about Civitavecchia's half marathon again

After the 2009 Civitavecchia’s half marathon I’ve tryed to maintain the long distance training. The goal is the next Rome's half marathon which starts in February. Moreover, running long distance makes me feel relaxed because it gives me an opportunity to see landscape, environment, countryside and old town centre. Meanwhile Stefano has asked me to run the 10 km. Fiumicino’s race next month. In the photo above posted I was crossing the finish line of the last Civitavecchia’s half marathon which I ran the 8th of November 2009. I ran that race with the number 549. The other three photos below show the happiness of runners who were crossing the finish line . . . in the rain.

2009 Civitavecchia's half-marathon

There were about 1500 runners who took part in the race while the weather was rainy. I had breakfast at 07:10 a.m., about three hours before the race which started at 10:00 a.m.
When the race started the runners ran next to the cathedral and through the port. Outside the port we ran among farmers fields and countryside surronding the northern side of the town and was really nice.

I didn't find the race difficult to do because there were two short up hills only (total up hill distance was about 1.2 km). We run the last 2 km through the town, next to the theatre and the archaeological museum. The distance of the race was 21 km. Time taken: 1 hour, 42 minutes, 44 seconds. Two year ago I ran the same half marathon and I took the same time. While I was running the race it didn't rain. Fortunately it rained 5 minutes after I crossed the finish line, so I quickly came beck home.
This time the loot wasn't interesting. It was a bathrobe. What's more is that they gave me a very small size. But it's important I enjoyed the race.

19 km. training

We began the Sunday's training at 08:00 a.m. while the weather was mainly sunny. At the beginning we ran up hill and down hill outside the town. while we were running next to a green hill we saw a lot of black sheeps. It was the first time I saw black sheeps here in Italy.
During the last two km. we passed through the old side of the town. I was pleased with my training, so I'll try to run the Civitavecchia half-marathon next month. I decided to try the race which starts the 8th of November 2009.

Montalto's running race 10.700 km.

Last Sunday, the 11th of October 2009, Stefano, Umberto and I, ran a 10.700 race in Montalto in support of "Italian Association blood's donors". I was the fifth on the list which includes runners who were born from 1960 to 1964. The loot, which you can see in the photo above posted, consists of two bottles of wine, one bottle of oil, coffee and pasta. Stefano's loot is the same because he was the fourth on the other list which includes runners who were born from 1955 to 1959. Congratulations to Stefano for his ordeal. We are planning to run another 10.00 km. race in support of another social cause the 1st of November 2009.

Cluster-pine trees

During the hot summer we run in this beautiful place where the path crosses a cluster-pine trees forest and wild pigs live inside a big enclosure. You can see it in the pictures posted.

Next week I will likely began to follow a half-marathon training schedule for intermediate runners. It.s a 12-week half-marathon training program which provides 6 tempo run trainings. Tempo runs help you develop your anaerobic threshold, which is critical for faster racing.

For a 40-minute tempo run, for example, start your run with 5 to 10 minutes of easy running, then continue with 15 to 20 minutes of running at about a 10K pace. Finish with 5 to 10 minutes of cooling down. If you're not sure what your 10K pace is, run at a pace that feels "comfortably hard".

http://running.about.com/od/halfmarathonprograms/a/interhalf.htm

Gaeta and the island of Ventotene

After the summer time I will likely begin to follow a running programme. The goal is the next Civitavecchia's half marathon. Now I'm on Holiday and I'm mainly swimming.
Here the world economic crisis caused a decrease of the tourist traffic flow. As consequence the prices of hotels fell by 8,3 per cent during this summer. The tourist traffic flow decreased in Greece and Spain too.

Tourist sector sharply shrank

An Italian financial daily has reported today that people cut expenses for beach holiday this summer. But on Sunday people are crowding beaches which become deserted during weekdays. Although the price of hotels decreased by 40 percent, same Italian towns as Venice, Florence and Rome lost a lot of tourists from 2007 to 2009. Of course unemployment rate rose in tourist sector too. The weakness of U.S. and European labour market, which limits wages and threatens to erode consumer spending, will prolong the recession.

Black Knight Navy members, who Stefano has shown on his blog, are going swimming across the see twice a week.