Chianti Classico Ultra Trail

The day started off inauspiciously by my inability to sleep. I was nervous about getting to the race and nervous about finishing. My last attempt at a race longer than a half marathon was exactly one year ago and ended in a DNF. This has been weighingly heavily on me, because I really thought I might give up marathon running for good after the DNF. So I didn't get to sleep and the woke up every hour during the night to check the time. At 5 AM I started waking up every 10 minutes, and after 4 rounds of that I decided to just give up on getting anymore sleep.

The DNF in Svalbard was the result of dehydration, so I pre-hydrated a lot the night before and actually remembered to bring my camelback. What I did forget was a hat and bandaids for my nipples. I had to pick those up yesterday along with sunscreen, which I didn't bring because I didn't check a bag. So after showering and drinking several glasses of water I had the hotel call me a taxi. Sadly no buses run to Mercatale that could get me there by 7:30 on a Sunday. June 2nd also Republic Day in Italy, so that may have had something to do with it. I ate yoghurt on the taxi ride south because I've found that my stomach isn't so bothered by running with yoghurt in it and I knew I needed to

instagram chunk (expanded)

After the race I enjoyed a pasta lunch with a father & daughter from Iceland and we compared our running stories. They recommended an Iceland ultra over glaciers and lavafields which is now exciting me as a future goal. Then it was a long wait sitting and reading in a café before the bus came to take me back to Firenze. Of course I fell asleep on the bus, but miraculously managed to wake up at my stop. After some more bufala and pasta for dinner I turned in early for bed around 8 o'clock and slept through til sunup.