Half a test.

G'day,

so last weekend was a good one, we travelled on the train (as previously mentioned) down to Stresa on the Lago Maggoire in Italy for a Half Marathon.
This race was billed as a flat, fast course, and so I was keen on that!

We had perfect weather (about 12 degrees during the race) and the course was pretty good, although the six little hills scattered in amongst the course was not as flat as we had been promised!
However, I was happy to run a PB of 63:41, and to do this mostly alone, was a good mental challenge won. The lead pack took off too quick (they ran 61 mins) and I stayed back and tried to focus on running 3:00 kilometre spilts throughout. This meant I was running all of it by myself, with my watch the only gauge of how I was holding it together, until I caught two fading runners from the front group in the last two kilometres. This gave me a much needed distraction and resulted in a sprint finish, where I finished between the two Kenyan athletes for overall 6th place.



The location of the race was simply magestic, with Lake views in the foreground from our 5 star deluxe room, with snow capped mountains in the background. Photos really couldn't capture the amazing views of this place, you have to see it to believe it. With a few degrees warmer, this would be a great Summer hangout, sipping on espressos, and cooling off with gelatos and a dip in the Lake.


Getting home was a bit more challenging with some constructions taking place on the train line, but in true Swiss fashion, there was a replacement bus for the detour awaiting us and connecting trains when we got back on track. Anywhere else, they would have just cancelled it all on us and left us stranded on the Swiss-Italian border (experiences in France and Spain come to mind here!!)


So a few easy days so the legs can bounce back, and then into a few more weeks of solid work before the big day on the 15th April.