Many of my readers have asked why I haven’t written in such a long time. I’d like to share that with you as well. They’re right — I haven’t written anything in over a month. Part of the reason is the restructuring period in the companies I lead. When people say they don’t even have time to scratch their head, this must be what they mean. I truly appreciate all the supportive messages you’ve sent.
And of course, I can’t go without mentioning the “accident” I had last week.
After our web hosting company was acquired by Borusan, service quality — instead of improving — actually declined under Vodafone. And they managed to completely wipe out my blog. Yes, you read that right. Due to internal changes they made, my blog was deleted. It’s infuriating. All that effort, gone. We had no choice but to find a new web hosting company and re-upload every single post. Now I can finally say I have my blog back. On that note — I’m planning to add new sections and revamp the blog format by the end of this year. Fingers crossed.
Now that I’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about something even more beneficial than cabbage: sports. I’ve been involved in sports for as long as I can remember — high school football team, TED Tennis School (where I almost went pro — you can read about it at this link), ENKA Tennis School (where I first started tennis as a child), Galatasaray Basketball School (I played as a guard in practices at the Beyoğlu facilities — just for fun, of course), and Galatasaray Swimming School (where I first learned to swim in Kalamış). I’ve been skiing since I was five. I’ve been doing all kinds of watersports (mono-ski, wakeboarding, etc.) since I was 8. Growing up with a twin brother — someone the same age and even physically bigger than me — gave me a huge advantage. We constantly trained together. We had a basketball hoop in our yard, a ping pong table inside the house, and we played soccer both in our garden and in the neighborhood.
We did sports just for fun. At McGill University in Canada, we lost the final in a tournament with 200 teams — that was a painful experience. I’ve played in countless indoor soccer games, basketball tournaments, water polo matches, beach volleyball games, and even won many ping pong, billiards, and foosball tournaments in hotels and resorts. I also did kickboxing for a while. Bowling has always been one of my favorite activities. In short, sports have always been a part of me. It’s become such a part of me that I created my own “democracy” between my hands and feet, distributing different sports across both sides of my body.
How? I play basketball, volleyball, water polo, handball, billiards, and bowl with my left hand. I play tennis and ping pong with my right. I kick with my right foot in football, and I do watersports (like mono-skiing) with my left foot forward. It may sound confusing, and honestly, I don’t know how it started. I think I could do all sports with either side if I tried. I even started writing with my left hand but eventually switched to the right. In kickboxing, I use both hands and feet equally.
These days, my new sport is running. It’s the most basic cardio exercise — highly effective for burning calories and boosting metabolism. I’ve always used it for training for other sports (except swimming). But my first race experience came in 2011 when my university friend Youssef encouraged me to join the Eurasia Marathon — I ran the 15K. (You can read about it here). I really enjoyed the event and continued running when I found the time. I couldn’t join last year’s Bozcaada Marathon due to a trip to the U.S., so I really wanted to run this year.
But from the beginning, everything seemed to be working against me. Since I don’t like long drives (especially with all the reckless or road-rage-filled drivers), I decided to go by seaplane. With encouragement from Coach Mehmet of the MAC (Mars Athletic Club) G-Mall team, I bought a ticket from a company called Sea Bird. The flight was scheduled for 2:00 PM.
When I got to the Golden Horn for the flight, I ran into a nasty surprise. A group of 15 passengers (including me) was told the flight was delayed until 4:00 PM. So, I crossed over to our office in Dolmabahçe to kill time and get some work done, returning around 3:45.
Once again, the group had gathered around the agent. This time, the explanation was:
“Apologies, but the plane will be delayed in Bozcaada due to a refueling mistake. It’ll arrive here in the evening, but since it’ll be too dark to fly back to Bozcaada, tonight’s flight is canceled. We’ll fly tomorrow at 5:30 AM.”
Serhan: “Excuse me, what do you mean by a refueling mistake?”
Agent: “They brought the wrong kind of dirty fuel. We’ve been waiting a long time to fix it. The proper fuel is on the way.”
Serhan: “I’ve never heard such a ridiculous excuse. At best, this is amateur hour. If it were a weather issue, I’d understand, but dirty fuel? Seriously?”
Other passengers: “Yeah, we don’t get it either.”
Agent: “We apologize, but these things happen. We can either send you by car tonight or fly you tomorrow morning at 5:30.”
Passenger: “What if tomorrow’s flight is canceled too?”
Agent: “It won’t be, I promise.”
Serhan: “We had hotel reservations for tonight in Bozcaada. Thanks to you, that’s down the drain too. What about that?”
Agent: “Send us the receipts. We’ll reimburse you.”
Out of 15 passengers, only 2 agreed to go by car that evening. The other 13, including me, chose the 5:30 AM flight.
On my way home, I gave a ride to two of the passengers. One told me this had happened to him before — he’d booked 13 flights with Sea Bird and only actually flown 9 times. I laughed and said, “You’re luckier than me — I’m 0 for 1.” We agreed to meet at 5:30 AM and parted ways.
Around 9:00 PM, my assistant Fulya called to say a Sea Bird rep had informed her that the 5:30 AM flight was now canceled due to weather. I laughed bitterly — now they were using the exact excuse I’d joked about earlier. To verify, I called Coach Mehmet, who was already in Bozcaada. I asked him about the weather, and he said, “It was beautiful today, and it’ll be nice tomorrow too.”
That was the final straw. I’m not one to surrender to bad luck. I called him back and said, “I’m coming.” After a few final preparations, I left home around 10:30 PM. I called my friend Hakan from Çanakkale to ask for hotel suggestions and the best route. I ended up skipping the hotel plan — it didn’t seem worth it for just a few hours. Even though I was exhausted, I drove non-stop for five and a half hours (except for a quick gas station break). At 2:00 AM, I made it to the Gallipoli-Lapseki ferry. By 4:00 AM, I reached the Geyikli Pier — which is the closest point on the mainland to Bozcaada. Here’s a map from the ferry company GESTAŞ to help you visualize it:
What did I do when I arrived in Geyikli at 4:00 AM? First, I looked around. There were two cars in front of me. Then I spotted two tents pitched on the beach to my side and thought, “Alright, this is my spot.” I pulled the car over, reclined the seat, and went straight to sleep. Around 7:00 AM, the sunlight shining into the car woke me up a bit. Then, around 7:30, a school bus showed up, and just like that, the peaceful silence turned into the hustle and bustle of a high school yard. I had no choice but to get up. First, I bought my ferry ticket to cross over to the island. I asked the staff at the ticket office if I could charge my dead phone and then headed to a café near the port to have some tea and a toast. The place suddenly got crowded, and since the toast was taking too long, I skipped the tea, grabbed the toast to eat on the boat, and left. The ferry departed at 9:00 AM. This was the last ferry before the Bozcaada Marathon, and out of the 13 stranded SeaBird passengers left behind in Istanbul, I only saw one other person manage to make it. He had done exactly what I did—jumped in his car as soon as he heard the news and headed out. The other 11 had no choice but to cancel their trips (he also confirmed that 11 people had indeed been left behind in Istanbul).
As we approached the island, I called Mr. Taner, the owner of the boutique hotel. He kindly came to pick us up from the port on his scooter and drove us to the hotel. When we arrived, Nevşin and her brother Burak were having breakfast on the terrace. They were surprised to see me and asked how I had managed to get there. I joined them for breakfast. Soon, the rest of our friends from the MAC group began arriving one by one. After a light breakfast, I excused myself and took a one-hour nap in my room. That nap really hit the spot. Then I got up and began getting ready for the run. Around 1:00 PM, we met up with the team and headed to the race area. After some light warm-up laps and stretching, we were ready to run.
