Some people say I travel too much. I say it’s all about priorities and time&money management. I work in order to live, just like everybody else, and I live because I feed my passions. Being alive means so much more than surviving.Â
I choose to live in a world of marathons and vacations. It’s such a complex hobby, that I would need two lives to check out everything I wish to. No matter if it will be a great experience or an epic fail, an experience is an experience. And so, taking it slow, this time is about my run in Italy, Verona. Location based on a friend’s invitation to join her. I said YES right away 🙂
Picking up the race kit. NOT so much of a great experience
It was on a Saturday afternoon. I arrived to Verona after traveling around Bergamo and Milano. The down side of travel&run is that I always end up walking 20-30km/day, so race day is not an easy day 🙂
For this (damn) race kit I had to walk all the way to the other side of the city. I wasn’t sure where is that exactly, they could have communicated the details better. No biggie, I like to walk. But I cannot understand why, if we sign up for a race weeks and months before and everyone needs to select their shirt size, WHY don’t they have the right sizes? but moving on…. M was fitting me OKish. No other “gift” in the bag, except the Tshirt and the race number. Then, I tried the cafeteria there at the expo, even though I had to pay 4€ for pasta or 2.5€ for a sandwich. I bought a 2.5€ piece of dried bread and a piece of salami. Let me tell you something “race organizers”: us, runners, like to think we matter, or at least have the impression that we do. So if you make us pay for the race, pasta and even race photos (22€ for the photos they took during the race, that are usually free and posted online), at least put an extra power bar in the sack. Just saying 🙂 You guys had your reasons I guess.
Race Day
First things first: pun my bags in the truck they provided. I had all my clothes with me to dress up after the race. It was so cold those days. But actually if I think back, race day was warmer than others days. We were about 3200 runners (marathon, halfmarathon and 10k) and I started from the 2nd or 3rd corral – 1-2 minutes after the start.
The thing is I really didn’t read much about the race before, I just assumed it was a city race. Based on the name “Verona Marathon” you would think so too, right?
Oh well, most of the race was outside Verona, no sightseeing whatsoever. But again: moving on.
I felt my legs were tired after 3-4 km. I’ve walked so much in the past 3 days and that counts to the results. I did the 21.2K in 1:51min. Not bad, but there’s room for better.
Bottom line, it was ok. At least we had plenty of food after the race and the holly Coca-Cola 😀 I’m not saying it was the worse race ever. Just definately not the best I’ve ever been at. But as I was saying at the beginning, it was an experience. A new place, a new run, a new medal 🙂
Keep it going!
Run the World 