This time i decided to go north from the Lefkoşa city (northern Nicosia), where i live. With so many other factors to be considered, i managed to make a program for over 70km run/walk this weekend (12-13 May 2012).
Ready for the long run...........in front of my house
On saturday at around 4.30pm i was all ready to for the expedition. This time i had decided to go north. I had planned to go to a small town called Karamanoğlu, which is in the outskirts of Girne (Kyrenia) , around 25 kilometres from Lefkoşa (Northern Nicosia) where a cousin of my wife lives. I was going to stay there at night and to go ahead in the morning,to Lapta, some 10km from there and return back. In the evening i had planned to return back to Lefkoşa (another 25km) back home. Ofcourse running/walking. It was my plan. Luckily despite all odds i succeeded to work according to my plan.
I started off at my usual pace. First 2km just simple walk, till i reach the main highway roundabout. This place has been called the Gonyeli roundabout. From here the highways go to 4 directions. On north is Girne (Kyrenia) (20km). In the East is the port city of Famagusta (around 60km). In the weat the highway goes to the city of Guzelyurt (Morphou) (about 40km). On the southern side of this roundabout is the capital city of Lefkoşa (North Nicosia) at a distance of about 3km. Lefkoşa is the place where i live.
The weather was cloudy. It was the most suitable weather for running. I started off, running slowly. Heading towards Boğaz, a small picnic spot just in the feet of the mountains. These mountains , which run through east to west of almost whole of the northern cyprus have been called the Five Finger Mountains.
I always come across so many problems during the initial period of my run. I feel pain at distant parts of my legs, as they adjust themselves to my command. I do have to adjust my speed during my first 3 kilometres. I feel problems in my breath, and what not.
But once overcoming these initial problems, a harmony develops between different parts of the body, and a routine of body swings start taking shape, and things start getting somewhat better with the passage of the time.
It was a straight run for the initial 10 kilometres. There was barren land on both sides of the highway. It was evening and a good numbers of cars were whizzing by. I kept on my run/walk. I do not know if i am basically a runner or walker. Is it a run with intermitting walks or a walk with intermitting run. Whatsoever in fact it is, i continued. I run when i find myself fit enough to run. I start walking when i feel that i can not run anymore. I start running again as soon as i find myself fit enough to start running.
All of a sudden the weather changed and it started raining. I was at a distance of around 5 kilometres from my home. I had had to go for 20 more kilometres. There was no sense in returning home back I decided to continue. Luckily the rain stopped after a couple of minutes, but thick black clouds were there. However the sun had been showing its face now and then.
The long long road to Boğaz was in front of me, and as always i was thinking as to when it was going to end. I did not have any other option but to keep on running.
The right and left of the road was barren. The wild bushes and trees were spotting the otherwise brown hilly area with green.
I took a great sigh of relief as i completed the first 10km and reached the place called Boğaz, just in the feet of the mountains. The toughest part was about to begin. A long long steep patch of climbing up the mountain. The road pass through the high mountains. Cars were constantly passing by me with great speed. I had had to maintain my own speed. I was climbing up by the road, very slowly. I had started feeling hungry. I opened up the small packet of biscuits that i had brought with me. I ate all of them one by one as i continued climbing up.
However after climbing for over 15 minutes, i was really damn tired. I decided to take a break. I lied down to take the rest. The small stones were hurting my back. I closed my eyes. I remembered when i had slept at the railway station of Rohri, way back in 1970s. I smiled, and switched myself away from my surroundings. A deep breath and i was in some another world.
It must have not been more than 5 minutes. I stood back on foot. I had taken my rest. Still i had had to go a long way. The sun was fast going down. I must have crossed the mountainous part before it is dark. I continued climbing.
Then came the best part of the expedition. I started running, as the road had started going down now. I had run before too on this route. I usually run fast at this patch, but this time i decided to run slowly, because i did have some pain in my right knee the last week. I did not want to put more strain on it. I kept on running and running for some next 3 kilometres. I crossed through the high mountains along with the turning road.
On saturday at around 4.30pm i was all ready to for the expedition. This time i had decided to go north. I had planned to go to a small town called Karamanoğlu, which is in the outskirts of Girne (Kyrenia) , around 25 kilometres from Lefkoşa (Northern Nicosia) where a cousin of my wife lives. I was going to stay there at night and to go ahead in the morning,to Lapta, some 10km from there and return back. In the evening i had planned to return back to Lefkoşa (another 25km) back home. Ofcourse running/walking. It was my plan. Luckily despite all odds i succeeded to work according to my plan.
I started off at my usual pace. First 2km just simple walk, till i reach the main highway roundabout. This place has been called the Gonyeli roundabout. From here the highways go to 4 directions. On north is Girne (Kyrenia) (20km). In the East is the port city of Famagusta (around 60km). In the weat the highway goes to the city of Guzelyurt (Morphou) (about 40km). On the southern side of this roundabout is the capital city of Lefkoşa (North Nicosia) at a distance of about 3km. Lefkoşa is the place where i live.
The weather was cloudy. It was the most suitable weather for running. I started off, running slowly. Heading towards Boğaz, a small picnic spot just in the feet of the mountains. These mountains , which run through east to west of almost whole of the northern cyprus have been called the Five Finger Mountains.
I always come across so many problems during the initial period of my run. I feel pain at distant parts of my legs, as they adjust themselves to my command. I do have to adjust my speed during my first 3 kilometres. I feel problems in my breath, and what not.
But once overcoming these initial problems, a harmony develops between different parts of the body, and a routine of body swings start taking shape, and things start getting somewhat better with the passage of the time.
It was a straight run for the initial 10 kilometres. There was barren land on both sides of the highway. It was evening and a good numbers of cars were whizzing by. I kept on my run/walk. I do not know if i am basically a runner or walker. Is it a run with intermitting walks or a walk with intermitting run. Whatsoever in fact it is, i continued. I run when i find myself fit enough to run. I start walking when i feel that i can not run anymore. I start running again as soon as i find myself fit enough to start running.
All of a sudden the weather changed and it started raining. I was at a distance of around 5 kilometres from my home. I had had to go for 20 more kilometres. There was no sense in returning home back I decided to continue. Luckily the rain stopped after a couple of minutes, but thick black clouds were there. However the sun had been showing its face now and then.
The long long road to Boğaz was in front of me, and as always i was thinking as to when it was going to end. I did not have any other option but to keep on running.
The right and left of the road was barren. The wild bushes and trees were spotting the otherwise brown hilly area with green.
I took a great sigh of relief as i completed the first 10km and reached the place called Boğaz, just in the feet of the mountains. The toughest part was about to begin. A long long steep patch of climbing up the mountain. The road pass through the high mountains. Cars were constantly passing by me with great speed. I had had to maintain my own speed. I was climbing up by the road, very slowly. I had started feeling hungry. I opened up the small packet of biscuits that i had brought with me. I ate all of them one by one as i continued climbing up.
However after climbing for over 15 minutes, i was really damn tired. I decided to take a break. I lied down to take the rest. The small stones were hurting my back. I closed my eyes. I remembered when i had slept at the railway station of Rohri, way back in 1970s. I smiled, and switched myself away from my surroundings. A deep breath and i was in some another world.
It must have not been more than 5 minutes. I stood back on foot. I had taken my rest. Still i had had to go a long way. The sun was fast going down. I must have crossed the mountainous part before it is dark. I continued climbing.
Then came the best part of the expedition. I started running, as the road had started going down now. I had run before too on this route. I usually run fast at this patch, but this time i decided to run slowly, because i did have some pain in my right knee the last week. I did not want to put more strain on it. I kept on running and running for some next 3 kilometres. I crossed through the high mountains along with the turning road.
The turning road heading for Girne
The port city of Girne and the sea could be seen from there, but was quite far away. After an another run of 2 km i turned left to go to Karaoğlanoğlu, where i would be staying for night.
I had started seeing the port city of Girne, down below there, still around 5 or 6 km away. But from here i had had to turn right to take a new road, recently build, that would go directly to Karoğlanoğlu, a suburb quarter of Girne , where i was going to stay at night.
