Aladağlar Sky Trail - Volunteering - August 2024

The trip to Aladaglar mountains in the heart of Turkey, to volunteer in Aladaglar Sky Trail. This race, the people organizing it, these mountains have given me so much, that I absolutely wanted to give something back, as much as I could. 

August 08 2024 - 19:05 - Arrival to Demirkazık village

We started the drive from Ankara around 15. Driving through the new highway, we arrived in around 4 hours to the Demirkazık village. I was happy to be back after years.

09 2024 - 13:05 - Hike to Karasay peak (3550 m) – and back to Çelikbuyduran fork 

https://www.strava.com/activities/12114173378

https://www.strava.com/activities/12114181775

August 10 2024 - 02:37 - Hike to Karasay peak

I didn’t have enough sleep. The adrenaline of thinking about the next day was too much. The hike went smoother than expected.

https://www.strava.com/activities/12114194549

August 10 2024 - 9:10 - Run to Kocadölek checkpoint along the race route

The actual duty of me starts, namely running the route until I find the last runner of the longer route (Alaca) and accompanying them. My route was from Karasay peak to the Kocadölek checkpoint.

My route continued from Karasay to Sarı Memedin Yurdu, Teke Kırı, climb to Alaca peak (3588 m). 

https://www.strava.com/activities/12114209384

Ultra Sierra Nevada 60k - 2024.04.06

Prologue

60k, with 3600 m of elevation gain.

Granada is maybe my favorite city in the world. 

Race day and before

I run a big part of this report one year after the race. So, I can’t give details.

The night before the race I had difficulty sleeping. I don’t know why, but it took me hours to sleep. At some point I panicked and felt very helpless. But in the end manage to sleep. I woke up in a quite ok mood. Took a taxi to where the shuttle was waiting for the runners to take them to the start, which was in a village near Granada, called Cenes de la Vega.

The race started at 6am.

It was completely dark and for the first hours we had to use headtorch. This was good because the weather was fresh. The mountains were very beautiful. Andalucia is a region that has a special place in my heart. Running in its mountains was something that I was dreaming of for years.

Overall, the route was runnable and it nice easy. There was only a small downhill section which needed some attention not to slip, but overall, the trails were easy to run.

The organization was great. The volunteers were very helpful.

The race in a ski resort, called Pradollano. The final meters are in asphalt, near the main street to the ski resort.

The way back to the city was with a shuttle.

The point I realized the day after the race was that my legs did not feel so heavy and tired at all. This way I confirmed that the downhill running destroys the legs much more than uphill running.

Time: 08:30:02

Ranking: 25 (Males 17)

https://www.strava.com/activities/11118822651