Rundamental Running Together as a Big Family in Istanbul

Where Belgrade Forest Meets a Running Philosophy

There is a reservoir tucked inside Belgrade Forest, on the northwestern edge of Istanbul, called Ayvat Bendi. Ottoman-era stonework holds back the water, ancient trees arch overhead, and the air carries the particular quiet of a city momentarily left behind. This is where Rundamental meets. Not a track oval, not a city square, not a rooftop gym, but a historic forest clearing that requires intention to reach. The choice of meeting point says everything about who this crew is and what they value: the effort of getting somewhere, the reward waiting on the other side, and the company that makes the journey worth taking. Rundamental did not arrive at Ayvat Bendi by accident. The crew began taking shape in 2014, when a group of friends started lacing up together in the heart of Istanbul, drawn not by a race calendar or a training plan but by curiosity and each other. In 2015, they gave that shared momentum a name: Rundamental. The word itself carries the idea, something foundational, something essential, running stripped down to what actually matters. From that moment, the crew has operated with a clear and consistent belief: good people run together. Five words that function less as a slogan and more as a selection process. If you show up, you belong.

The Founders Who Built Something Lasting

Three names appear at the origin of Rundamental, and all three remain part of the crew today. Seha co-founded the crew alongside Pınar and Sema, with Umuthan also among the founding group and now serving as captain alongside Pınar. The fact that the founding core is still actively shaping the crew a decade later is not a small thing. Running crews often begin with energy and dissolve when life intervenes. Rundamental held together, and the people who started it are still the people steering it. That continuity gives the crew a coherence that newer groups spend years trying to build. There is institutional memory here, a shared language built across hundreds of kilometres, and the kind of trust that only accumulates through showing up, again and again, in all weather and all moods.

A Crew That Thinks Beyond the Run

Rundamental describes its work as creating new projects, adventures they call them, aimed at promoting the running lifestyle and supporting young athletes. The language is deliberate. Projects, not events. Adventures, not workouts. The distinction reflects a sensibility that pushes against the idea of running as purely athletic self-improvement. For Rundamental, a run can be the spine of something larger: a journey to a new city, a collaboration with a young runner trying to find their footing, a creative experiment that uses movement as its medium. The crew openly identifies as a collective of visionary and creative people, and that self-description is not aspirational branding but an accurate account of how they operate. They plan, they travel, they think about what running can do beyond the finish line. This orientation toward young athletes gives Rundamental a dimension that many crews never develop. Supporting the next generation requires patience, mentorship, and a willingness to slow down, literally and figuratively, for the sake of someone else's growth. It also means the crew has a reason to exist that extends beyond its own members' personal records or weekly mileage. There is a sense of responsibility built into Rundamental's DNA, a feeling that the running community is something to be tended and expanded, not merely enjoyed.

Belgrade Forest and the Rhythm of Two Weekly Runs

The crew runs twice a week, on Tuesdays and Sundays, both sessions meeting at Ayvat Bendi in Belgrade Forest. The forest itself is one of Istanbul's great natural assets, a vast protected woodland that has served the city's water supply since Byzantine times and its runners for considerably less time but with equal devotion. The trails here are varied enough to keep sessions interesting and forgiving enough to welcome runners who are still finding their stride. Running through Belgrade Forest is not the same as grinding along a riverside path or circling a park. The forest demands attention, asks you to watch where your feet land, and rewards that attention with something close to meditation. Meeting at the same spot twice a week also creates a rhythm that becomes its own kind of home. Regular members know the road in, know which side of Ayvat Bendi catches the morning light, know which fellow crew member will be standing there already warmed up and which one will arrive just slightly breathless and apologetic. That familiarity is the texture of belonging, and Rundamental has spent a decade weaving it.

Istanbul as a Running City and a Living Stage

Istanbul is not an easy city to run in. The topography is relentless, hills stacking onto hills across two continents, and the traffic can feel indifferent to anyone moving on foot. But Istanbul is also a city that rewards persistence. Its views are extraordinary, its neighbourhoods are dense with character, and its energy, even at six in the morning, is unlike anywhere else. Rundamental is a product of this city in the fullest sense. The ambition, the sociability, the instinct to turn a Tuesday morning run into something worth talking about over breakfast afterward, these are Istanbul qualities, and the crew wears them naturally. Running in Istanbul also carries a particular cultural weight. The city has seen an explosion of running culture over the past decade, with crews and clubs multiplying across both the European and Asian sides of the Bosphorus. Within that landscape, Rundamental occupies a specific position: a crew that has been here long enough to have helped shape the culture, not simply inherit it. They were building community around Belgrade Forest before it was fashionable, and that longevity has earned them a kind of quiet authority.

A Family Built on Shared Kilometres

The word family appears in how Rundamental describes itself, and it is not used loosely. The founders talk about becoming a big family while sharing a passion for running, and the phrasing reflects a lived reality rather than a recruitment pitch. Families are complicated, loyal, occasionally chaotic, and held together by something stronger than convenience. They disagree and reconcile. They celebrate and grieve. They show up when it would be easier to stay home. Rundamental has clearly crossed that threshold from group into something more durable. Part of what builds that durability is the crew's commitment to doing things together beyond the runs themselves. Travelling as a crew, hanging out, training collectively across disciplines, these are the hours that transform training partners into genuine friends. Rundamental has invested in those hours, and the investment shows. When a crew's founders are still its captains a decade in, still choosing the same forest, still gathering on the same days, it means the thing they built has turned out to be exactly what they hoped it would be.

Running with Rundamental in Istanbul

For anyone curious about joining, the entry point is straightforward: find your way to Ayvat Bendi in Belgrade Forest on a Tuesday or a Sunday and look for the people who look like they are glad to be there. Rundamental does not advertise itself as a program or a service. It presents itself as a community, one built on the conviction that the people you run with matter as much as the kilometres you cover. The crew's work, its projects, its support for young athletes, its travels and adventures, all of it flows from that simple starting point. More information about Rundamental is available at rundamental.com.tr, and the crew's ongoing story, runs, adventures, and community moments, is documented on Instagram. A decade after that first group of friends started running together in Istanbul, Rundamental is still moving, still building, still believing that good people run together. Belgrade Forest is waiting.