It was 9pm when i knocked at the door of my cousin. It wasa totally dark. I had finished the first stage of my run/walk. Around 25 kilometres in 4 hours and 30 minutes. I had completed this patch with a bit slower speed because i did not want to tax myself.
After a sound long sleep, i woke up fresh the next morning. It was the morning of 13th May 2012. The weather was clear. It took me an hour to get ready for the enxt leg of my tour. I had had to go to LAPTA, a small beautiful town with beautiful scenery. I started off at 6am.
It was my first experience on running on that particular road. It was not a highway. So i had had to be more careful about the traffic, because it was a single track road. But since it was early in the morning and that too the sunday morning, there was almost no traffic of the road. I started running on the right part of the road. On my right side, at a distance of about 200 metres, was the calm mediterranean sea. There were no clouds, no wind, nothing, it was a perfect morning for my running. There were sporadic houses on both sides of the roads, with a lot of greenary. I enjoyed running.
I went past the point where a signboard mentioned that Lapta was 10km from that place. I continued, enjoying my run, singing.
On the right hand side i came across the point where the Turkish forces had landed in july 1974. There was a wonderful monument just at that place. I stopped there. There were quite many graves of the fallen turkish soldiers. A couple of tourists were also there. I took some photos of the place, and left, to continue running.
At a distance of 6km, i walked past the small town of Alsancak. There was a beautiful bronze statue of a woman at the entrance of the twon. The sculpturer had perhaps kept the independence monument of USA in his mind while making that particular sculpture. But indeed it was not a copy . Wonderfully made. I stopped and took a couple of photos of the statue.
The morning traffic had started to flow slowly. I was keeping myself on the far right end of the road, because the part just by the side of the road was filled with small stones, whole the way, very unsuitable for running. I stopped running and continued walking. I saw a young british tourist on the other side of the road, going in the opposite direction. He too was a runner. We rose our hands to say Hi to each other, and continued our ways.
I made my stop just at the point where the signboard of LAPTA was. I ate my biscuits, drank a bit of water from my bottle, and started off to retrace my footsteps, back to Karaoğlanoğlu.
This time i was running/walking a bit faster, because i was concentrating more on my running. I had had enjoyed the scenery and taken the photos while coming up to there. So there was no other work left for me. Just run, run and run. I enjoyed running. Although the sun was shining with the clear blue sky, yet i enjoyed running.
I reached back to Karanoğlu (the starting point) at around 9am. An another leg of the tour of 20km had just finished. I was ready to have a nice nice breakfast, with the family.
My mind started planning for my evening run from Karaoğlanoğlu to Lefkoşa(North Nicosia).
I took a rich lunch, loaded with carbs. Took some rest. I had had to took off for Lefkoşa at 4pm. But unfortunately, due to some reasons beyond my control, i could come out at 4,45pm. I was late.
From Karaoğlanoğlu, i climed up the road by Girne American University. It was quite hot. I turned left to start running on the new road that would take me direct to the crossing near to the Onar Village. There was less traffic. It was quite a long patch, with a nice scenery, with Five finger mountains on my right and the Girne city on my left.
I took a photo of the mosque at the entrance of Girne, and turned right to keep on climbing on the main highway in front of the Onar Village. I did know that i was behind my schedule. I did not want to reach Lefkoşa at night. I had had to pick up speed, but the unending climbing was making me tired. I kept on walking, almost panting. There was no other option for me but to continue, heading towards Boğaz step by step.
The rather straight road by the Boğaz picnic site gave me a chance to start running. I enjoyed that. Some people were there enjoying picnic on the left side of the road. Some children noticed me and waved hands.
My speed increased as the road took me to the steep patch, going down and down, having a look of the Lefkoşa city, at a distance. But the distance was nothing less than 10km. The sun was setting down. I looked at my watch, and calculated the time when i might be reaching Lefkoşa. I was quite late. I had had to pick up speed. But i was tired.
My tired legs had forgotten tiredness, as i continued brisking towards Lefkoşa. The sun had gone, and the headlights of the cars heading towards me had started upsetting me. The lights of the Gönyeli Chamber were in sight. I started feeling satisfied. I again looked at the watch. I had recorded a good progress.
I reached home at quarter to 9 pm, not much tired.
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