Gulay Varan

Gülay was born in Bingol, in eastern Turkey, to a Zaza family. At age 11, she moved to Istanbul and then to London in 2004 where she works as a lawyer and enjoys an active life. She discovered the joy of running in the summer 2013 and decided to run her first marathon in London, in March 2014. At the finish line, she knew that she would do more. Running marathons not only gave her confidence that she was physically fit to run but also enabled her to pick up many other sports in her thirties. Running also allowed her to discover world cities from a different perspective. Since 2014, she has completed the Istanbul, Berlin, Brussels, New York, Paris, and Buenos Aires marathons and many other half marathons and 20 mile races across the world. Gülay is hoping to run marathons in as many countries as possible and hopes to be the first Turkish woman to join The 7 Continents Marathon Club during 2018. She is the first woman in her family to have lived abroad, travelled globally and done sports. She dedicates this race to her late grandmother (nene) Sariye and her mother (Hamide), both women having never left their home towns/countries or received formal education. She is hoping to mentor girls from similar backgrounds to pick up sports and have the confidence to travel and study abroad.