, he didn’t forget to explain the beauty of Cappadocia and his country while trying to convince me to join the event. Inside myself I thought “well, 119 is a bit too much out of my league, but if there is a shorter distance, why not try?!”. Looking at the website, I saw that there was a 38km distance with registrations still open, that was great news. I started to seriously think about how feasible that would be for me given the much shorter distances I was used to run and the difficulty of the elevation - I train in a very flat city and everything >50m looked hilly to me.

On the 9th of July 2023 it was the day after I landed back in London from the US, I was fully jetlagged, and I decided to sign up for the Cappadocia Short Trail (CST 38km). The game was officially on. I had a “perfect” plan in my mind, I had to follow the marathon training for the November race starting at the end of July and use the CST as long run workout. This way, I wouldn’t have outrun the marathon distance while sticking to the plan. Of course, nothing went as expected (what a surprise Chiara). Nothing less that 3 weeks later, I signed up for the RunFire Salt Lake 40km race in Tüz Gölu (read my race report) for mid-August. This was my longest and hardest race so far, running under the August heat of centre Turkey on salt terrain, with A LOT of sun and wind. Anyway, that was one of my favourite races, and I preciously carry all its hot memories with me. That race made me realize that I enjoy running long distances and all the unexpected challenges they surprise you with.

It's the end of August, and I am in Italy. It has been around one week since the Salt Lake race and I keep on looking at the Cappadocia website. I was so surprised that I could run 40km without so much preparation and I start thinking that 38km may be too short as next challenge. In the meantime, Yunus was also trying to convince me to run the longer distance despite my huge doubts on whether I was trained enough to avoid my first DNF. At this point, I had to give clarity to my thoughts and make the final decision to either stick to what was left of my original plan, or completely change the cards on the table and go bold with the 63km. I must admit, that was not an easy choice. On one side, my scared brain was telling me “You cannot run more than marathon distance before your first real marathon!”, “You’re not trained to run with any elevation gain, how come can you handle >1.800m in one day?!”, “You will end up injured and you will not be recovered on time for your first marathon after only 4 weeks”, “How can 38km on the mountains not be enough?”, “It’s too late to train for such a long distance (I only had 5 weeks)”. From the opposite side, my brain was also saying “You’ve just run 40km, 38km will not be very challenging for you now”, “What’s the point of doing your first ultra if the distance is not “ultra”?!”, “What if you can really run 63km? You would be SO PROUD!”, “You won’t be alone, Yunus and Tezcan will run your same route”, “Worst case scenario, you can walk and use all the 12h to finish”, “The goal is to reach the finish line, not winning, you can be on your feet for 12h”, “The 63km parkour has much better views!!” […] – yes, my brain was spinning like a washing machine on full power. These doubts didn’t sit for long, as such, the day after I wrote to the organization team asking for my registration change to CMT. They got back to me super-fast, and before the end of the day I was officially enrolled in the 63km race. 

I was so excited and scared at the same time. I had no idea on where and how to properly train for this event. I thought that it was too late to do anything life-changing…the race was too soon. What I tried to do was to keep my weekly mileage high around 75km, focus more on long runs in the weekend, and when I get the chance, run on trails. I was about to finish my second week post-race when I got injured on a long run. Of course, I did not see that coming and I got so sad when I figured that there was such a short time left before the race. I was reading around, and I discovered that it usually takes about 6 weeks to fully recover from IT band (or any generic soft tissues) injury. Here is when my brain really struggled, I had to take a decision between ignoring the situation and keep training, listening to the doctor and fully rest, or keep exercising with hybrid training. At the beginning I didn’t want to accept that I was injured, and I tried to keep running, but it was getting too painful. I tried to fully rest for a couple days and then go back running, but that also didn’t work (the doc said 4/6 weeks of rest, not 2 days - fair point, but not for me). Then I ended up forcing myself to option 3. I cross trained for 10 days, I was swimming, strength training, and stretching daily with zero running volume. Still hard to explain, but I managed to heal super-fast by doing so. I went back pain-free on my feet 2.5 weeks before the race. In those weeks, I tried to keep every-thing easy without pushing hard and risking going back to injured Chiara. That worked.

