I continued running through the beautiful Turkish mountains. Most days it rains, I am so tired in the mornings I can’t get going early.. So tired. I am almost comatosed. When I stop for my breaks I can see people looking into my eyes. I wonder if they think I am a druggie. I have to straighten my eyes out almost like in a cartoon!

So tired I worry about pushing myself too much. I stop from time to time just to sit on the guardrails wondering if I will have a heart attack. I am digging so so deep I can’t see the shovel anymore, ready to collapse on I run for 52km that day. I remembered at the start the way I could just hammer out a nifty fifty.. There are no more easy days.
Road day 1,000 on May 16 I manage a 46. I thought about stopping in a hotel to celebrate but at $35 this is crazy.. I keep saying turkey is as expensive as many European countries… This is Asia  repeat.
That evening I had a great sleep in a bus shelter which was well off the road. On the way up the mountain I get an email from a man called Tom Enright offering to help with my Ireland route for I have just decided as dog tired as I am I will do a full lap of Ireland. About 1,625km.
To be honest at first I was planning a short lap about 850km. Reason being I am so embarrassed about my pace.
Then I say to Hell I will do this run the way it should be done and as Tom said in his email I will finish in style. I don’t have to answer to anyone anymore. The only people that matter are my friends and decent people.
I remember my last night on the road in India. A couple of men brought me into a Sikh temple to see if I could sleep there. I was so tired, stumbling as I always do when not running that I was asked to leave. They thought I was a drunk and said so.
So this man Tom is great. He offers help with the logistics of my Ireland route.
Tom introduces me to Siobhan Clifford who has a public relations/marketing company called Blue Bubble Marketing.
I am amazed by their generosity and help. This is a Godsent
Also Kevin Scanlon in Wicklow is working on my finishing route. He has been doing some of this now since I asked him to about a year ago.
Within a short while Tom, another runner Ger and Siobhan have a first draft for me. I am excited. This gives me added energy on the road.
They send my route to the marathon club of Ireland and suddenly I am told there are lots of runners asking to run with me and offering accommodation. I am so excited. The Ireland lap begins on September 13, it will take six weeks. I will finish here with 50,000 km exactly on the finish line. The calculations are pretty close, this gives me renewed energy. Just over 5,000km to go the distance across America and I have done that almost nine times since the run began.

I can’t thank Siobhan and Tom enough.

Road day 1,001 dawns and I wash some spare clothes in a sink beside the bus shelter. I will dry them as they hang from my pack.
Turks are like Thai people, hardly anyone speaks English.
I read a report that stated the more nationalistic a country is the less likely they are to speak a foreign language.
I have not even seen one business sign in English, or road signs almost as though it were against the law.
Another 46km day broken into two halves a 22km slugger for I needed a breakfast that day. After breakfast I run hard and non story for another 24km I am delighted by the end result.

Nobody offered me any water or anything else, Turkey is no Iran, that’s for sure. People continue to overcharge me especially in restaurants and petrol stations. The often don’t scan the items and when I ask I suddenly get a price reduction. The PO petrol chain have been notorious. I have to watch almost everytime.
They let down the decent people of the country and continue to enhance Turkey’s scam reputation.

I need to keep the pace up for the Irish embassy in Ankara, in particular Erok have been working hard to try to get a permit for me to run across the Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul on June 7th
I make a mistake in Susehri, or water city lasking an ambulance can I sleep in their centre for I think its like the Iranian Red Crescent. They don’t understand and think there is something wrong with me for asking. I get fed up and can’t get rid of them as they follow me on the road. Eventually I do and stop at the Total Excellence petrol station where a nice man called Haji fills me with tea. I got a place to sleep on top of oil drums in a storage area around the back. I make it comfortable by spreading out cardboard on the drums and climb up.

Next day I finish at 30km as the rain is heavy. I cheekily make myself comfortable by spending the night in a car port, sort of tarp covering over poles for an old mans car.
The old man returns and I have to jump up so he don’t drive over me! He gets a bit of a start and leaves the car out in the rain overnight. A cup of tea would have been nice I thought, ah yes if this was Iran!

On the way to Koklu some workers on a construction site bring me into their canteen and feed me a delicious lunch. My faith in Turkey restored.
They ask me where I sleep and I say most nights in the mosques or prayer room in petrol stations but in the women’s separate section for there is less chance I will be disturbed. I am often locked in till the next day without anyone knowing, which is OK by me. The workers seeing how fond of tea I am ask how I manage for my evening cuppa. They are impressed when I take out my beverage heater. I just have to make sure I go to toilet first and fill up my water bottle.
I don’t think this is disrespectful as they eat and drink in Iranian mosques. OK this is Turkey but don’t they drink alcohol, flaunt their hair and do the forbidden ‘ harmonious movements ‘ meaning dancing, which so enrage the Iranian Islamic police.
I continued running and running towards Istanbul clipping out a 50,54 and a 54 in a huge push for Europe. To be fair to the Turks in this area they were really helpful.
One night I was told I could sleep in a function room adjoining a restaurant and the family fed me breakfast. Only two km up the road two men and a woman stopped me for another breakfast, so I didn’t offend. They sat on their porch cross legged. Its been a long time since I could sit like that. Often I have to lie down on my stomach and face them as I eat!
Another night I slept in the workshop of a mosque in a small  village called Murseller. Nobody saw me enter. On the workbench were two coffins, I didn’t check them out
Next day I think I am seeing things when I see a price for a kilo of pistachio nuts is $20!

Then I run through a hamlet called Kamil Koc! I kid you not and there is even a bus line by the same name.
More and more rain and a couple of tired fifties like a dart player hitting the wire of the bulls eye.
2km before Bayan I think I am stopping at a cafe but its a craft shop. The man there makes me tea and gives me biscuits before I’m off two kilometres down the road and on he left he said I would have no trouble sleeping.

I am in the darkness in my sleeping bag when a man comes in but the gent he was didn’t say anything. He just went outside and said to those outside that there was a tourist sleeping inside. I could not imagine being left in peace if this was India!

Anyone that wants to hire an energetic marketing company please contact Siobhan Clifford at:

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