Day 446 – EU – Turkey [Avcilar to Istanbul]

24/06/21

38.7km

  From Avcilar (Turkey) to Istanbul (Turkey)

Europe

European crossing is completed after an epic 15,420km run! The French Consulate in Istanbul welcomed me with honours 🙂

Quiet and peaceful start out of Avcilar

I was anxious as I left Avcilar this morning. I kept thinking “it’s not over until it’s over”. Seeing how the European crossing had gone so far, I probably was expecting something to go wrong on my very last run on the continent! I left early and made sure to be ever so cautious. It helped that I ran on quiet roads, seaside parks and cycling paths. Nothing to worry about in terms of traffic.

Meeting the Master Runners in Kucuk AyaSofya

My target was to be at Kucuk Aya Sofya (or “small St Sofia Mosque”) by noon, a 27km run. There I was met by Gabriel from the Consulate who coordinated everything, and 8 runners from the Masters runners of Istanbul, as well as some press. As I got there, everyone was awaiting me. They gifted me a t-shirt of the Istanbul marathon, which I was soon to see everyone else was wearing as a sign of welcome.

We ran an 11km loop starting with the crossing of the Galata Bridge. This bridge goes over the Golden Horn and looks right across to the Asian side of Istanbul. It was quite emotional for me to finally see Asia from where I stood. We kept running on a touristic loop which took us to the immense and beautiful Taksim Place. Then all the way to the French Palais which serves as a residence for the French Consulate. A truly stunning estate.

With the Consul General of France in Istanbul, Olivier Gauvin

The French Consul Olivier Gauvin (a runner himself) was awaiting me along with the consulate staff, representatives from Istanbul city hall and marathon organisation. As I turned the corner inside the Palais, I saw there was a finish line set-up with a finish banner and drinks and food, like you’d find at the finish line of a running event. How awesome I thought, nobody’s ever greeted me this way on my journey!

Feeling elated!

It was a very joyous conclusion to the 15,420 km run across Europe, and my arrival in Istanbul also coincided with a relaxing of the sanitary measures and somehow life getting back to normal. The Consul gave a speech which gave me goosebumps and I was left looking for words as he gave me the floor to say a few words. I can’t remember everything I said but I hope I did thank them profusely!

This crossing of Europe, which ended up being twice what I had planned (in distance and duration) has been a truly extraordinary journey.

The contrasts, the diversity, the richness of the traditions, languages, culinary arts and else… found on this one small and old continent, is amazing, truly. I am sure I will also be very surprised by the crossing of the remaining 3 continents. But this one, for so many reasons (the harshness of the circumstances, the resolve it required and the many unplanned places I ended up running in…) will always have a special place in my heart. What a journey..!!

I will post more tomorrow about my plan for the next few days – right now it’s time to enjoy some downtime and celebrate that first major milestone of the journey!

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: