Skyrunner takes category win over 76 km

Vegan runner Itir Atadiyen was the sole representative of her Vegan Runners club taking on the challenge.

It was a tough race as expected. The Turkish runner is a veteran of dozens of long distance mountain runs and faced an international field of quality runners.

As the race went on she improved her placing and eventually completed in 13:39:51. This gave her second place among all women and she was the first over 40 woman.

The finish left her emotional and she recalls “the happiness of crossing the finish line… I cried right after that”.

The category win was not even in her consideration when she was on the start line hours before.

“It’s great to show the photo of the general classification award ceremony, which I hadn’t even dreamed of when I started the race” she says.

Vegan

Itir has been vegan since 2018.

“It is a lifestyle for me not only a diet. I love animals and care about them.”

During the run she ate a few energy gels, but mostly whole foods: bananas, oranges, bread, snack bars and some nuts.

Itir found she continued to improve her running and now has over 20 category race wins.

“I mostly eat healthy vegan food like salads, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and of course a lot of carbs because of losing too much calories during sports.”

Itir’s profile

The race

Results