Serenelli's Milan Marathon 2001
Sound track: Verdi, Si ridesti il leon di Castiglia from Ernani

After a few weeks of solid work here in Milan... and my morning 30 min runs.. the big day has finally arrived... December 2nd Milan Marathon that they called "Marathone"... since was the first official version.

This marathon is twined with the New York Marathon... as Milan is trying to catch up with the fact that for so many years they have ignored marathons...

This year's participants were 7,000.... 2,000 more than last year's trial run... the weather was perfect... I should refrase this... for the locals it was a cold day.... for a Canadian was close to summer... (see pics below).

I even got interviewed during the run by the Italian TV because I was lightly dressed... that shocked them... ;-)

I was so hot right from the 2nd km... well the reason is that I pushed right from the start. I wanted to try to improve my time.... I partially succeeded in the venture... my half was 1:35 min... but the extra push was paid for around 30 km mark... and at 35 km I decided to stop and stretch my legs and have hot tea and biscuits (for real). I am so glad I accepted to stop... my speed had become so slow. The miraculous 3 min stop at 35 did the trick and after that I felt better. I finished the race at 3:24... (my second best time this far... Regina was 3:22) and if you consider the stop and the slowing down in speed this is incredible... I was really going to set a new personal record.... well, maybe next time. :-)

I am sure that one of the reasons for todays pain was also that I missed in the last few Sundays the runs in PA that would have kept me up to standards...

My little brothers company for the weekend was great and he managed to take a few pic (see below). After the race my stomach was blocked for a couple of hours... sign of extra exhaustion in the race. After a nice hot shower and a nap.... the usual GREAT Italian lunch.

We walked around the city center for the rest of the day... as if was so nice. This was a Sunday without cars... The entire city had no cars from 9:00am to 6:00pm. This is part of the fight against pollution. It is a shame that they don't do this every Sunday. As I was running, the entire 42km where so familiar... every single piece of it... and I have been away now for 10 years... the familiarity was a nice feeling that helped.

I am now finishing this email and we are in an exotic mood for dinner tonight.... it will be sushi..... :-)

Happy running to all.

Stephen ;-)