RunningIstanbul: From Yıldız Park to Belgrade Forest

Friday, December 28, 2007

From Yıldız Park to Belgrade Forest

This Sunday morning we'll meet at the same place -- in front of the Cihangir Sports Center on Siraselviler Street -- at 8:00am. Word has it we'll head up to the Belgrade Forest. If not, we'll walk or run, according to the mood, from the neighborhood.

Last week the group explored the Yıldız Park above Ortaköy.

Happy New Year! Yeni yılınız mutlu olsun!!

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Where to Run? (European Side)

Everywhere I go in Istanbul, I see people taking advantage of the walking and running paths available to them. Unfortunately, the places suitable for foot-powered recreation in Istanbul are extremely limited. It is possible, of course, to walk almost anywhere. However, in order to get the psychological and physical benefits that come with aerobic walking – in which you keep the heart rate elevated for at least twenty minutes – you need space to move freely, without frequent stopping or slowing down for traffic.

Gathering my courage to face the dark, cold February mornings, I started exploring the “inner-city” paths where one can walk or run with relative freedom from traffic. To date, my experiments have been limited to the European side.

Maçka Park and Sarayburnu: From Taksim, my favorite paths are Tophane-Sarayburnu and Gümüşsuyu-Maçka Park. Both paths are accessible by way of less-traveled streets, making the entire work-out pleasant during almost any time of day. Maçka Park has the added advantage of an earthen path.

From Eminönü to Santralistanbul: I’ve also found that the southern shores of the Golden Horn provide an exceptionally attractive place to run. (Beware the dogs, however, which can be aggressive.) Thanks to the underpass, one need not fight more than a couple of lanes of traffic to cross Atatürk Boulevard (mind the cars as you cross the entrance and exit ramps). The down-side is that the pleasant waterside park and its long, comfortable path do not extend all the way to Santralistanbul. (Surely there are plans for this!) One can continue along the gritty road from Eyüp to the Bilgi University Campus, but the narrow sidewalk is disappointing and discouraging, particularly after running several kilometers next to the water.

The Bosphorus: For an early morning run along the Bosphorus, it’s possible to get to Kuruçeşme from Taksim within 15 minutes by bus (numbers 40 and 40T). The return trip is also fairly prompt – the earlier the better, of course. Heading north from Kuruçeşme, one follows one of the world’s most spectacular and thought-provoking courses. And if it’s cold, dark and foggy, there’s that much more room for thoughts to wander.

From Taksim to Zeytinburnu: For a longer run, head from Taksim to Yenikapi (via Tarlabaşı and Atatürk Boulevards) and continue west along to sea to the Veli Efendi Race Track in Zeytinburnu. My running mate and I tried this course, having noticed the horse park on the map, where it appears to be a generous expanse of green space. Alas, as you pass the park on your way to the Zeytinburnu Metro station, you run on a narrow sidewalk squeezed between a six-lane road and a high concrete fence. The hippodrome might as well be a factory. (To avoid this sad, ugly mess, return to Taksim along the sea, curving around Sarayburnu to the Galata Bridge, about 30 km in all.)

Utopian[?] Dreams
Running leaves so much time to think about alternatives. Might the Istanbul Municipality, for example, upgrade the sidewalks linking Zeytinburnu with the seafront? Spacious, tree-lined pedestrian paths would undoubtedly encourage people of all ages to get out of the house, elevate the heart rate and take a new look at their surroundings. And might the city, in Phase II, not also develop pedestrian and bike paths linking Gaziosmanpaşa and the Alibeyköy Reservoir with Kağıthane and Eyüp. And, eventually, Phase III would link Zeytinburnu with Şişli, Mecidiyeköy, Levent and Beşiktaş. In Phase IV, the paths would extend from Levent to Maslak to Bahçeköy and from there into the heart of Istanbul’s beloved Belgrade Forest. If you build it, they will come.

Belgrade Forest: It seems everyone – or at least anyone with access to a car or specially arranged bus service – runs in the Belgrade Forest on weekends. Indeed, the dirt path around the reservoir is a perfect place to run hard and breathe easy. Last weekend, three of us from the Cihangir Running Group joined Adim Adim for their work-out in the forest.

Adim Adim keeps running, giving and growing. Adim Adim is a rapidly growing group of very friendly, encouraging people whose company makes training more fun. As they trained for the 2011 Istanbul Eurasia Marathon, hundreds of Adim Adim members raised well over 300,000 YTL from thousands of individual donors for TOFD (The Spinal Cord Paralytics Society of Turkey), TEGV (Education Volunteers of Turkey), Bugday (Ecological Foundation), and TOG (Social Volunteers of Turkey). Adim Adim is open to anyone looking for camaraderie with other runners and advice on training – how to avoid injury, staying flexible, developing the proper stride, etc.

My advice to readers interested in the future of running in Istanbul is to pay attention to Adim Adim (www.adimadim.org).

RunningIstanbul

Friday, December 28, 2007

From Yıldız Park to Belgrade Forest

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Where to Run? (European Side)