The Salmon Cappadocia Ultra Trail has one of the most beautiful courses, running through villages and valleys registered as world heritage sites. 

This year, 2024, it was held on 18-19th October. 

I had never attended a trail marathon or full marathon in my life while I was a regular road runner, but with my friend's initiative, I happened to apply for it surprisingly 3 months before the event.  

With a great feeling of achievement and courage that I successfully deserved the 38km of trail running, now I would like to write down a fantastic experience and share it with you. 

The main sponsor of this trail is a French sports and outdoor company, Salmon, which was established in 1974. Along with its huge support, many other cosponsors such as the Turkish Tourism Promotion Development Agency, Intersports, and Garmin are also behind this event to liven it up. The Cappadocia Trail has been running for 10 years since 2014, and there was only an extremely physically and mentally tough ultra marathon with 110km when it started. However, following the high demand for shorter distances as it gets more commercialized by the year, the 63km CUT (Cappadocia Medium Trail) and 38km CST (Cappadocia Short Trail) were additionally established in 2015. 

Make sure to bring all the mandatory equipment for your running that is announced in the HP when you go to the kit station. My friends and I didn't carefully read the instructions and went there on Friday without carrying any necessary items. At the end of the waiting line, one of the staff strictly warned us that they would not give us a kit unless we had equipment. We went back to the hotel drove for 1 hour, and came back to the station with all the mandatory equipment, proper shoes, 1L of water bottle, bandaid, whistle, emergency blanket, and elastic water cup, and finally received a bag of kit after the approval. This system seems to be started this year, as my friend who joined last year said that such a strict rule didn't exist then.  

You can easily find a backdrop spot right next to the starting line, where runners are allowed to drop their stuff in an official kit bag provided to all the participants. The starting position is assigned according to the registration number, but most runners do not strictly follow the rule. 

On the first 1 to 2km, it was too crowded and too steep up hills to start running until we reached the grassland. Many people stop to take pictures of photogenic valleys, beautiful landscapes, and historic villages. After running through one of the cave hotels and grass fields, and crossing small streets, you find the first checkpoint at a distance of 12km. There are water, coke, bananas, and serial bars. 

Personally, I could enjoy the route between the first checkpoint and the second checkpoint the most in this entire 38km. The trail became increasingly wild and untamed as the course took us deeper into nature. We had to cross logs to avoid small muddy ponds, duck through dark caves, and navigate over both large and small rocks.

At the second checkpoint, a variety of nutritious foods were served such as cakes, breads, and biscuits added to the foods served at the first checkpoint. Some people took a moment to sit, and relax chatting with others, but some just quickly grabbed essential energy foods to save any seconds. About 1km after the checkpoint, near the small farm that had houses and goats, the course got back to the wild trail again. For me, the last 14km was significantly harder than the former 24km. Every time I looked at my Garmin watch, the distance on its display seemed stuck and unmoving. It was a challenging moment to defend myself and motivate myself to keep my legs moving whether walking or running, uphills or downhills. At that time, everyone just kept quiet, with no conversation, but I felt that everyone shared the feeling of patience, discipline, encouragement, and desire for achievement. 

Overcoming a fear of getting lost, falling, facing wild animals, and running unevenly prevented paths and its long-distance that is the longest in my life, I finally crossed the finish line in 5 hours 11 minutes. Running in the wild, especially in Cappadocia which is one of the World Heritage was a valuable experience that improved every element of my fitness, mental and physical well-being, and gave me a headspace to discover my own skills and capability.