By incorporating pedestrian and bike paths into its transportation strategy, Istanbul can build a physical and social infrastructure that optimizes the participation of all people, regardless of physical and mental disabilities.
Istanbul then would be not simply Europe’s largest and fastest growing city. It would be its model.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Running Belgrade Forest this Sunday, 10 February

Please join us this Sunday, 8:00am, in front of the Dia on Siraselviler. Necdet has hired a bus to take us to the Belgrade Forest. See you then!

Last Saturday, a couple of us joined Adim Adim at the Belgrade Forest (http://www.adimadim.org). We ran for a while with Cem Uçan, who has published two collections of short stories: Bambaşka hayatlar and Boşluğun izinde (www.cemucan.com)

On Sunday, five of us returned to the Belgrade Forest. Seeing the forest for the first time, our newest member was surprised to see so many people running and walking. Can critical mass for Istanbul’s running community be far away?

At the end of Sunday’s run, we also saw Roger Bejjani and Pia Nehme. Pia is one of the top female long-distance runners in Lebanon, and Roger founded the Inter-Lebanon Road Runners Association.

We also saw Zeki and Selçuk of Adim Adim, who told us the group runs on Sunday as well as Saturday mornings. They invited us to hitch a ride from 4. Levent anytime.

At least three of us have committed to run either the 10-k or the half-marathon with Adim Adim on 2 March. There’s still time to train, but the deadline for online registration is this Friday, 8 February (http://www.oger-maraton.com).

Back in Cihangir we had breakfast with Nassim at Van Khavalti Evi. Her novel, Aria, was published recently – http://nassimassefi.com. Nassim helped organize Afghanistan’s first 10-k road race, held in 2004.

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