our choices show what we truly are

First race in a while, after a low and slow mileage summer and still in pain early in the morning. I wanted to do this race just to evaluate my fitness considering I have done in 2009 and 2010  55:24 and 54:58. My goal was to finish under 1 hour and if I felt decent trying to stay under 58:30, that is 4:30/km.

This race is held in a small town, Orte, the course starts 100 m lower than the main plaza where is the finish line and goes on a rolling loop for 11k and it climbs up to the very top of the town during the last two km. Many guys and girls around here have their best 10k during this race, because there are not many flat 10k where to test your speed.

I got there at 9:00 am, found my captain to get the bib number, changed clothes and then after a quick stop I lined up in the middle of the crowd. The start is usually crowded but I didn't mind to start slow and to have people to pass along the way. My goal was to stay at 4:30/km and then along the way evaluate my legs and my feet. At km 5 I was at 4:27 average pace and I felt good, I decided to leave the group of people I was running with to see if I could make up some time for the final slow 2k. The chasing game continued until I reached the finish line, just during the final climb I probably passed more than 10 people.

Overall I was happy about the time and the feeling, I honestly did my best and my legs and feet were ok after. I am writing this on monday morning and my feet are in pain 2/10 my right one, 8/10 my left one, this was somehow expected. The good news is it will go away during the day, it is just a painful reminder. I have miles and speed to rebuild slowly and patiently.

This is a special day in my running career, exactly nine years ago today I switched to half biker/half runner to full time runner and I started to train for my first race: the turkey trot up city creek canyon (in 2003 the start was at the gate and not from Capitol Hill and that year we didn't do the full course but we turned around at the 1.5 mile mark because there was snow on the ground). I started recording my training on january 2005, during the first year and a half I was writing my mileage on a paper calendar, so right now considering that unregistered period of time I am above 17000 miles. 

Just some blabbing to add some interest to 9.3miles at slow pace, the last three were done when the sun was gone at it was dark, cool, but really dark.

Another good run, slow, with the final miles in the dark, tonight I had a reflective vest and a headlamp.

No run tonight, the heavy rain destroyed my plan to go out. The only bad thing: my feet with or without running still hurt.

Instead going running alone and slow I went with a couple of friends at night to do this race.

I wanted to try some fast km and see where I am in terms of fitness and consequent foot pain the morning after. We drove at 7:15 pm to the small town of Barbarano where the city decided to organize this race to start the festivities of the "snail", for three days from the afternoon until midnight there will be some kind of fair serving food and the snails, cooked in different ways, are the main dish in most of the food stands. This was the first edition of the race and we didn't expect many people, instead there were some 100-120 runners (that is a good number for a local race in the middle of the week on a first edition) with some national level athletes. The race organizer knows many people and this helped to have some fast competitors. After registration we went for a warm up to explore the course that was a loop of 1650m, measured by a biker, with a short climb of about 30m and the rest was a gentle uphill and gentle downhill, with 6 sharp narrow corners in the section going through the old part of the town on cobblestone. Overall we were pleased that was quite flatish for our local standards and was going to be faster, actually probably the second faster race in terms of course in a radius of 50km.

At the start was announced that the loop has to be repeated four times and after some more chat we started. I wanted to try to see if I could finish at 4:10/km and one of my friends, faster than me, told me he would be glad to come with me and pacing me. We started on time at 8:30pm and after some elbowing on the narrow road we spread out and we did the first km at 3:49/km that is a little bit on the fast side, but to escape the crowd was necessary, second km was 3:53/km still fast but more reasonable. After that my friend and I got separated by a couple of meters and I couldn't hear his splits, I was running "naked", but just by feeling we slowed down to a more reasonable 4:0something. After the second lap we stopped passing people and we maintained our positions until the end. We avoided being lapped by the top runners by 1/2 km and successfully finished in 26:56 at 4:04/km average pace.

I was happy about the outcome, this morning (I am writing this on friday morning) my feet are still locked in pain, but with some walking around they should be back to a more manageable status. My legs are fine and I don't feel too fatigued (in spite less than 5 hours of sleep). This race had a great organization, there was a coolmax type of shirt and socks as race package (the registration was 10 euros so overall a good deal), I got 8th in my age group and got another shirt, different style, and then after some light refreshment right after the race (cookies, pizza and watermelon) there was a huge pasta party and wine on the streets of the town for all runners and all the people who were there watching the race. Great feeling overall.

Five slow miles, after five days of rain sun and mosquitoes are back.

Micro taper before tomorrow HM. It will be more a long run than a real race but I need to be cautious given my general lack of training. My new Garmin arrived today.