Cappadocia Ultra 2015

Cappadocia is world famous for a million reasons… This magic place has an unmatched history, natural beauty and ambiance. It is also home to one of Turkey’s most popular trail races- Cappadocia Ultra. It is a perfect race for organisation for three reasons.

1. You get to see a lot of other stuff if you set aside a few days more.
2. They present 5 simultaneous events for all levels of skills and aspirations. 120, 50, 30 K races and 2 team events. You can easily travel as a group of friends and nobody would get bored.
3. Event is very well organised. Those guys know what they are doing and I haven’t heard any complaints so far. Additionally, Cappadocia is already a well travelled destination and has very good infrastructure.

You can reach all details of the race here.

I participated in the 2015 Edition in 60 K category. I think the actual distance changes slightly each year but 2021 trail map says it will be a 63.6 K with 2030 elevation difference.

This is a weekend event. So I arrived with my wife and son on Friday night, just in time for the race. My good friends from Team Istrunbul were already partying hard but I was already a bit tired after a week of work and decided to be smart and called an early night.

Like many of you, I can’t sleep well before a race. Call it enthusiasm. I woke up a bit early around 6:00 in the morning and tiptoed out without waking up anyone. We were staying in a “cave” hotel with only a few rooms and the breakfast did not start until 7:00. So I decided to take a 10 minute walk to the Start point, which is located conveniently in the middle of the town.

As I mentioned, the race organisation is pretty professional and I did not have any issues about bag drops etc. They also offered some morning snacks, tea and coffee for early risers.

I am a “paved road” runner. I do 97% of my training on flat, nicely paved roads and back in 2015 I had absolutely no training on trails. Back in my teen years I did enough trails for a lifetime but body tends to forget. This race would be my first “trail” run in a very long time. If you only train on roads, climbing hurts. Descending hurts a bit more. I remembered that much. My only plan was to take it easy in the first half, walk all the climbs so that I could survive the last 10 K, which is mostly descents.

The start was quite hassle free. I found myself running with a small group of 5-6 runners. Who do people rush the first five K of a 60 K race? I did end up running a very fast start. I did run in Berlin Marathon only a month ago before this race-I was kind of in good shape but still recovering. In the first checkpoint, I allowed myself a good five minutes with lots of cookies, a regular coke and pretzels. That felt great, but I again found myself rushing the next leg with the same group of crazy people.

Cappadocia is all about valleys. In the old days, people carved out entire cities into this soft volcanic terrain. As we started running along a dry riverbed in one of those valleys, a heavy rain started. We were running in 5 cm deep soft sand, striking our heels with impunity, then a sudden gush caught us and we were suddenly running in a newly formed ankle deep river. In half an hour, the rain was behind- it was all dry sand again.

To switch valleys, we needed to climb through a few steep walls. Some people complained a lot, cursing the organisers for not plotting a flatter course. I hear in later years that they “corrected” this nuisance by eliminating all the rope-climbing and sliding stuff. I don’t get this people. If you are going to complain about a mudding your new shoes, why are you here?

Before trail runs, I always take a couple of minutes to study the terrain, get a basic orientation, memorise the landmarks perhaps. Ultimately, you should be able to trace your steps back to safety if you get lost. Cappadocia is home to many activities. This means there are multiple markings in common junctures, some old, some new. They all look alike. If you take a wrong turn, you might end up running in the wrong path. It is very difficult to differentiate, especially at night. This time I did not get lost, but a lot of people did. By then, the race organisation did not give out GPS trackers for 60 K but I know that GPS is mandatory if your run extends into night.

In the heat of the race, I passed thru a point without filling my bottles, counting on the next one. Between 30k to 50k I shuffled somewhat easily, a bit hungry but happy as a puppy.

Finally, at 50K, we reached a huge mesa. (Ibrahim Pasa I guess). I think this is arguably the most beautiful sight of all the course.

Climbing from 1000 m to 1,300 m might sound easy. It was not. I was almost about to regret my decision to run this race just a month after a marathon.

Then I saw the view.

The final parts of city marathons are pure torture. You push your body into final kilometres with an eye of your time. I doubt if anybody has a real clear memory of final 10 K of a best-time-difficulty marathon. Is is always a haze.

Not in trails.

I walked the entire length of the mesa walking and taking pictures. It would be a pity to miss the view.

Then I realised that if I linger and romanticise a bit longer, I would be perhaps running in dark with no preparation, mental or otherwise. I decided to run the rest of the race down the mesa.

Mental note to myself. Don’t overdo it downhill if you are already tired. You don’t feel it initially but it really catches up after a few days, possibly extending your recovery unduly.

When I reached the road, I was dog tired and confused. I just could not figure out where to go. Luckily, there was a farmer loading a big haystack to a rusty truck and I happened to ask:”Have you seen any runners lately?” He said yes, there was a few. “Which way did they go?” He pointed down the road, I thanked him and started running.

During the final stages of the race, you mix with 30 K runners. After I asked directions to my fellow farmer, a couple of runners started following me. After 4-5 Kms, I stopped. Something was wrong, there was nobody around and I had a nagging feeling of being lost. I turned around, backtracked all my steps the same place. Other runners were simply following without any comment or question. This is somewhat weird. Anyhow, I found the same farmer, still busy with loading hay and smoking (living dangerously obviously), and asked “Hi again. About those runners; when did you see them?” He said, I don’t know, a few days ago, last week perhaps. Oh yes. I said. How nice.

Somehow, I found my way back to Urgup, losing an hour and running an extra 8 k, but quite happy to be back. I met a fellow runner during the final stretch and congratulated him. He said replied “not so fast! I will deserve this tomorrow morning!”. He took a left turn and continued into the 130 k course.

I was kind of happy the race was over. It was getting dark, i was hungry and dehydrated, which is not typical of me. 9 hours 32 minutes. Not bad. Still under 10 hours as planned. My wife and son met me at the finish- we were all tired. I ended up walking another 2 kilometres back to our cave hotel. Running part of the fun was over.

We spent the next day walking thru the valleys, tasting wine and chilling out. Do yourself a favour and plan a few lazy days if you ever plan to run this race. You will not regret it. I especially recommend the underground cities which could hide 20,000 people back in the days. I would not skip the wining experience either.

This is a fantastic race in a surreal nature. I could not recommend it more.