our choices show what we truly are

If you want to see the altitude profile of this race you can find it in my race report of last here, it is basically a 15k downhill race followed by a 8k uphill death march. This year the start was in the second town ("Tre comuni" means three towns because the course goes through 3 towns and each year start and finish line are in a different town) but it was a logistic nightmare because this town is so small that 2400 runners (and their cars) were 3 times the number of the people living there. To get to the start we were forced to leave the car 2k away and there was no place where to leave our bags near the finish line so we had to run to the start get the bib number, running back to the car drop our stuff and run back, when I got to the start I had all 2400 people in front of me and no way to go around. My goal was just to finish in 1:50 so when we started I tried to relax and for 1k I was in a solid wall of human beings without any possibility to go faster than 6:00/k. My legs were a little bit to  more sore than anticipated and it was difficult to find a good rhythm, I had doubts I could finish it in one piece considering the big hills at the end. After passing a few hundreds of people I managed to maintain 5:00/k for the first 10k then on the big downhill I gained a few more seconds and then I was ready to assault the big hill. I actually sped up even more on the uphill part, passing lots of people and I finished the last 7k at 4:30/km that would be my goal MP. In two days I did a little bit over a marathon, this race was just a good excuse to go out on a cold morning winter and doing some good miles finishing  them at MP. If it wasn't for this race I would have stayed warm at home, after all it was fun, very cold, but very fun.

7 miles alone with just the wind an the approaching storm, at the end of the run I was almost feeling warmish. I hope it is not going to snow, it would be a major mess, and I have to go to work tomorrow and the rest of the week.

At least I reached 200 miles for this month, other than that it was a slow run. It was cold and the rain/snow mix completed the picture. At the end I was colder than when I started.

First snow of the season this morning. The commute to Rome in spite of the snow was almost normal and so the commute back home. Tonight the temperatures were just below freezing but it was the cold wind that made the run really miserable. Not much sweat tonight.

35 minutes on the bike trainer. Tomorrow lab retreat south of Rome it will be a long day.

There was some snow on the ground this morning, but I decided to drive to the retreat venue anyway because where I was headed (100km south) weather forecast had just rain. The retreat went well but during our lunch break we discovered that a huge snow storm was hitting Rome. People left work and were already stuck in traffic, my sister called me to inform me that the road from Rome to my house was shut down. We decided to finish our program hoping that the situation would be better in the next few hours. We left the venue at 5:15 I got to halfway from my house in just 45 minutes with almost no traffic and then the nightmare began, I was on the belt route around Rome headed north and to cover 14 km it took almost 5 hours, there was snow coming down hard and freezing immediately. Many people left their car on the shoulder of the freeway and started walking home.

When I eventually left the belt route at 10pm on the highway there was no traffic and I thought that in 45 minutes I would be home and with so much snow a nice run before going to bed would be awesome. I was wrong, I got stuck for another 2 hours with lots of other cars because several truck were blocking the road and only cars with snowtires or chains could still pass on a steep ramp. After passing this obstacle it was already 12:30 am and It was hard to maintain my concetration driving alone during an incredible snow storm with wind blowing hard and almost no visibility. I have never seen anything like that during my seven years in Utah. With 5 km to go two cars were still in the middle of the road I stopped and they told me that the road was "impassable" because there were  snowdriftts 5 feet tall in the middle of  the road. I drove back for 4km reached a road that was detouring the place exposed to the wind but there was no guarantee about  the conditions of that road, because there were several bushes and fences the snowdrifts were on both sides but the center of the road was relatively clean, the only obstacle was a snowdrifts right before the intersection with the highway I sped up, "surfed" and floated on top of the snow landed on more packed snow on the main road. Five more minutes and I was home. I felt really blessed several times I thought I was going to spend the night in the car and many people did that. I got home at 1:15am, I was hungry and thirsty, but after changing the batteries of my camera I went out to take pictures of  the largest snow storm I ever witnessed in Italy.

I had electricity but no water and phone line.

I woke up this morning almost freezing no heating because the power was still out but water was back and no phone signal. I immediately dressed up  for running and went out, all the roads were snow packed and no cars around, I ran up to the lake and it was lots of fun. Most of the stuff was really powder like something that here is unusual, the reason is the cold wind coming straight down from Siberia. I did 9 miles and at least I was much warmer than when I woked up. Back home electricity has been restored and a warm shower was really welcomed.

In the afternoon I shoveled the snow for 2 hours to free the path to the garage and then went to sleep for a couple of hours.