our choices show what we truly are

This a trail marathon held on my summer running ground, it starts in the small town of San Martino al Cimino and finishes in the same place after 43.5k and three major hills, the highest point is just 1000m high but some of the hills are challenging, the organizers claim that there is a total 1500m altitude gain and a consequent 1500m altitude loss. This year it was the second year of the race and last year everything went smoothly, but this year the whole course was changed in many places and the heavy rain fall of the  last two days transformed this race in a organizational nightmare. Last year there were 7 aid stations that made my camelback useless, plus much cooler temperatures, I thought, were making useless to carry an extra weight on my shoulders. I did my home work running some of the unknown sections and carefully studying on the map the new layout. I am aware in this kind of races you are on your own but I ended up not being prepared for what we found. I got to the start one hour before the official start  after a 10min drive, a few minutes after 8:30 we took off. The weather was around 10 degrees Celsius, cloudy sky and no rain and no rain in the forecast, but heavy rain fell until last night and for sure it was going to be muddy. I reached the first aid station at km 5 in about 30 minutes, I got some water and then we started the first climb, hoping that in 6-7 more km we would have another aid stations. The sun came out we reached km 15 and no aid station in sight (we were told at the finish line that the volunteers didn't show up because they thought that with the rain the race would be cancelled). We climbed the second major hill in a state of major dehydration my face was caked with salt and mud, we reached the top and we found the second aid station at km 20. We got water, coke and lemonade and we were told that all the remaining aid stations were in place and everything was fine. Even though I have already noticed that all major intersections were devoid of people giving directions, there were clear marks on trees and bushes. Right after this aid station the major disaster happened, someone last night removed a written sign and the whole group of leaders and followers at the top of that hill was misdirected on the wrong side of the hill, downhill. After about 700m I noticed lack of flags and with four others we went back up and found the right spot and we even identified the hole on the ground where the sign was posted and then removed (this was not RD's fault). Most of the leaders went down for 5-6 km, after 1k they found the course marked again (that was km 37 of the race, but they didn't know that) and only when they found the km mark saying 40k they came back up. At that point I was mad but I didn't know that many people did a much bigger mistake. Our group of four reached km 25 and no aid station was in sight, we were mad and we kept pressing on, we were on the last year course and we noticed that the year old painted signs were still there but the new ones were not there, we decided to finish that section and reevaluate the situation. When we got to the asphalt road we noticed that the volunteers were expecting the runners from the opposite direction and we realized that the RD didn't change the map but changed the course and we missed the aid station and the new section (we discovered later on that the aid station at km25 was misplaced at km 35 where there was already another aid station). At that point I had already ran about 3.5-4 km longer and more importantly we were really dehydrated and with the highest hill to climb. On the way up we were caught by a guy going very fast and he was very mad, he was until km20 the leader and he was trying to catch up his position, he kept asking us how many people still ahead and we had no idea. We reached the top and there was a thick cloud cover/fog, we were really dehydrated and as a side effect I was shivering and I was cold. The 30k aid station was in place they gave us coke lemonade and water and they told us they knew something was wrong because this year leaders were about one later than last year. I ate a banana I tried to drink as much as possible but my stomach was really upset even though I was really thirsty. Most of the fast guys were passing everybody again in the next few kms, my pace on the downhill was slower, the uneven terrain and the mud made my pace almost as slow as the uphill. From km 32 to the end was a net downhill with some shorter or longer ups but mostly downhills. Going down and with the sun I slowly started warming up. One of my friend caught me at about km35 (he went 5k longer) and left me there, I couldn't react. At km35 the aid station was there along with the aid station of km 25, I had another banana and more liquids hoping to keep them down. Our group of four was a group of three but with one new member. We worked together making jokes about this major race disaster and just moving together toward the end. At that point the friend who passed me 3-4km before passed us again, he did another mistake, the same thing happened to an another guy who passed us twice during a 2km stretch. At that point my garmin died (I was about 4:34 into the race). We got at km40 and the final downhill approach was in sight our collaboration finished there and we tried to finish as soon as possible. We skipped the last aid station 1km from the end (it was placed there by the RD when he heard of what happened in the morning) and we dived to the finish line. I was the third of our group I didn't have any zip left in my legs for the final sprint. I didn't see my finish time I will update it in the next few days if they will publish the final results. This year I managed not to puke after the finish line, I successfully removed my timing chip caked with mud, got a cool finisher black pile sweather saying Finisher of the Ecomaratona dei Monti Cimini. The overall winner was my friend I was running with during the last two weekends, he felt guilty about it and he didn't want to be awarded the first prize (a trip to Tromso Norway for the midnight summer marathon). His time was about 50 minutes slower than last year on a much faster course this year. I don't know what he ended up doing because I went to the car while shivering. When I entered the car the skin color of my face was grey, I was really cold, I blasted the heater on and drove home. Usually I take a cold bath but today I couldn't stand it. I got a hot shower, drank lots of hot tea and then I wrapped up in a down comforter in my bed and tried to warm up. After one hour I felt almost back to normal started eating something and on my couch started typing this.

I didn't have any goal for this race, for sure I wanted to race hard from the beginning to the end, I didn't want just to finish I wanted to feel the pain of my best effort. I was happy about that. I was mad about not having the camelback with me and doing two course mistakes but all things considered except for a few people, I was one of the people doing fewer extra miles. This is just a reminder that for this races you have to be able to improvise and rescue yourself in spite of what could potentially happen. Time to heal and resume a more regular training schedule. No more marathons until october.

No run tonight but my legs are in really good shape (all the downhill in the last month really helped), no problems going down the stairs, my left ankle is just a little bit sore from some twisting here and there yesterday. A did 30 minutes on the bike trainer just to enjoy some sweat.

An easy five 5k in 30 minutes to enjoy the cool evening weather. My legs are almost completely recovered, I have just general fatigue.

I went running under a dark black sky, after 200m an heavy downpour started, I made it back home before getting completely wet. I went in the basement and spent next 50 minutes on the bike trainer. For my readers, curious about last sunday trail marathon, pictures can be found here and here some of them are really beatiful!!! 

An big thunderstorm drowned my mileage. I went 2.5k from my car, I got wet in about 2 minutes, there was almost zero visibility, I run back to the car and it was the end for tonight. 5k in 24:15.

Nice evening for a run, no rain and cool temperatures. 13.1k in 1:12.

I went to the lake with the goal of doing the whole loop around (12.9 miles) and doing it at least at 5:00/km that would be a nice MP for me right now. I started with great conditions sunny with passing clouds and cool temperatures. I was exactly on pace at km 7 (35:00), then I started going a little bit faster each passing km. I finished 13.1 in 1:42:45 4:52/km. I was very happy about the final time but I have never felt comfortble at any pace since the beginning. I hope it is some lingering fatigue of the marathon and it will be better in the next few weeks. I would really go back to the feeling of running this time and not considering it a big deal as I was used to do it a few months ago.