End of an era, beginning of something lifelong

It's not "good bye" it's "au revoir"...

My time in Istanbul is up. I cannot believe how fast the last six months have passed. I remember it like yesterday how excited and anxious I was about joining Team Istrunbul when I arrived.  A bunch of total strangers just half a year ago, a sweet gang of good friends, some of them really close, now. Work and reconnecting with old friend were the main reasons of my stay in Istanbul. But what has had the biggest effect on my daily life is my interaction with my new running friends. I have, after all spent a couple of hours with them 4-5 times a week for the past few months.

Planning is half the work, and I am very happy that I managed to get in touch with Team Istrunbul before coming so that I was ready to go from the first morning. I cannot imagine how training here would be if I did not join the group immediately. I would probably not even come up with the idea of running early in the morning, before work, especially in winter when it was dark and cold. I would most likely try to run in the evenings, and maybe give up after a while, seeing how crowded the pavements are during the day and in the evenings. Perhaps I would run much more on treadmill at the university gym. I would definitely have much less fun, many fewer friends, and not even close to the improvement I have had in my form.

Saying farewell to my friends in Bergen when coming to Istanbul was not so hard. I would, after all, return after a few months. Saying farewell to my friends in Istanbul is much harder. I will probably not come back for such a long period in a long time. But I will definitely come for shorter visits, as I have always done, and for sure I will go running with them every morning whenever I am here. But apart from that we have many opportunities to meet at races. Already in October many of them are also going to Amsterdam marathon. Then there are plans of coming to Norway for Bergen City marathon and the Tromsø midnight sun marathon in 2017. In fact, many of them are in Norway right now, racing today in Haugesund Ironman. One of my goals for next year is to participate and complete the 2017 version of this race, and I sure hope to see my Istrunbul friends there then.

In addition to running together, we have shared a lot of other nice moments. These beautiful people even threw me a farewell party. I have been so impressed with the kindness I have been shown. I have been invited to guest training and swimming facilities of some, yoga classes of others, to coffees, dinners, homes, and weekend trips. We have shared so many laughs, some serious and thoughtful moments, a lot of madness, and quite a bit of love. Thank you so much for everything guys! I will miss you a lot, but you know this is not the end. It is just the beginning!

Sometimes it takes a short time to grow an old friendship...