Then the 41st İstanbul Marathon took place at the beginning of this month, two Bilkent students were there to run and also raise funds for good causes. The race, whose route takes runners from Asia to Europe, crossing both the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, offers a choice of three distances and attracts participants from all over the world.
Cem Doğan (MAN) and Esen Ergün (EE), who both ran the 15 km distance, had lots of company; there were 140,000 people present at the starting gates for the various race categories on the morning of November 3.
Cem, remarking on the beauty of the Bosphorus view and the extraordinary atmosphere of the event, called participation in the race “a once-in-a-lifetime experience that everyone should try, even if they’re not involved in any type of sport.” He ran with the aim of raising funds for the Spastic Children’s Foundation of Turkey.
For his part, Esen ran for the fundraising campaign that he started through the Adım Adım project in connection with AÇEV (the Mother Child Education Foundation), and raised 3,200 TL.