…BEFORE…

9th October 2023, I am on the last flight LHR-IST. For this event, Yunus, the supporting crew, and I, organised a road trip from IST to Ürgüp. The plan was to leave the city very early in the morning to get to Cappadocia by mid-afternoon. This way we could get a full day of rest on Friday enjoying the running fair, some sightseeing, and be fresh and relaxed for Saturday 7:00am. The plan turned out just perfect. Arriving on-site a couple days before the race helped our bodies to acclimate to altitude, and we had time to recover from the long travel. On Thursday evening we picked up our race packs, we completed the equipment check, we had a nice tour around the run fair, and we ended up the day eating pumpkin seeds with local wine under the stars. On Friday the pre-race vibe was up in the air, lots of runners and supporters arrived in town and I loved being around so much excitement and positivity – that was truly contagious! 

…DURING: THE RACE…

Saturday 15th October 5:00am the alarm is off. The evening before I was quite sleepy, and I hoped I could get a good night of rest before the big day. However, inside myself I was too excited to sleep like a baby, and the morning after I was a mix of sleepiness and excitement. I started the day with some coffee while finishing to pack and double check my vest, equipment, and race clothes. Additional to the mandatory equipment, I put in my vest 4 honey stinger, 4 cliff chews packs, 1 pack of SaltStick electrolytes, 3 SiS gels, tissues, lip balm, chafing cream, and the GoPro. To wear, I picked my blue UA running shorts, a short sleeves t-shirt (I like the Decathlon ‘skincare kiprun, it’s relatively warm and it has never caused me chafing), Salomon ‘Speedcross’ socks, Lululemon sports bra, Hoka Speedgoat 5 on my feet, cap and sunglasses on my head. I also used a running belt to pin the bib and carry the poles.

After eating some breakfast and completed the morning routines, it was time to leave. Yunus, Tezcan, and I left the hotel 30’ before the start time. The morning temperature was cold – probably ~10degrees - but during the day it will touch 25 before dropping down to 3 in the following night. Next to the start we handed over our drop bags and finally, we joined the start line. With the first morning lights of an orange and clear sunrise the countdown starts …üc [three]…iki [two]…bir [one]…game on! 

All of us three started running together trying to not loose ourselves in the crowd. The first 5km were very slow due to the amount of people in front of us, the narrow streets and trail passages we had to go through. However, I cannot complain, this allowed us to gain some extra time and enjoy the beautiful morning scenery of the surrounding valleys with air balloons flying up in the sky. 

The first 15km felt very good despite the first big climb of the race, my legs were fresh, my mind was clear and releasing positive energy. We stopped a few minutes at the ~10km CP that was located halfway the climb where I had some cake, salty snacks, and refilled the flasks. I knew that the next CP would have been in 16km, the sun was up, hence I wanted to have enough water to face the upcoming climbs. The CP #2 was located at the second summit of the course. Here, we decided to stop for a little longer (probably a solid 15’), I refilled my water supplies, drank some coke, ate my favourite tasteless & dry cheese toast and some chocolate cake (yes, I liked the extra dry food at all these CPs – lol). The Kms between the third and fourth CPs were by far my favourite part of the course. The scenery was constantly changing from forests, villages, canyons, to uphills with views, and fast downhills on the pink rocks of the valleys. All this time I have been running close to Yunus, while Tezcan was being more conservative to keep some extra energies for the remaining half race until 119km. Of the 8km prior to the CP I have beautiful memories. Both Yunus and I were silently flying on the track enjoying the feeling of the slight breeze downhill and the stunning pink rocky view on our right side. The terrain was dry and sandy, the downhill was constant and ‘light’, my body was feeling full of energies, and the peace around us became a playground for my brain to meditate - until I saw the RedBull guy playing music at the beginning of the upcoming village. The CP #4 was right before the 50thkm and the last and steepest mountain climb of the race. Here, I stopped for a good 5-10’, where we met our fantastic crew sharing with us super positive vibes. At this CP I had (again) my extra dry chocolate cake, cheese toast, a banana, lemon with salt, and coke. After the refills I was ready for the last big effort of the race. 

