Friday, August 25, 2006

Mozarella!

have been away the last month in UK/France/Italy.
a few running related things....

london - stayed not far from hyde park so the obvious place to run. pleasant despite the heat, smog and all the people going to work at 5.30am!
cardiff - lovely place to visit. couldnt find anywhere fantastic to run.
liverpool - dont know why we went there!
the lakes - you'd think someone would build a few trails around the lakes now wouldnt you? well there were a few but not where i stayed (damn that travel agent!!) and i had a minor problem related to the london water anyway.... i strongly dislike england!
edinborough - lovely place. lots of park and hills to run in. ran to arthurs seat (a little hill on the eastern edge of town). quite technical trail near the top. would be intereting to do in winter!
paris - lovely place to visit. running from hotel room along the seine to eiffel tower was a definate highlight. no-one on the streets before 8am! very few runners.
dijon - nice place. didnt try the mustard.
nice - met up with CR kelvin there who was doing some training before the trans gaule race that starts in brittany. definately the place to run in france. heaps of people at all time of day/night along the boardwalk. dont think much of their beaches tho. nice day run to monaco (20km- thanks for the tip kel!) - scared the tour group suggesting i'd 'meet them there' for the day trip. was train trouble that day so i beat them there by several hours :)
cinque terre (means 5 ?villages/towns) - definately the running highlight. main track is a 13-14km approx 300m ascent/descent thru the 5 towns along the coast (advertised as a 5 hour walk/hike). the group caught the train to the end and was walking back. so i met them there and walked back with the other half. then went for another 2hour session in the afternoon in the hills around the back of the town. great fun navigating around the place. fantastic scenery.
had great fun with the tour guides who suggested i couldnt do the first section of the 5 towns run in under 1 hour - like a red flag.... so did so in 40 or so minutes then the whole thing in 1.44.
people who dont run/dont run trails have got no idea :)
florence - getting buggered by now! too much walking during the day and it was getting hot.
rome - 30+ degree heat. had itchy, fungating jellyfish bites from my time at cinque terre so did no running here. walking around from place to place with a pack on was hard enough!

have glasshouse in 8 days time - have entered the 100km.
should be able to cope with that despite the loss in fitness/lack of running.
can't wait!