Here is a video showing you the start of the run:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bte06FL-6Q
It was seriously crowded. The run had started, but I couldn’t run at first. Everyone was trying hard not to bump into each other. Slowly, I started weaving through the crowd, and as the runners began to spread out, I picked up speed. The group had warned me in advance that Bozcaada’s course had a lot of hills. And they were right. It was like running up Maçka’s never-ending incline. I kept my pace steady until the 5th kilometer. Even uphill, I maintained a high tempo. Honestly, I passed everyone in front of me during those first 5 kilometers. After the 5 K turnaround, I started to feel tired. My pace dropped, and many people began passing me. The fatigue wasn’t just from lack of sleep, the heat (normally races like this start in the morning) and my lack of proper training due to my heavy workload were big factors. (I only tried to make it to the Belgrad Forest runs on Saturday mornings at 7:00 AM, because the forest air was good for me and the timing worked with my schedule.) At the 7th kilometer, Fatih from our group caught up with me. Since we had trained together before, he said, “Come on Serhan, pick up your pace and run with me.” I matched his pace and started running alongside him. Together, we started overtaking a bunch of runners again. Then something changed in the last kilometer. Suddenly, I felt great—like my energy had returned. I asked Fatih, “Wanna sprint?” He replied that he couldn’t push his pace any further and told me to go for it. So, I took off in a sprint. I powered through the final stretch and finished the 10 K in 50 minutes and 57 seconds. When I crossed the finish line, I was, of course, out of breath and drenched in sweat. But I was happy. I had told our group before the race, “If I can finish this course in under an hour, I’ll be satisfied,” and I’d hit my goal. As a bonus, I found out I had placed 12th in my age group, which was a pleasant surprise.
They gave everyone who finished a medal and a T-shirt. After changing into my T-shirt, I joined the celebration. And that’s when the pictures below were taken:
As I was walking around, two people I didn’t know came up to me and said, “Let’s take a picture together at this podium, it’ll be meaningful.” This is the result.
After Mehmet Hoca, who had also participated in the half marathon (21 K), finished the race, we went back to the hotel and, after a short preparation, we all went swimming at Aquarium Bay. I was following the hotel owner, Taner Bey, in my car. (Thankfully, given the boutique hotel and the friendly atmosphere on the island, the owner was attentive to all our needs.) We went swimming in this truly magnificent bay. The water was very cold; it’s hard to dive into the hard water. Once you’re in, you get used to it and enjoy it immensely.
Afterward, we returned to the hotel. After showering and getting ready for the evening, I had the opportunity to work on the terrace between 6 and 8 pm while enjoying tea and coffee and enjoying the stunning Bozcaada view. Believe me, you work more productively in such an environment.
At 8:00 in the evening, we went down to the city center to go to Asmalı Restaurant. I was surprised to see my primary school friends, Fulya and Nevra, near the restaurant.
After a nice fish feast with our MAC Group (the food was delicious, but the prices were as expensive as in Istanbul), we went to Polente for a drink.
After an hour, I excused myself and left the group, as the first ferry was leaving at 7:30 the next morning. Since I had to catch a flight to Dubai on Sunday evening, I had no choice but to take the first ferry across. Once again, we set off, murmuring in the early hours.
Because this seaplane company had also canceled the return flight that was supposed to take off at 12:00. To be honest, I’d like to offer this humble warning to the executives of this company called Sea Bird: operating seaplane flights over such distances is a good idea. However, if you continue to run things this amateurishly and keep putting your customers in difficult situations, the first professional firm that enters this route will take all your business away. Just saying.
I arrived in Istanbul at 1:00 PM, including all the waiting and lunch. Or rather, we arrived in Beylikdüzü at 1:00 PM. It wasn’t until 3:30 PM that I got from Beylikdüzü to Nişantaşı. After such a long journey, it’s hard to put into words how I felt because of the agony of that traffic. After a quick shower and getting ready, I left the house at 5:00 PM and continued to the airport with my colleagues from work.
I was absolutely exhausted going into the Dubai trip. But I was happy. I’d had a wonderful weekend. And naturally, that reflected positively on my performance at work. Combining travel with sports and taking part in events like this is a fantastic experience. I recommend it to everyone. I’ll also keep joining these events whenever I find the time.
Take care…
Tag: memoir
