Lycia Ultra 55 K in 2018

Lycian trail is actually a very long, almost entirely way marked path which takes days or week to cover on foot. It is a very popular destination for hikers and definitely recommended. The Lycia Ultra Race or LYUM has been around since 2010. The was founded by Prof.Dr. Taner Damcı, an accomplished ultra marathoner and pioneer of the sport in Turkey. UzunEtap, a company who specialise in setting ultra races is responsible for the event. I have been to many of their events and they know what they are doing IMHO.

The race has been evolving during recent years. Now the organisers seem to have a final consensus for 100, 57, 37 and 20 K categories, which perhaps makes the organisation easier to handle. I attended 2018 race in 57K category and it was quite hard. I am not an experienced ultra marathoner, definitely no pro, but I spent 10 years in the army in my younger years walking real trails. So trust me on that: this race is tough.

I had been meaning to run this course for a long time but it was never the right time. Job, private life, injuries… Somehow it did not happen. In 2018, they had 174, 130, 57, 35 and 13 K categories. I was halfway into my long recovery from the previous year. With a mild but chronic hip pain, I was truly terrified with the possibility of a relapse. Initially, I registered to 130K intending to walk the entire course finishing just under cutoff. I would just enjoy it. Later on, I realised that even walking 130K could be too much. One day, I opened up Google Earth and studied the trail. It dawned on me that I would be walking through dark forests, climbing steep crevices and possibly getting lost a few times. I did not feel ready to risk another injury. So be it I said. Let it be “nice” and “easy” then. I updated my registration to 57 K.

In 57K, you needed to reach 27,5K control point and return along the same path. My final was to cover first half in 5 hours walking fast, possibly running a few small flat segments. I would return in 6 hours, walking slower and perhaps taking longer in control points. The cutoff was 12 hours.

Sounds easy, right?

In a way it is. If you are regularly running, tried a few ultras before and have the right state of mind and have enough water, it can be pretty easy. According to modern military experience (Check Nato guidelines for Maintaining Hydration), you need approximately 15 litres of water per day to survive in this kind of terrain walking that kind of distance. More if you have other issues. Assuming you already know how to manage your hydration, you still need to carry your own water or re-supply from the control points. There are a few villages along the way but overall, no reliable water sources on this trail. This means you have to find control points. If you miss one and get lost, you have to make do with what you are carrying on yourself. (It is mandatory to carry the official GPS tracker, so that they can find you, if need be) Minimum mandatory amount you need to carry is 1 litre only.

Another thing to consider was food. I don’t have breakfast before races and don’t like artificial stuff like gels. (Although I believe that they are very useful if you can take them) 12 hours is a long time but manageable with minimal food intake. The solution is again the same- you rely on control points or carry whatever you want to eat.

In the end, I decided to risk it by relying on control points than taking all the trouble to carry a big west. With only two 750 ml soft flasks, two 40 gr packs of crackers, a few salt pills and 2 bars of chocolate, I would risk going hungry a bit, but remain super light.

Finally, orientation. I usually don’t bother loading gps routes in crowded races, this time, going without gps would be plain stupid. Don’t try it.

The day before the race, I bumped into an old friend who is mainly a road runner. I was a bit surprised to see him in a trail race. He was frantically speaking to a group of people with a Suunto gps watch in his hand. After catching up for a while and reminiscing about the good old days, he noticed that my watch was identical to the one in his hand. He asked whether I could help him load up the Gps track. While I was busy with his phone app, he asked me about my race plan. I said that there is no ambitious plan- I would walk all the way to mid point and walk back, finishing just under 12 hours.

He said his plan was to finish the course under 6 hours. His logic was frighteningly simple- he could run a marathon under 3:30:00, there he should be able to run a 55 K around five hours, extrapolating his time linearly by allowing some extra. Add another hour for his inexperience and to account for the extra difficulty of the trail and there you go. 6 hours.

I tried to explain him that a 6 hour result would squarely put him in the hall of fame for the greatest ultra runners ever. In 2017, the race had a 37.5K event and the winners time was 6:15. He did not seem impressed with my approach. I was also in no mood for debate. We wished each other good luck and called it a night.

We were also given a laminated card with a list of control points and tips on how to remain on track. I wonder if anyone really relies on that. “At 26.3 km, sharp right turn to return to trail” Good luck with that too…

I never sleep well before races. Call me childish but I always end up getting too excited and stay awake, usually showing up at the starting line with a few hours of sleep. Nothing changed in this occasion. When you can’t change things, you should embrace them. I was halfway into my Game of Thrones binge anyway so I just enjoyed watching brave men killing each for very creative reasons. Another hour of my life was wasted while trying to pinpoint where Lykya would be on the Known World map of Westeros.

I emerged from my dreamless slumber very early at 4 am, took a shower and had some real strong coffee. A long day without caffeine is plain intolerable. Loading up in advance sometimes helps. Half awake, I ended up driving to the Finish line first, only to realise that Start point is at an entirely different place.

Still trying to wake up, joined my fellow runners at the start line, shouted my lungs out during the countdown and hit the road walking. As I climbed the first the leg of the race, the sun showed itself and suddenly everything become dreamlike. This part of the road is well trodden by zillion of tourist staying in Fethiye. You don’t realise how beautiful this place is until you see the legendary Oludeniz from above. Try searching “paragliding in Babadag” and you will see what I mean.

