I believe people start running out of blue as Haruki Murakami explained in his book “What I talk when I talk about Running”. You just run one day and continue running. I guess it is because of the feeling. I understand that when I read the book from Haruki Murakami. As the name of the book suggests, “What I talk about When I talk about Running”, is all about running and he as well just starts running one day and he attends running every year. I was quite impressed when I have learned that. I as well try to attend the races that I see all the time, but they are not like marathons. They were mainly 10K races. However, one day I will do a marathon. I promise.
In order to get ready for a marathon or just pick up the pace, you need to train, and the field is quite important in case you are dedicated to that. Thus, I have organized a post about running places in Istanbul. Since Istanbul is surrounded by sea, there is quite a lot of spot to enjoy the view and run at the same time.
- Belgrad Forest
This could be the first place that everyone thinks about since there is a dedicated 6 km running route. I love this place because it is really a good spot if you want to improve your performance. There is a part that is hilly in the route and it is great if you want to pace up a bit. I attend one of the training sessions of Asics and it was definitely the tough one. I enjoyed quite a lot tho. If you want to improve yourself, you need to get help because it is really hard to push yourself sometimes. I run the longest run of mine in Belgrad which was 12 km. Hopefully, it will get better and better.
- Bebek-Arnavutköy Route
This is the place where you enjoy the view and run at the same time. However, the weekends it could be quite crowded if you prefer to run after 10 am or late afternoon. Thus, I recommend you go early to run freely because if it was really frustrating to pay attention to passing people instead of focusing on the form of your run.
- Yesilyurt-Florya Route
Since I live in Yesilyurt, I definitely tell that this is my place. I love this route because when I start from home and back, it adds up to 10 km. Additionally, I love the end of the route because Aqua Florya, my favorite shopping mall, is there. However, again during weekends, it is crowded. Every hour or late nights should be preferred.
- Caddebostan
This is the place I generally go to Asics run on Saturdays. There are various running groups in Istanbul and Asics are the one that helps me to improve my running and actually the reason why I start running. The atmosphere is quite nice, and the people are friendly. They are always there for you to help and give advice. Additionally, the coaches know how to help people. That is particularly critical because if you run wrong, you could hurt yourself and it costs you a lot. Once I had an injury because I was running 10K every single day on my own. I was probably I did something wrong, but I still don’t know, and it cost me a month no training. After a month, my running pace was lowered, and it was a bit demotivating. So, be careful and stretch for sure!
This route is quite long since I always run for 6K I can’t tell you the longest distance, but I know that it could be increased up to 12K for sure.
- 15 Temmuz Sehitler Bridge
In Istanbul, we are not allowed to run on Bridge because of potential suicide attempts. However, there is a half marathon in Istanbul that is sponsored by Vodafone. It starts from the Anatolian side of Istanbul and you run the first mile on 15 Temmuz Sehitler Bridge. I always thought it must be really windy on the bridge. However, it is not! The view is incredible. Definitely, a must.
In case you would like to attend the half marathon, I run 10K for instance, the next Istanbul Half Marathon happens on Sunday, November 3, 2019. Keep in mind. I did not know before running how close Besiktas to the bridge and it is only 10K from the bridge to Sultanahmet. I always thought it is quite a long way, but it is not! I could not tell you how amazing to run the route that you generally drive.
- Bakirkoy-Yenikapi Route
Until a year ago, we did not have a route between Bakirkoy and Yenikapi. I went to Pertevniyal High School and I used to use this route quite often. I was quite happy to hear that they make a cycle and running path for citizens J
Since the path is quite a long one, I cycled with my friend, instead of running but it is one of my goals to run all the way because it is 9 km one way! I guess I can run one way and try to improve this distance each and every day!
- Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Uçak Savar Kampüsü
This is perfect for training. I used to attend running training with Asics on Thursday. It definitely helped me to improve my performance and pace. There are also some athletics events that you could attend or watch.
There might be more places that I haven’t discovered yet, but this is my aim for this year. I would like to spot the best location for each training type requires and push my limits, so that I could run a marathon.
I wonder how many LGs are runner or enjoy running. Hands up if you are one of them! I would like to meet up with more runners ?