Redde Run

29 Sept 2024 - Tessarete

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When I arrived in Lugano yesterday afternoon I went directly to my hotel and laid down for a much needed siesta. Sometime later I awoke to the sound of a brass band playing Linkin Park outside my window. Strange bed. Strange place. And music I know, but still strange. Despite the disorientation, headed down to the piazza to investigate. A local troop that was enjoying themselves greatly. So I sat down at a restaurant and ate some spaghetti alle vongole as they played. When they'd finished and I'd finished I walked around town a bit in the fading light before heading back up to my room to relax.

Race morning started early after a long night of interrupted sleep. Not from nervousness about the race, but from the pain of my bruised rib mostly, but also sometimes my gouty left toe. Either one of those would have been a good excuse to skip the race today, but I need to know where my body stands before the half in Skopje next weekend. At the hotel breakfast were mainly runners. I feel a kinship even if I don't know them. Then it was off to the bus to the startline of the Redde Run in Tessarete.

The Redde Run, unlike the usual priciness of a Swiss race, is free. Free to sign up and run that is. If you sign up and don't show up then you have to pay a normal Swiss price for the race. How's that for some extra race morning motivation! This is not the only unusual thing about the race. The course is a 10ish km trail run through the Redde forest which you can run as many times as you like up to five. Before injury and infirmity struck I'd planned to run 2-3 laps. Now I'd be lucky to finish one. The start was also unusual. The race organizer shouted "Alora!" and then gave a bunch of instructions in Italian that I did not entirely follow. I did catch that the course had to be altered and so was now a bit longer than 10 km. After he finished people milled about, with some moving toward the start line. I headed for where I guessed the back of the pack would be when he blew the whistle. But there was no whistle. Some people just started running. And then some more. And then I realized that part of the intructions I didn't get was to space ourselves out in a staggered start. What a great idea for a trail run!

As I started myself, I soon found myself in a world of pain and realized that I'd forgotten to take the ibuprofen I'd intended to. It was still in my bag back in the changing room. This really was going to be a learning experience. As expected as soon as I started breathing hard every breath is pain. Not unbearable, but a definite damping factor on my ability to push myself. Surprisingly, because the first part of the course was uphill, the gout in my toe was not a problem. I actually believed it wouldn't be a problem at all until, after a few kilometers of uphill, we passed a church and started on a steep downhill grade. The toe pain soon had me falling into a limp which I had to slow down to break out of. Again, painful but manageable. As with many a Swiss trail, there were also plenty of drinking fountains along the way and the forest was cool, so I had no fear of dehydration despite my snail's pace. In the end I finished in 1:43:44, which is more than double my usual flat road 10K time. Still, I was happy to be able to finished and think I'll be alright next weekend.