our choices show what we truly are

I really wanted to do this race in Pescara for several reasons: it is accurately measured (9.6km), it is flat at sea level and most importantly I really wanted to test my speed on a decent course.

I was in Pescara for the weekend, it is just a two hour drive from my house, and this race was just perfect. There was also an HM but I wasn't ready for that.

I got to the starting area one hour before the start, temperatures were perfect for this time of the year, just a light breeze to make everything perfect. The course description is simple 4.8km straight south, a 180 degrees turn and then 4.8km back north to the finish line, while the HMers would continue south until they hit their turnaround point. I really wanted to see if I could hold 4:00/km. I started with 3:54 and from there I went progressively slower to 3:57, 4:00, 4:04, 4:11, 4:08, 4:16, 4:17, 4:10 and 4:04 for the last 600m,  39:26 4:06/km AP.

I could have done a few seconds faster if I didn't start so fast, but I have no regrets I know for sure that I don't have the 4:00/km speed back in my legs yet. All conditions were favorable, I also had a guy on my left shoulder since the start to push me to my absolute limit, at the turnaround I was in 10th position and I didn't want to loose it, and managed to maintain it until the end. I ran scared and chased the whole race and managed to keep him behind, so this is really my best effort and where I am right now.

I felt possible at the start to finish between 38:30 and 38:50,  I need to run more.

PS. I was in 10th position overall at the end and 3rd in my age group because all the fast people did the HM.

My total body was trashed from yesterday race, the heavy rain outside at 7pm helped me to convince me to stay inside.

I went out for a slow jog, my legs are still heavy like lead, four slow miles finishing before a big thunderstorm flooded the whole area.

Another slow recovery run, tonight after a couple of miles my legs came back to life and managed to finish at a decent speed. 6.2  miles in 52:45. No speed work this week just miles and recovery.

I thought it would be another boring run at slow pace, then when I was 2 miles from the car I had a close encounter with a wild boar trying to dig his way out of a metal fence next to the road where I was running. We both got scared by each other and we had a rush of adrenaline to run in the opposite direction, after a 100m dash I stopped I turned around and I saw it charging the metal fence again, passing underneath, crossing the road and disappearing in the trees on the other side of the road. It was big, black, wet and muddy (he was coming back from the lake and headed for the hill) and really smelly, the smell was the first thing that informed me about his presence. I was still amazed by this, when after another 300m I saw a fox quietly looking at me across the same metal fence (it was the same property of the wild boar), he/she was not scared at all by my presence, I stopped, I got closer to the fence, after staring at each other for 30 seconds I kept going and I saw that she went away too. For the records I  finish my wildlife run in 51:46.

Good run I started at 6:00/k and then I progressively accelerated in the MP territory. I finished 13.1 miles in 1:49:52 5:12/k AP.

I was happy because I started at 10 am when it was already hot and I kept going faster in spite of the heat.