I decided to do this race for the following reasons: to help my team to maintain its ranking (we are currently in first position with 5 races to do), to help to drag my sorry body out of the door this morning after yesterday run. It costed only 7 euros (that will be refunded by the team) so it was a no excuse situation. This race is perfectly measured but it is really slow, 9k are uphill and the remaining 1k is downhill. The weather at 9am was already around 20-25°C, I did 3k as a warm up and to test my legs, they were tired but not sore. My goal was to try to keep MP for the whole distance (4:30/km). We started on time at 10 and I was already sweating, the first km had one big downhill leaving the town of Vejano and then we entered a rural road doing a long loop of about 9km to go back to the start/finish line. The whole course, except for the initial downhill and a second downhill section 1k from the end, is uphill, with big and small bumps, short or long but you keep gaining altitude, without loosing it. I was halfway in 22:04, about a minute faster than anticipated then I progressively lost my advantage and finished the whole thing in 45:08, just 8" slower than planned. I was very happy, I did a quick system check, breathing was fine and my legs were tired but not dead, I immediately went for a 3k cool down to finish the day with 10 miles. Combining the first 32k yesterday and the 10k today I have "done" a marathon in 3:18 and change. I know doesn't mean much but it is always good for my dreams.
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