Another stop again - Lights in the night

Another stop - Unfortunately, the Montalto race was the last of 2021 because since last Tuesday I had to stop running due to catarrhal otitis and a severe sinusitis. Fortunately, this is not covid-19 (the swab gave a negative result). However, I have done other laboratory analysis whose results will be available on December 2nd. My running doctors told that probably this is a strong flu even though I got the related vaccine.

November memories – 15 years ago, November 2006 (I was 50 y.o.), I participated in 2 important races: on Nov. 12  “The national half marathon championship for port workers” in Civitavecchia and on Nov. 26 the Florence Marathon. 

In the national championship I won my a.g. in 1:45:36 but, if I remember, we were only 4. I didn't worry about the pace, I ran in total relax because I was in “tapering mode” for the Marathon.

In Florence, with the final time of 3:46:32, I was 2689 out of 6971 overall and 272 out of 667 in my a.g.

Civitavecchia Half Marathon

Half Marathon -  km. 4

Florence Marathon

Marathon km. 40

Marathon - Finish line

Lunch on the hills - On Friday I went back to Tolfa with a friend for lunch. At the end of the meal we found ourselves totally immersed in the fog.

Lights in the night - These are 2 images of the historic center in the night. Soon the whole city will be decorated and illuminated by Christmas lights.

 Are your cities decorated and full of lights?

Montalto race again, a relaxing day on the hills and rugby

Montalto di Castro - Here are other photos of last Sunday race in Montalto di Castro kindly offered by the organizers and by fotoforgo.com 

I am very happy to be back to compete and that my son Paolo made the decision to participate in the next events as well.

The main square of Montalto

Before the race

After the start

km. 5

km. 7

Finish line

Finish line

Upcoming race: The next race will be in Canino on Dec. 5th on a route with many uphill in the middle of  olive woods: the swag, in fact, will also include a bottle of local extra virgin olive oil.

Unfortunately Paolo will not be able to participate because he was late to register: the Organization, reached the number of 300 runners, closed the registrations.

 

Running update.

This week I have run 3 times:

Tuesday: 10 km

Thursday: 10,1 km

This morning: 15 km

I took 2 days off (Friday and Saturday) because I felt a bit tired.

A relaxing day on the hills: The day after a full moon night, taking advantage of the nice sunny fall days, I went to have lunch in Tolfa, a beautiful town on the hills, famous for the ancient rock and the narrow streets. I ate local food based on black truffles collected in the surrounding countryside. 

Full moon

Fall colors in my garden

Tolfa

Tolfa

The rock

A narrow street

Rugby: This morning my grandson Gabriele (5 y.o.) participated in his first rugby tournament. His team has won all 5 games. The other 2 grandsons are soccer players. There is also a 4th grandson 5 months old.

Do you like to have lunch/dinner in rural places with a menu of only local food?

Montalto running race: a "glorious" failure.

Montalto di Castro running race: this morning, finally, after 1 year and 9 months, I returned to race in person in Montalto di Castro, a town 26 miles away, on an undulating route 11 km long.

I didn’t have the time to take more pictures of the town because there was a rainstorm with  thunder and lightning as soon as the race was over.

Montalto di Castro

Montalto di Castro

My son Paolo also raced although, during the last week, he run only once covering 8 km. 

Stefano and Paolo

I had also problems for a bad cold that affected my workouts. However, even if I had trained regularly, things would not have turned out differently because I didn't feel weaker or slower than usual.

With the pace of 5: 56/ km (9:33 m) I was able to establish my pw all time and on every distance. But I'm not complaining and I'm happy because I couldn't have done better than this at the moment.

With my son we ran shoulder to shoulder for 10 km when I tried to increase the speed to overcome a runner of my same a.g..

We reached the finish line with only one minute gap.

If Paolo could train regularly he would be able to run very fast!

Stats:

Finishing time: 11 km in 1:05:20 (5:56/km – 9:33/m);

258th place (out of 280) overall;

9th place (out of 10) in my age group.

A glorious (???) failure!

The swag

 Have a good week

Skipping the race - Pitigliano

    Now the autumn weather is here but fortunately it is not cold and the temperature is mild: the leaves fall and the old lamps give a magical touch to the ancient houses:

Running update – This week I have run 4 times:

Monday: 6,5 km. A short workout because, I don’t know the reason, I felt tired;

Wednesday: 11 km with the first half under a heavy rain. I cannot skip anymore any workout because the racing season is starting and … better the rain than the treadmill;

Friday: 12,8 km;

Sunday: 10,2 km with other 2 friends.

Upcoming races: 

Nov. 7th Orbetello: Finally, after many doubts, I decided not to participate. I'm sorry because the place (46m far from here), with its lagoon and the natural reserve is very beautiful, but the race was just an opportunity to gather many runners without swag and with 3 prizes for 2 age groups only (up to 49 - over 50) . At this point, with other 2 running friends, we planned of spending a morning together but without going to another city and therefore we did a 10,2 km workout by the sea.

All this also considering that on Dec. 8th there will be another race in Orbetello in which I will certainly participate.

Nov. 14th: Montalto di Castro – 11 km – Signed up;

Dec. 5th: Canino – Olive Oil Run – 10 km – Signed up;

Dec, 8th Orbetello – Christmas Run – 10 km – Registrations are still closed.

Pitigliano - Pitigliano is another ancient town, not far from here, in the historical region of Italy called Tuscia: 

 How is the weather there?  Have you ever skipped a race with a last minute decision?