My first race!

I took up running in May of 2026 for the first time in my life. The longest distance that I continually ran until this year was when I was 15 and was running away from a group of radical football fans after they saw my scarf of their rival team in an alleyway. I ended up seeing a police patrol car after 200m and thankfully nothing bad happened. Sorry, Strava did not exist at the time, so I cannot share my pace for what must be a glorious sprint.

I have been trying to run 3 times a week since May. Being 38 years old and overweight with no athletic background certainly did not help at first. I still deal with shin splints regularly (people tell me it takes 1-2 years for your body to fully acclimate, especially for long distances).

Anyway, I registered to Büyükada (Prince’s Island) 10K race as a motivation. I was able to complete the race in 1:03:27!

To many more races with friends and loved ones!