The short
version I started with the goal of keeping 4:10/km till the end for 1:28 final
time and I finished in 1:27:58.
The longest
version. I don’t get why this race is so popular (about 10000 runners) it is
not scenic and it is just a long straightaway on a freeway from Rome basket
ball arena to the sea (Ostia), for those of you living in Utah it is like
running from the Energy Solutions Arena to the Salt Lake marina, on I-80, or on
the causeway from Antelope Island. No crowd support along the way except for
the wind usually coming from the sea inland making the whole run miserable and
nothing to engage your eyes except for a couple of hills.
Back to my
day. I woke up at 6 am and by 7 I was on my way to Rome with my running buddy. We parked our car
½ mile from the start but very close to the subway station, where we would come
back. We realized that the temperatures were not as low as expected, around 35
degrees, cloudy sky and no wind, we thought that if these were the conditions in
Ostia it would have
been perfect.
We stopped
at the porta potties, we undressed for the race and we put on a plastic cover
to try to stay warm along with a couple of cotton T-shirt, and then we headed
for our corral, called in Italian “the cage”. We went inside to try to stay as
close as we could to the front line and we waited there 30 minutes warming up just
jumping up and down along with the rest of the crowd.
Finally at 9:15
sharp race started we got rid of our extra "clothes" and in 15 secs we started our race. My running buddy went
ahead immediately, he is faster than me, and I saw him again at the finish
line. After 1km there was the huge wall of the 1:30 pacing group occupying all
four lanes so I decided to push to pass them and finally I was able to run my
own pace. From km 2 to km 6 I was on pace (or slightly ahead, due to the surge
to pass the 1:30 group) and I felt very relaxed and the conditions were still
great. First short hill (a few hundred meters) I slowed down just a little but
then I recovered my cruising pace immediately, second hill was longer approx. the
whole km and I slowed down even more but I recovered lost time in the down hill
side. The third hill (called “ il camping” hill, because there is campground at
the top) is the worst is 1.5 km long and after two hills can kill your pace for
the rest of the race, plus on top of the hill you can see the finish line (we
were at mile 8) and if it is windy you will meet Sir Wind right there. I
accepted my fate and I started slowing down all the way to 4:56, instant speed,
for a 4:46 average pace, at the top there was a marching band but more
importantly there was no wind. The next km was flat at the top, I kept loosing
ground my legs were dead, I felt impossible to recover my top speed. On the
downhill section, I went back to my 4:10 pace and I felt almost worse, if I
could not go under 4:10 downhill no way I could keep pushing the same pace for
the rest of the race. I decided to take one km at a time and strange enough I
started again going under 4:10, with two km from the end my legs were pieces of
lead, I kept my head down, the only real mental push was during the last km
when I realized that even slowing down to 5min/km I would still improve my PR. After
the finish line I stopped the GPS and I could not believe I was under 1:28.
I found my
running buddy, he finished with a good 1:25:39, we collected our stuff and we
walked for another km to the bus that took us to the train station to get the
subway back to our car in Rome.
My goal for
this race was to try to go under 1:27, I started conservatively shooting for
1:28 and then I realized that with those hills I could not keep the pace for a
faster finish. I am incredibly happy about my performance, I mentally never
gave up, thanks also to the huge crowd of runners, every time I slowed down I
was passed by ten people so I knew right away I was slowing down, that’s the
reason because many people do their PR here, in spite of the hills and the
wind.
Plus as added
bonus weather was perfect, overall a great race. Now time to recover and taper
for the marathon in three weeks. Stay tuned. My splits:
Split Time min/Km
Delta min/Km
Km 5 0:20:39 4,07 0:20:39 4,07
Km 10 0:41:31 4,09 0:20:52 4,10
Km 15 1:02:35 4,10 0:21:04 4,12
Arrivo 1:27:58 4,10 0:25:23 4,09
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