This race is called Tre Comuni (three towns) race because the
race starts in Nepi goes to Civita Castellana and comes back to Nepi through
Castel Sant’Elia. It is a 22 km race (not the 22.3 km they advertise, they cut
it a couple of years ago but they still advertise the same distance) very
popular in the Rome area in spite of its altitude profile and for sure not a race
where you can establish your PR (the highest point is 800 feet and the lowest
point is 200feet above see level).  Many consider this race the beginning of their running season
and just do it as a training run.
The morning started with a 10 minutes drive to Nepi, it
was raining, just light rain and temperatures around 41F not too bad overall. I
stayed inside my car until 20 minutes before the start and then I went out to
find a good spot at the start, because with 2000 people and a first km uphill
on a narrow road passing under a roman aqueduct (see picture below) it is very
difficult to keep your speed.
My goal was to try to keep 4:10/km until mile 8 at the
lowest point and then manage to finish under 1:35.
After the first km rain stopped and the conditions were just
perfect, kms were passing fast, these are my splits for the first 13km (8
miles) that in spite of the continuous up and down where pretty consistent and
exactly where I wanted them to be:
4:08/km, 4:12, 4:11, 4:09, 4:01, 4:07, 4:06, 4:08, 4:08, 4:11,
3:58, 4:07, 3:57.
Then fun began when we started going up the steep canyon walls
and my splits show the different kind of “entertainment”:
5:19/km, 4:56, 4:37, 4:31,
4:31, 4:38, 4:31, 4:22, 4:19.
I really wanted to go back to low 4:2x after the first two
steep kms, but it was hard and only during the last two kms with the town of
Nepi in sight across another canyon I started pushing again a good pace. The last
km was a killer, was uphill and on cobblestone on a narrow street but within a “tunnel”
of cheering people (that was the only crowd support throughout the race, except
for the farmers along the way angry because the road was close to traffic), that’s
why my final split was “good”.
I managed to achieve my goal to stay under 1:35, but
considering the last two “decent” final kms, I think I left a few seconds to
the course, I mentally gave up a little bit after the first big hill and I
could not push any “faster” pace even though my breathing was fine and I did
not have any leg problems. I have to keep working on my mental training.
Final statistics: final time 1:34:54 good for 266th
place out of 1978 finishers, 43rd in my age group, male winner won
with 1:08:54, first woman with 1:20:14. My team placed 17th with 27
finishers.
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