Today I had a good reason to celebrate, 10 years ago on september 1st 2003 I decided to cross the line and started training for my first race, the Thanksgiving turkey run in City creek canyon. I was running during the winter and biking during the summer during the previous three years, but that day I decided to be a runner and use the bike as a crosstraining tool. At that time I was logging my miles on a paper calendar until january 1st 2005, when I made an Excel file, that I am still using, where I recorded all my mileage. At that time I thought it was very difficult to be consistent in my training during all 4 seasons, but surprisingly enough I am still here. Since 2005 I logged 17995 miles, I have done lots of races in US and in Italy, and I don't know if it's good or bad, but right now I am in the best running shape of my all life. I was blessed with a really good health with only two major injuries, the first one in 2005 when after Des news marathon I had a (stress) fracture of the second toe in my right foot, in about 2 months I was back on the road. The second injury was last year, with bilateral plantar fascitis/calcaneal spurs, this one never stopped my running but made my all life really uncomfortable. I have never lost my running motivation I had highs and lows but running was always my safe refuge where to go when life presented challenges. More miles and more races are in store for the future.
Today's race was a perfect way to celebrate.
This race is long 12.85k, but this year there was a major celebration on the main piazza so the organizers had to cut it short at about 12.5k. It is a fast 10k (flat with some small rollers) followed by a 2.5k steep climb in the old part of the town. My only plan was to go out hard, not all out and see if I could finish at 4:00/k without killing myself. I ended up not killing myself but 37 seconds too slow, the last climb during the last km killed my desire to stay on pace. I need some work before 4:00/k will be my HM pace.
PM 7 easy miles tonight to keep celebrating 10 years of running.
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