I don’t race. I don’t really like races, especially when I’m one of the participants. I ran the Bolder Boulder once. I even got talked into the Grand Traverse ski race and then decided that anyone who would sign up for a race like that twice (Scott, Wendy) really is a masochist.
So it was with more than a bit of trepidation that I agreed to participate in DASK ADAM (Anadolu Dağ Maratonu) this year. It was only later that I found out that the M stands for “marathon”. I sort of tried to back out sending a bit of a cryptic message to Banu asking if the registration was already taken care of. Oh, yes, yes, she replied, we’ve arranged transportation from Ankara as well! She took my concern as excitement. There was no weaseling out of it.
In spite of the name, DASK ADAM is more of an orienteering race than a marathon. If you don’t make any navigation mistakes, it is very easy to walk the (medium-length) course at a casual pace and still finish within the time limit. Of course that one caveat — no navigation mistakes — is the kicker. Of the 18 teams in our category (men doing the medium-length course) six teams did not finish.
