Chiara's Running diary

Colico (IT), 2 nd September 2023 . It has been 2 weeks since the RunFire 40km race. As every Saturday, I am getting ready for my long run. This weekend I am in Italy in the small town of Colico located in the north of the Como Lake and I am thinking where to run my 24km of the day. I have beautiful childhood memories of this place. When I was a kid, I used to bike with my parents to this typical Italian “agriturismo” named “La Fiorida”. Around 15 years ago this place was a small family run farm open to the public, selling their own fresh products such as milk, cheese, and ice cream. After a long bike ride, I loved running after chickens and looking at the milking cows. It has been such a long time since the last time I have been here and I now want to go back again. I checked the route on Google Maps and it said 11km one way (~22km the full loop) … that was just perfect for my long run! 10:30 am – the temperature is around 27 degrees; hence I decide to take the running vest with 1L wa

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) – wha