Most people were fantastic about cheering each other on.
Sometimes the crowd was deafening.
Two of my favourite photos from the 10k.
The winners start to come in.
All kinds of people were running, with and without shoes.
Proper running attire optional.
Age no object— running is great for everyone.
A press pass certainly has its advantages.
As does sponsorship.
As I mentioned before, the Runtalya marathon was last week. I cannot even begin to describe how much emotion and drama goes on at these things. Even before the event got started, there was palpable energy in the air.
Red numbers = full 42km. These people aren’t kidding around.
Blowing off some steam before the race.
There are so many great moments to be shared, and I’m just barely getting started with the edits and uploads. There will be quite a few of these posts, and I promise they won’t be boring.
I mentioned back in January that Emirhan had gone to China for ten days. E doesn’t particularly consider himself a photographer, but he did have a little point-and-shoot camera that he used sparingly whenever he got the opportunity. When he came back to Turkey, I asked if I could choose a few photos to edit, and the result is this set of remixes that has done nothing to quell my desire to see China. Link
Well, it took a while, but I finally finished editing and uploading the Saklıkent photos from Valentine’s Day. There ended up being only 36 in total, but I’m really proud of them as a set, and I think they give an interesting peek into an important aspect of Turkey that most foreigners don’t even know exists: winter. The ski resort and village are only about 20km (12.5 miles) from the Mediterranean coast, and together they’re one of Antalya’s best-kept secrets. The word Saklıkent means “hidden town,” which is a pretty accurate description of this beautiful little village in the mountains. Link
I’m only about halfway through the set, but the Saklıkent photos are slowly being posted. There will probably be about 40 in the set total, but for now you can definitely get an idea of how much snow was involved. Link
A million thanks for all the birthday wishes yesterday. It was overwhelming, to say the least, to learn that there are that many people out there who would stop their day for a few seconds to say hello or send a card or text message. In fact, at the risk of sounding like a whining first-worlder, toward the end of the day I had to switch my phone and computer off because I was feeling… er, bombarded is too strong a word. Maybe “snowed under” is more like it. Part of it was like, “aaaack, I’m never going to be able to respond to all of these individually!” Which is true, and I just have to accept that. I think maybe others had already accepted it and weren’t expecting personal thanks, but I come from a time and culture where after a celebration, you sat down and wrote out thank-you cards to everyone who did something nice for you. Nowadays I suppose it’s enough to say thank you a few times in relevant public forums, and assume people will get my message (as they assume I got theirs).
The other part was that a lot of people said some very nice, very specific things to and about me yesterday. Perhaps surprisingly, as narcissistic as I am, I have neither the affinity for mush, nor the talent for handling thick streams of compliments. It occurred to me this morning that it’s a good thing I never got my childhood dream of worldwide fame, because I realise now that I’m not the kind of person who would handle that very well. On the other hand, perhaps if I’d been famous for most of my life, I would have built up the skills to deal with attention more gracefully. Who knows.
In any case, many thanks to everyone who sent cards (both paper and electronic), SMS messages, Facebook comments and PMs, blog comments, e-mails…. what else… oh, Flickr comments and PMs, of course, and… everything. Just everything. Thank you.
