12 km in Deruta

This morning I ran a local 12K race in Deruta. I wasn't that excited about it since I am still recovering from the Paris marathon, but Massimo reminded me that we have to show up for the local races so those people will come to our own in June. Therefore I went "just for fun".

As we drove up, my teammates told me the start of the race is "bellissimo" but the end is "brutto" (ugly). It is the same stretch of road, of course, leading from the center of town at the top of the hill down to the valley and then back up again.

As promised it was a very fast start down the hill. The surprise was that they have a wonderful running trail in the valley. No traffic, soft surfaces, shady paths, river views. Most of the race was there, and only the last kilometer and a half was uphill. Since I wasn't beating myself up for a good time, even that was quite manageable and I managed a full-out sprint up the last stretch and into the piazza.

Part of the joy of the Italian races is what they come up with in "premi" (prizes, or more generally the runner packs distributed to all comers). For my 7 euro entry fee I got a race and...




...a bag of breakfast cookies, a kilo of flour, a box of spaghetti, a local beer, and some advertising.

Michael