Roma - Corsa del Ricordo (Race of Remembrance)

    Yesterday I have run in Rome the "Corsa del Ricordo" (Race of Remembrance), an event organized to not forget the Italians killed and thrown into "foibas". The "foibe massacres" refers to mass killings by which the corpses were thrown into foibas (deep natural skin holes), perpetrated mainly by Yugoslav partisans in Venezia Giulia, Istria and Dalmazia, against the Italian population, during and after the WW II.

     The race was a tough 10 km with many uphills through the district where the survived Dalmatian and Istrian exiles live. Reminding myself not to push hard to avoid other injures, I have run a race according to my current possibilities and, in spite of my pace, I am happy of my performance: the old wonderful times when I could run a 10 km in 40:00 (more or less) are far!

Official stats: Finishing time 55:13; 571° of 836 overall and 38° of 55 in my a.g.

Conclusions: This was a good experience, at last, after 1 year, I have run a challenging race on a difficult route with no pain and without being exhausted at the end. Now I can plan a series of workouts (3-4 per week) to improve my pace and to address the upcoming races better.

January 2019

January 2018: 2018 was not a good running year, only 4 short races and back pain due to the posture of my right shoulder. After the surgery to install the prosthesis (see the pic), for long time I didn't succeed in maintaining both the shoulders on the same level, so the right arm was always lower than the other.

At last now the things go better and I can run faster and longer. Unfortunately I cannot swim anymore because the movement of the injured arm is limited.

However in January I have alternated runs and long walks. The running workouts were 14 for a total of 147,5 km (91,6 ml). A short distance, I know, but not so bad if compared with the mileage of the latest months (oct 120,5 km - nov 117,5 km and dec 84,6 km).

January 1997: And now a jump in the past for beautiful memories: on jan. 12, 1997 I ran the "Corri per il Borgo" (Run through the Village) a 5,5 km race. My finishing time was 23:22 but for me the distance was longer because, for a mistake, I ran on a wrong way and I had to come back. Despite that I was 6th of 50 in my age group. 

In the second pic (from a local newspaper) you can see my running team at that time. Now 3 of those runners are running in heaven.

Next programs: On Sunday I hope to run a 13,5 km trial but I am not sure because these are days of stormy weather with heavy rains and ice on the streets.

HAPPY RUNNING

2018 in pictures

Happy New Year

After long time the Black Knight is back.  Many things happened and I needed long time to recover after the last terrible injury: pluriframmentary fracture of the right humerus. A lot of pain and now the movement of my right arm is limited because I have a prosthesis inside the shoulder. In the meantime, in April, I retired and now I can enjoy the spare time with my family.

Running: I didn't give up. I kept on running as I could. No more swimming, of course ,but long walks and short runs. Now I run 3 times a week for about 10 km at a little bit less than 6:00/km (9:39 ml) but I am improving. Until last summer my pace was 6:40/km. Only to enjoy the atmosphere of the competition in 2018 I entered 4 races and the last was on December 23rd (see the pics above) but it was a "tragedy" because I ran with a bad bronchitis and after the event I spent other 4 days in the bed. Now I feel good and I am ready for new "adventures".

HAPPY NEW YEAR