Chiara's Running diary

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 summe

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