The Istanbul Marathon was not an easy one for us. As Jason's first road marathon, I think it left him appreciating how tough a marathon is! The course took us across the Bospherus Bridge, which is only open to foot traffic for this one event per year. It was so cool! After that, the route went through some neighborhoods, past the turn to our hotel and across the Galata Bridge. From there (about the 10km mark until the 40km mark), it was a long, dull out and back on a highway leading to the airport. Luckily, the road was closed to traffic, but even running along the Bospherus didn't quite make up for running along a freeway for 18 miles. There were plenty of water stops and the course wasn't too crowded. Jason's knee and hips started hurting so we ran/walked our way to the finish line and didn't come close to our time goal. Oh well, it was a cool experience to do together anyway, not to mention spending the weekend kid-free in Istanbul with some friends from Ouaga (Brian also ran while April drank coffee all day long waiting for us!) we . That babysitter in Ankara was worth every penny!!