While Yunus was waiting for Tezcan to arrive, I decided to start early, leaving the CP leaving and the guys behind. I was feeling good both mentally and physically, so far, I hadn’t felt any big soreness or pain except for a light discomfort on my injured knee, but apart from that I was in a very good condition to finish strong the race. Now it was just me, myself, one big mountain, and 14 more km until the finish line. I knew that what was expecting me was hard. One thing that my agonistic past thought me, is that I am good at not giving up, keep pushing, and go strong with a focused mind until I am done. Hence, I took my poles from the belt, put myself in focus mode, and started speed climbing the mountain passing people one step at a time. It hasn’t been easy, but it has been fun and memorable. I was breathing hard, my knee was feeling the fatigue, my legs were asking for a break, my arms were undertrained to carry my weight, but my brain was finally living life enjoying the feeling of pushing hard, being so proud of what, again, I proved to be capable of. I quickly passed by the last CP, refilled my flasks, grabbed a piece of dry choco cake to eat on the go, and left my amazing crew with a skyrocket-level adrenaline. 

The last km until the finish line had a quite boring landscape with a few road crossings and trucks spreading dust everywhere. At least, I was very lucky, and I made a new friend on the course. This Turkish guy and I have kept on overtaking each other for a while. I took him over each uphill and he ran faster downhill, every single time until we started running together and chitchatting for a few miles. That short conversation made me even happier, reminding me of how good it feels when people around you, going through the same ‘pain’, share their support with just few simple words “you are going strong, well done”. With all these – and many more – remarkable memories I cross the finish line after 63.3km in 9h and 24’ placing myself 38/120 in the gender ranking and 245/585 overall.

…AFTER THE RACE…

Crossed the finish line I wanted to share my joy with my family and the guys who were still running. I sent them the terrible (and only) picture I have holding the finisher’s medal and smiling at my phone. The first answer arrived from my dad who was super happy and proud of me, followed by a phone call where it was so clear that my mom was still shocked by me running for over 9 hours and concerned that I could feel too tired – very typical of my mom, but I love how she can bring me back to the non-athlete world, making all these accomplishments even more special :).  

Anyway, the day was not over yet. Now, I felt that it was my job to keep the morale up for Yunus and Tezcan who still had to face the last and hardest 60+km. With our crew, we welcomed the guys at their main CP in Ürgüp near the finish area. Here they stopped for a while, had a meal, changed their clothes, and rested a bit before disappearing behind the trails at the golden hour. Around 11pm we went to their 88th km CP, it was deep night and it started getting cold. At this CP Tezcan arrived with a low morale, his mind wasn’t in the right place anymore, and after a warm soup he took the final decision to stop. Yunus instead, was feeling great and full of energy, and after some food and a hug he was ready to face the second mountain. 

Around 2am Efrahim and I drove to the 101km CP waiting for Yunus to arrive. After a while Yunus arrived, his face was saying more than the few words he said. That second mountain was no joke, the ascent was high, temperatures were getting colder, the wind was blowing, and Tezcan not being there anymore was making the race mentally harder. Although all this, there was one thing I could clearly see, he was determined to finish the race no matter what. His spirit was in the right place, his body was in good condition, and most importantly, he had just received from us that ‘friendly support’ that he needed to run the last shot. It’s very hard to explain what that ‘friendly support’ is. Metaphorically speaking, I would say that it’s like “filling up your heart” with positive emotions that your brain develops when you feel your loved ones close to you. With such good feelings and a cup of warm coffee with a lot of milk cream, Yunus was ready to face the last mountain before crossing the finish line. At 5:30 in the morning, my alarm rang, and I sleepily jumped out of bed to go to the finish line and join the rest of the crew who was already there. After a bit more than 23h we saw Yunus approaching and we started cheering and celebrating him for the huge accomplishment. I felt genuinely happy for him, I knew how much finishing this race meant for him after his past DNFs, and this is exactly what he deserved. 

After enjoying beautiful Cappadocia, it was time to get some proper rest and spend the last few days we had on the Mediterranean coast before flying back home. 

Güle güle Turkey, see you next year!

Video: https://youtu.be/rClZLRveV6E?si=hQy4ivEGTeUtXGpN 

Organization website: https://cappadociaultratrail.com/en