As planed, I walked the first 10K at a fast but comfortable pace, taking my time to enjoy the view, take a few selfies and pay attention to the trail itself.

Then the terrain started to show its difficulty. There were really few flat segments. If you have some ibex dna or grew up on mountains, maybe you can run half the course. The ground is mostly hard granite with occasional sharp spikes which cuts through your shoe if you’re not careful. There are narrow passes with loose boulders, steep climbs and descents. Long story short- this is very difficult terrain with really technical parts. As much as I wanted to enjoy the scenery, I had to keep my eyes right in front my feet all the time, carefully selecting the next point to hit at my every step.

If I paid attention, I could see the “road” occasionally. For many centuries, people walked here not for fun but out of necessity perhaps. But most of the time, I found myself walking on plain rock. There is a reason why soldiers use heavy boots and not sneakers. Constantly concentrating on the ground to avoid a misstep was mentally draining after a few hours.

The entire course is along the sea of course. But you see the sea only occasionally.

In a few instances, we crossed some really loose avalanches of rock and soil but never had to walk through them vertically. A group of runners rushing up or down those rock rivers inevitably would hurt someone. There were a few bottlenecks where we had to cross one by one, just to be safe.

And finally, we had to climb down a really steep segment somewhere around 24th km. Some people complained a lot here and I don’t get it. Nobody begged you to do this. So what is the point?

I finally reached midpoint after 5 hours, way more dehydrated and exhausted than I expected. Luckily, there were some bananas and sports drinks (I love race sponsors) at the control point. Just to be on the safe side, I downed half a litre isotonic drink, a banana and some crackers. It was around 12:00 with a fiercely bright sun above us. Running under a bright sun makes good Instagram selfies but you pay a terrible price from a fluid management perspective. My pulse was already lingering around 145 even while walking, signalling danger. I had to take things easier on the way back and drink more often.

Second half of the race was more enjoyable. I already knew the route now and felt more confident about staying on course.

On my way back, I started seeing more runners running in the opposite direction. Most of them seemed OK but a few looked a bit moody. It was not very obvious at first sight but then I realised why some of them were not smiling. If it takes more than 6 hours for you to cover the first half, you can expect 7 hours in the second, putting you squarely in the DNF corner. It also means that your finish would be around 8pm, an hour after sunset, risking running in dark without any light. Suddenly I realised that I wasn’t that safe myself- one wrong turn and I would also be a lonely soul running in dark. Not nice. I texted my wife a smiley and told her that I am going offline (most of the course does not have cell coverage anyway) and turned off my phone, saving the battery for a rainy day, or a dark night.

After 8 hours, my gps battery died out. This was quite unexpected and I realised that I packed a power bank but not the charges cable. Without gps help, I eventually took a detour. As soon as I realised that I was going nowhere, I returned to course by tracing back my steps but this carelessness cost me more than an hour.

Sometime around 5pm, I saw my old friend with the 6 hour race goal from the previous day, laying flat on his back at a control point. Later on I learned that they got lost early in the morning, sometime after passing 10 K mark, spent hours trying to find a way back and never made it beyond the first CP.

The following hours required a bit more discipline. I stayed on course until 11th hour, racking my brains to remember what things looked like and finally reached where I thought the finish line would be, only to realise that the finish line was in fact at the beach, adding an unexpected hill descent to the final stage of the race. The last part also included a rather risky crossing, which required hanging on a rope, testing our skills as climbers. That came as a total surprise. Technically speaking, I am not against it. Maybe it was mentioned in the race briefing and I was daydreaming. Still, a lot of people hated it, especially the last few who had to do it at night.

I did run the last kilometre, not only to pose for the finish photo, but also to make sure that I was in time.

One comment about difficulty: I was the 20th finisher overall. Only 32 out of 81 participants made it before the cutoff time. Very few people completed the 130K and 174 categories, due to a number of reasons. The following year, they changed the long course, limiting the distance to 100K. I still think the DNF ratio is quite high. Not because the design of the course is flawed, but because the race itself is hard.

So, is this a hard race?

Again, I am not an experienced ultra runner myself. Maybe more experienced runners can share their comments. The metrics says no. There are many races in the world with longer distances, higher climbs, with stricter cutoffs and so on. In Turkey, there are races many other interesting races with something unique to offer, so making a direct comparison would be futile and meaningless. But if you are a beginner like myself and struggling with your category choice, here is one. This race would give me 3 ITRA points, matching it with Kackar Ultra 45 (2018) or Iznik Ultra 50 K (2018). Lycia 55 was definitely more difficult thanks to unforgiving heat, tricky navigation and shoe piercing rock terrain. I would recommend testing an easily doable distance first. 37 K category easily takes 8 hours and should be challenging enough for most recreational runners.

Beyond numbers, Lycia Ultra 2018 organisation was enormously enjoyable for many. People kept on ranting on about the race for days, for good reason. Lycia is different. A true trail course with an amazing history, it tests not only your running capacity, but also your orienteering skills, mental fortitude and patience.

Trail running is still developing in Turkey with more and more people taking to this beloved sport. As the number of people running and demand for events increase, I am sure one day LYUM will be again a multi-stage event, attracting both newbies and hard-core veterans alike. I can only hope to go back one day and complete a longer course, with a longer lasting gps, a bigger vest and better preparation.