Cappadocia Ultra Trail Race Report by Natalie White

Thank you. I ran the Cappadocia Ultra Trail race a couple of years ago. It’s such a beautiful area with lots of quirky caves. The area is hot and dry, so quite pleasant for October. Both Robbie (Britton) and myself got invited back this year by the organisers. We jumped at the chance to go back to this wonderful place. I’d decided on the 114km at the beginning of the year, but after running 585km across Bulgaria I got a little tired. The 60km seemed much more appealing.

I’d been pretty tired after Bulgaria and had taken it easy for a couple of weeks then put a 5-week block of easier consistent training together. I was looking forward to going back to the race to try and run a faster time than previous. My main plan was to not set off to fast and run a lot more than I did last time. I think that worked. I felt much better than I did last time and even though parts of the course had changed a little bit I still managed to run a faster time and enjoy myself a lot more.

I guess the course is different for each person and what I found to be difficult may not be for others. There were a few trickier sections at the beginning with a rope section and a bigger climb around 45km. I really enjoyed these parts, but some may find them more difficult. I could have done with a few more bigger climbs.

I’ve been running in the Salomon Sense Soft Ground 5 for most of the summer. I think they’re a great shoe, really comfortable, good grip and feel fast. I wore these for the race and they seemed to do the trick. Plenty of grip for when I needed it and enough cushioning for the 60km.

I’d take a look at the area on the internet first and you can learn something about what to expect with the weather, terrain, the friendly people. It’s a runnable course, for me personally not very hilly, but there are some good little hills in the race and a few technical sections. It can be super-cold first thing in the morning, so an extra layer may be worthwhile, but as the sun rises it seems to get pretty hot. The area is really dry too, so carrying plenty of fluid is worthwhile. The check points are a good distance apart and have everything you need.