Turin Marathon

Yesterday I finished another “preparation” race for my summer trail season.

The Turin Marathon is a medium size marathon, at least for Italian race tradition, held in the second biggest city of the North.

This year was the 13th edition and the finishers were 1.649. The course is not a fast one: in the second half there is a mild uphill from 22K until 28K. This is the uphill to Rivoli, one of the neighborhood of Turin, which gain some 80 meters in altitude in one of the most critical section of a marathon race.

 

Yesterday the weather was not good, with a persistent rain from the early morning until the end of the day. In these conditions and with this kind of course, the personal best is not a priority…

If you need more information check the organization website here:

www.turinmarathon.com/index.php/it/turin-marathon/turin-marathon.html

Considering my training program since my last serious marathon, the Milan City Marathon in November, based on speed training and any long run, I did preatty well. I finished in 2.57.16, 94^th out of 1.649 finishers. Just 1 minute slower than my PB. With a positive split in the second half basically due to the uphill to Rivoli.

Not bad! Here below some picture of the race.

 

 

 

Keep going strong.

Coming back for the trail running season!

Two weeks ago I was in Rome and I started my race preparation for summer trail challenges with … a trail race!

The 10th edition of the “Classic trail della Capitale” was held in the “Parco dei Castelli Romani” nearby Rocca di Papa, Rome.

The race was a quite fast trail race of 18K with a 500 meters altitude change. The first 5K were uphill, then an almost flat section and finally a mild downhill of some kilometer until the finish line. 46 women and 195 men successfully finished the race. For the first time in my trail running life I ran even in the uphill sections. In the downhill part of the race, I pushed really hard and I gained almost 10 places in the final ranking. At the end I was 33rd out of 195 men.

The landscape was wonderful and the race well organized, so if you have the opportunity to visit Rome in the middle of April, do this race:

www.roadrunnersclub.it

The Classic Trail della Capitale was not only my first 2009 trail race, but also my first race with one of the best trail shoes so far.

In 2008 and 2007 I ran with Nike Triax, Salomon Xt and Brooks Cascadia. This year I went for more cushioning with the same grip: Adidas Supernova Riot.

If you are bored with your trail shoes try those: